Home » Food & Cooking » Regional Foods » Mexican Food

Green Chile - Yum!!

Ranked #5,205 in Food & Cooking, #92,723 overall

The World of Green Chile

Having grown up in New Mexico, my husband was stunned to discover you couldn't order green chile on your pizza in Texas. While in NM, almost every restaurant offers something with green chile on it, it's almost unheard of anywhere outside the state. I've only recently developed a taste for it, being a fan of red chile myself, but it's totally yum to me now.

I've started this lens as a way to help you explore all the yumminess to be had from green chile - where to buy it and what to do with it once you have it. Enjoy and muy caliente!!

About Green Chile

Most of the green chile you're going to find comes from Hatch, New Mexico (although I have it on good authority that they're starting to grow it in Espanola again). I've been there - my dad decided once when I was a kid that it would be a great idea to go by and pick our own. We then drove all the way to Mississippi with bags of chile on the roof of the station wagon, watering them down at every gas station to try to keep them from turning red before we got to my uncle's where we could roast them. Now, where was I?

The chile coming out of Hatch comes in a variety of heat levels and most places will let you mix and match as you please. Your choices will likely be Mild, Medium (also known as Big Jim), Hot (mostly likely Sandia), or Really Hot (Lumbre among others). Try them all to figure out which one you really like. I know people who think Lumbre isn't hot enough and people who can barely take Mild.

What to Call It

OK, let's start with as basic as you can get - the name. To me, chili is the stew stuff with beans and meat and red chili - like Chili's the restaurant. When you're talking about chile peppers, it's with an "e." At least in New Mexico, that's the way it is, seeing as how that's the spelling from the Spanish. In fact, Senator Pete Dominici from NM has even held out on the Senate floor about this very issue.

So, for this lens, remember it's chile with an "e," folks!!

Loading poll. Please Wait...

Where to Buy

Here are a few links to places where you can order green chile and get more info and recipes. Since I live in Dallas now, this is the only option for me unless my mom comes through and brings me some. You just can't find it outside of New Mexico very easily. Check out the eBay links farther down the page as well.
Hatch Chile Express
Order it fresh, frozen or powdered and they send you directions for roasting it yourself. They also sell seeds and cookbooks.
New Mexican Connections
You can buy your frozen chile already roasted, but unpeeled. Buy it jarred, fresh, frozen and dried.
Denver Green Chile
Great site to help Coloradans get their green chile fix.
Southwestern Chile Products
How can I not love them? They share my pet peeve about the "e" thing. :-) Sauces, recipes and corporate gifts galore.
New Mexico Chili
Course, they get a raspberry because the company name does it with an "i." But you can get your chile dried, fresh or frozen.
Hatch Green Chile Store
Straight from Berridge Farms in the Hatch valley.

Cookbooks

Loading

Green Chile Stew

Recipes for the classic green chile dish

Green chile stew was a weekly staple in my house growing up and one of the pots that always sat on the back of my grandmother's stove. The versions of this classic dish are quite astounding in their variety. Even my own family takes different paths now.

My mom makes her with potatoes, but my brother has dropped those out of his and uses chicken stock for the liquid. My brother-in-law uses pork roast instead of hamburger meat, and I've started combining the best of these versions in my own, which has onions instead of potatoes. Here are a few other recipes to get you started on this staple dish.
Santa Fe School of Cooking
Their version includes potatoes and tosses in some red bell pepper to boot.
Emeril's Version
Bam! This is a truly complicated looking version, but pretty yummy if you're willing to do the work.
Darla's Version
A New Mexico transplant comes to love green chile and offers a version that includes tomatoes.
Austin Chronicle
This is exactly the way I make it, minus the tomatoes.

Cooking with Green Chile

Loading

Best Way to Eat Green Chile

So share!! What's your favorite way to get your green chile fix?

1

Vote Up
Vote Down

Cheesburgers

2 points

2

Vote Up
Vote Down

Green chile stew

2 points

3

Vote Up
Vote Down

Pizza

1 point

4

Vote Up
Vote Down

Eggs/omlet

1 point

5

Vote Up
Vote Down

Stuffed Chiles

0 points

Hatch Chile Festival

Weekend party to celebrate green chile

Held Labor Day weekend every year in Hatch, N.M., which is where the best green chile comes from. Go and join in the fun as thousands of people descend on the town!!!
New Mexico Tourism
Official info from the official site.
Hatch Chile Festival
Info from the Hatch Chamber of Commerce
Hatch Chile Festival
Great photos and article from Gary Smith, a guy who clearly enjoys the festival
Celebrate Chiles
Article from Southern New Mexico.com

Countdown to Hatch Chile Festival

Hatch Chile Festival: September 1, 2012

My "Go Green!!" Chile Shop

Show off your green chile pride with the Go Green!! emblem

Get t-shirts, mugs, notecards and more at the Go Green!! store.
Loading

Other Green Chile Recipes

For those who just don't like stew

Green chile stew isn't to everyone's taste. And let's face it, it's hard to face a bowl of stew when it's still in the 90s outside. So what other options are there for those delicious green peppers? Check out the below links for other ideas.
Group Recipes
The crew at Group Recipes have come up with a world of options - from the standards like rellenos to the exotic like southwest shrimp with chile-lime salsa.
Chowhound
Check out the comments section here for a mind-boggling number of links for recipes using green chile. Green chile shrimp mousse and green chile apple pie stand alongside breakfast burritos and fish sauces.
El Pinto Restaurant
Mostly standards here, but this is one of my favorite restaurants to hit when we head back to Albuquerque to visit family.
Chile Bibles Cookbook
Green chile friend chicken, posole and cucumber-chile granite, among others.

Eating Green Chile

Loading

Green Chiles on Ebay

You can actually buy Hatch green chile here when it's in season! Whoo, hoo!
Loading

Roasting and Freezing

Or - what to do once you get your fresh chile

Roasting is a fairly simple process and you can do it at home. But it's a lot of fun to go someplace where they're roasting them in the big barrels. The smell is divine!!

Basically, you're cooking the chiles until the skins blister - they'll go from bright green to more of an olive shade and blacken a little. Try about 7-9 minutes in a 450-degree oven or toss them on the grill outside.

I've heard different stories about whether you should leave the peels on before you freeze your chiles. Some people feel it impacts the taste and texture to remove the peels first. But my personal experience is that a quart-size bag of frozen chile doesn't get used because you have to thaw the entire block and that's a lot of chile! So I developed a method that allows for easy use of my chile once frozen.

What I've taken to doing is peeling and chopping right away, then freezing it in ice cube trays. My "chile cubes" then get placed into a freezer bag and are ready for use in any quantity I need. One cube to toss in a couple of scrambled eggs or five for a stew. There are some who might not feel this is an optimal way to freeze your chilie, but it provides convenience and allows me to stretch those precious few bags of chile my mom brings to Dallas for me out for as long as possible.

Roasting and Peeling Green Chile

Too bad it isn't smell-o-vision!!

Loading

What Bloggers are Saying about Green Chile

Locovore: Pasión is a green-chile-infused tour of Latin America
Though it's a humble breakfast burrito on the inside, the gaucho wears a fancy hat of steak, green...
The Best Albuquerque Restaurant Now Serves the Best Albuquerque Beer: Get ...
The first is a Marble Green, an IPA with a fragrant citrus aroma, which is a flagship of Marble Brewery...
Go Green This Valentine's Day With Green Chile Salsa and 20% Off Dinner at El ...
Green chile is a natural aphrodisiac ready to get Valentine's Day started on a natural high. El Pinto...
Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Casserole
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a skillet melt butter. Cook onions and peppers in butter until the...
Powered by Google

Chile Photos

Loading

Cool Green Chile Stuff to Buy

Loading

Green Chile-heads Speak Out

Share your chile experiences!! What's the strangest food combination you've seen or had using green chile? How did you get hooked?

submit
Show All

Thanks for stopping by!

by

SusanVillasLewis

New Mexico semi-native now stuck in Dallas far, far away from anyone who might ask her "Red or Green?" Course, the answer is - "Go Green!"

Feeling creative? Create a Lens!

Related Tags