This fresh Hatch Green Chile recipe is savory and spicy. It can be eaten by itself in a bowl or served hot over beef and bean burritos or fried eggs.

Hatch green chile season is every year in August and September. You can find stands on the side of the road with giant rotating green chile roasters all over the southwest. Generally in a dirt lot, you’ll see bushels of the chiles grouped by level of spiciness sitting under an open-air tent next to the metal roasters. When you walk up the person selling them will ask you how many bushels you want and how hot. He’ll then put them in the roaster and begin to turn the giant cage filled with chiles. The fire beneath roasts them as they go around and around. The smell of roasting chiles is strong enough to stay in your car long after you remove your box of chiles.

Why is it so worth it to take the time out of your busy day to buy roasted green chiles? Well, because you just can’t beat that flavor! The whole experience is nostalgic for me since my family has been doing this every year since I was born. The smell of those roasting chiles is something you never forget. If you are ever in the position to stop at one of these stands, I highly recommend pulling in and buying a bushel. If you’re not sure how spicy to get, I suggest buying at the mild to medium first. It’s often hard to tell exactly how spicy they can be. This Hatch Green Chile recipe uses mild green chiles.

A Note About Capsaicin:

Capsaicin is a chemical in peppers that makes them spicy. The spice level is measured by The Scoville Scale, developed in 1912 by Wilbur Scoville. Since this chemical is oil-based, drinking a glass of water to relieve the pain of one of these peppers will only spread the compound instead of diluting it. In order to tone down the level of spice, drink milk or use sour cream as a topping as these will allow the capsaicin to break down and be more tolerable to eat. For more information about capsaicin and The Scoville Scale, check out these articles from The Spruce Eats. 

How to make this Hatch Green Chile recipe

Hatch is a term used to describe chiles from a specific area called Hatch Valley in southern New Mexico. Getting green chiles at a roasting stand isn’t always an option since it’s regional and seasonal. If you aren’t able to get them from a stand, you can buy frozen green chiles at your grocery store or canned from Amazon. Keep in mind that you will want to buy green chiles and not Green Chile. The difference is that Green Chile is prepared and cooked while green chiles are straight-up chile peppers.

Directions:

1. Remove any silver skin and fat from a 1 pound pork loin. Cut it into ½ inch pieces.
2. Chop one white onion and finely dice 8 cloves of garlic.
3. Heat a large pot on medium-high and add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Once it’s hot, brown the pork pieces in two batches to avoid steaming the meat rather than sautéing it. This is also why you want the heat to be fairly high for this step. Stir to avoid it sticking to the bottom. When the pork has browned, remove to a bowl, and set aside.
4. Reduce the heat to medium, and once the pot has cooled down a little, add the chopped onions. Stir and soften them for about 5 - 6 minutes. 
5. Add the finely diced garlic and cook for 1 minute. You want to just begin to smell the garlic cooking. It’s easy to burn the garlic, so make sure to watch and be ready to do the next step.
6. Open two cans of fire-roasted tomatoes and add them to the pot.
7. Add the cut green chiles. Stir to combine. Let this simmer on medium-low for 10 minutes. Don’t skip this step.  This is where you get the rich and savory flavor that you’re looking for. 
8. Pour in 4 cups of chicken broth to give it an extra boost of flavor. You can substitute vegetable broth if you’d like.
9. Make a slurry of the broth and flour in a separate bowl. Add 1 cup broth to a bowl and ¼ cup flour and whisk until there are no large lumps. Pour this into the pot. **Don’t add the flour directly to the pot without creating the slurry first. You will get lots of little flour pockets, and it’s very hard to incorporate them with the other ingredients already in the pot.** 
10. Add the browned pork and simmer for 20 minutes on medium heat. The slurry will help thicken the chile. You can adjust the thickness by adding more slurry or more chicken broth.
11. Serve your Hatch Green Chile stew with warm corn or flour tortillas.

How to store Hatch Green Chile

Keep cooked Green Chile in air-tight plastic containers with a lid in the fridge for up to one week. Alternatively, you can freeze it. I like to pour 1 cup in a quart-size zip-top bags and lay them flat in the freezer. After they are frozen, you can move them so they stand upright and are easier to store.

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If you try it out, let me know how it goes in the comments or on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest.