There are many different variations of lovely green chili out there: Chile Verde, Chile Verde Con Cerdo, New Mexico Style Green Chile, Texas Style Green Chile, Hatch Green Chile, authentic Green Chile from Mexico, and probably many more I’ve yet to name. The ingredients vary in each type of chile, or each regional style, or heck even within the same region. You might find tomatillos, tomatoes, even potatoes in some recipes. Meat or no meat. Cumin, garlic, onion, chili powder… If you don’t live in one of the places where green chile is a thang, you might not know that the proper way to make it is a hotly debated topic. Let me tell you, people take their chile seriously.
Before I throw myself into the fray, I’m going to go down in the record as saying I haven’t met a green chile I don’t like. I love em’ all. (So, I’m not knocking your green chile recipe. In fact, I’m sure it’s awesome and you should totally share it with me in the comments below.) That being said, there is a right way to make green chile, and that’s Colorado Green Chile thank you very much.
Yup. Good Colorado Green Chile is preeety much crack. Except that crack does really bad things to you, where as green chili gives you burrito super powers, and possibly cures the common cold. Score!
Like every Colorado cook worth their salt, I’ve got my own personal Colorado Green Chile recipe. I’m going to say I’m pretty much a purist in my ingredients: chicken stock, some garlic, plenty of pork shoulder, roasted green chiles, and a good roux. We Colorado natives naturally make our Green Chile with Hatch Green Chiles. Now this might be blasphemy, but in my opinion, plain old Anehim Green Chiles are really good Green Chile material too, which is good because I’ve found it strangely difficult to find Hatch Chiles here in Texas where I now reside. I feel green chile with Anehim is a perfectly proper variation that still can wear the Colorado Green Chili name proudly, though I will admit I’ll always buy Hatch if I can find em.
Ok now that we’ve discussed the heck out of green chili let’s get to the recipe- No wait, your right, there are two green chili recipes listed in the post title. So what’s Smoky Green Chile then?
Here’s how it went down. I was making a batch of green chile kind of spur of the moment, when I realized, gasp, that I didn’t have the pork shoulder in the freezer like I thought I did. Fortunately, I did have some leftover ribs from KT, a local Colorado BBQ joint that we love. KT’s ribs are dry rubbed and smoked, and delicious. So I tossed em’ in the green chili and waited to see what happened. With in minutes, the beautiful smell of smokey meat, combined with the smell of roasted green chilies, and oh my, I was hooked. Since I was adapting anyway, I played around with adding a few more spices, and Smokey Green Chile was born. I sent it along with the husband to work to have the guys taste test. It passed, and one of the guys remarked that he would have to smoke his pork before making green chile from now on, so I knew I had a winner. And, now, finally, the recipes!
PrintColorado Green Chile
Yields about 6 cups green chile (Exact amount depends on how much you allow water to reduce, how much pork you add etc.) Adapted from my MIL, Kathy's recipe.
Ingredients
- 4–5 lb. fresh or roasted Hatch green chiles, frozen is also ok (You can susbsiture Anehim Chiles to reasonable effect if you can't find hatch chiles. )
- 8 cups water
- 1/2 lb. pork (Pork shoulder or other tough cuts work well in this recipe, but I've found pork chops to be incredible convent as well. )
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 4 tablespoons Better Then Bullion Chicken Stock
- salt, to taste
Instructions
If using fesh chiles start at step one. If using pre-roasted or forzen roasted chiles add your chiles to a large pot with the 8 cups of water and skip to step 5.
- If using fresh chiles wash the green chiles Place in a dutch oven or other large oven safe pot. Drizzle the canola oil over the chiles. Place in the oven uncovered on the middle rack at 400*. Allow the chiles to roast for 1-2 hours until very fragrant. The chiles will even be slightly blackened in some places when done, this is great!
- Remove the chiles from the oven and allow to cool enough that you can touch them. Peel the skin off the outside of the chiles and discard. Note: you may wish to wear glvoes when peeling the Chiles to protect your hands. A knife can be used to cut aways any bits of skin that may stick. Gently pull on the stems of each chile to remove them. Discard the stems as well.
- Add the 8 cups of water to the dutch oven. Transfer the dutch oven to the stove and set to a medium high heat. Allow the pot to come to a boil, then reduce heat to a gentle simmer.
- Use an immersion blended to lightly puree the chiles in the water.
- Meanwhile, heat a large skillet to medium high heat. When hot add the pork to the skillet. Sear the pork , turning as needed to get a deep brown color on each side of the pork. While the pork is browning whisk together the 1/4 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of water until the flour is totally dissolved.
- As soon as the pork has browned on all sides transfer the pork to the dutch oven or pot with the chiles and water. Allow the fat/ drippings from the pork to remain in the skillet, and the heat to remain on. Add the flour/ water mixture to the skillet and begin whisking vigorously. Shortly the mixture will begin to thicken and bubble. Reduce the heat to low and allow the mixture to brown whisking only occasionally. Cook until the mixture is a deep golden brown, (the deeper the brown the better the flavor of the chile) then pour immediately into the dutch oven. Stir into the green chile.
- Add the garlic powder and better then bullion to the pot and stir well.
- Allow the green chile to simmer for several hours (probably at least 3 but as much as 6) until the pork is fully cooked. (And falls off the bone if it had one. Remove the bone when the meat has fallen off). The water will have reduced and the chile will have thickened somewhat as it cooked. Add addtional water as needed if it has become to thick. Taste and add additional bullion or salt if needed.
- Serve hot over, well, everything! Extra chile can be stored in the fridge in an air tight container for about a week or frozen in an airtight container for several months.
Notes
To adapt the recipe and make Smokey Green Chile add with the garlic powder:
- 1/2 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 Tablespoon smokey paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper
Substitute 1/2 lb. to 1 lb. cooked smoked pork for the pork called for in the original recipe (leftover ribs from BBQ night work especially well).
Note: This post has been updated as of 8/16/19.
Sooooooo different from southern nm style. We make Chile Verde com carne. Many varieties of green Chile. Our preference is Barker Xtra hot or xx hot. Sandia hot is also good, milder than Barker. Cultural and regional differences. It’s pretty amazing how different your recipe is. Over four hundred years of cultural drift from southern NM and northern NM and Colorado.
Hey! Yes very different! All delicious though. You know what’s interesting, I live in Texas now- near Dallas and green chile as I know it from Colorado or New Mexico totally doesn’t exist here! All these recipes definitely a regional thing.
However, what you’re describing sounds delicious!! If you have a recipe you want to share….
This is a cultural issue for me. I don’t like northern NM style cooking. My mom’s family is from northern NM since 1598 and my dad’s family is from what is now El Paso and southern NM since the 1600s. I know both styles of cooking. I don’t eat northern NM style. Most people don’t understand the differences in our culture not only food but language and music. There are many similarities of course because we are based on Spanish and native. What I am talking about here is culture clash. It just bothers me that there is an assumption that NM Hispanic culture is all the same. Just giving you a food perspective from a cultural view. Maybe too much info. I came upon your article by accident as I don’t normally read recipes. I felt I had to respond. I am very passionate when it comes to my culture and to be sure it is fading fast. Sorry this is so long.
Hey Cesario, thanks very much for taking the time to share. I think that your perspective gives us all a good insight. I hope that my post didn’t imply that I think NM culture/food/music/language is all the same. I do know that there is a lot of unique cultural aspects- even in close or overlapping areas in many places, NM included. As I’ve only lived in the Denver Colorado area I feel I am only qualified to speak about green chiles from from that angle because it is what I have experienced. I did hope to share that there is a huge variety of recipes that involve green chiles, but really over all intended to just share my personal favorite, as that’s what I am able to add to the conversation.
However, I do empathize with your concerns. My family on my Dads side comes from Jamaica and Haiti and the culture in each of those places is unique, and is not necessarily the same as South Africa or Louisiana. But people often act as though they must be the same because African roots are a component of each. So I guess I just want to let you know that I certainly don’t mean to not acknowledge the uniqueness of each culture, I only wanted to share one aspect that I appreciate.
Thanks again for your thoughts.
you mentioned nothing about removing the tough, cellophane- like covering from the chilis. This should be done after cooling in a sealed plastic bag. If you skip this step the chilis will be inedible. Michael from Southern Colorado
Hey Michael,
Valid point. I think sometimes I forget to include steps you do automatically- dumb on my part though. I will update the recipe to reflect your feedback. Thanks! Though I just peel by hand.How do you peel with the plastic bag?
Though, since we are talking about it, I will mention I have actually tried making a batch without peeling just to see what would happen. (Wanted to see if I could skip a step and make the process faster.) While the texture is no doubt unpleasant without peeling the chiles, it was definitely still edible. I actually ended up pureeing that batch of chiles and you couldn’t tell the difference after that. Though of course that changes the entire texture of things. Anyway just thought I’d share. :)