How Do I Cook with Hatch Chile?
Hatch Chile, heralding from Hatch, New Mexico, are a staple in Southwestern and Mexican cuisine. This pepper variety is cherished for its unique, slightly sweet flavor and dynamic heat levels, varying from mild to extremely hot. The intensity of heat can even vary between pods from the same plant. To fully appreciate these peppers' depth, here's how to cook with Hatch Chile and a classic Hatch Chile Salsa Verde recipe!
Enhancing Hatch Chile through Roasting:
Roasting Hatch Chile intensifies their flavor, deepens their sweetness, and adds a smoky character that's difficult to achieve with raw peppers. We have an in-depth guide to roasting Hatch Chile with a few different options. Here's an easy way to do it in the oven:
- Preparation: Preheat your oven to 400°F (204°C). During this time, thoroughly rinse the chile pods to remove any debris and pat them dry. It's important they're dry to achieve proper roasting.
- Roasting: Arrange the chile pods on a baking sheet, ensuring they're in a single layer and not piled atop each other. This ensures each chile roasts evenly. Roast for 20-30 minutes, turning them a few times to ensure all sides are evenly exposed to the heat. The goal is a nicely charred and blistered skin.
- Steaming: After roasting, transfer the chile to a heatproof bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel to trap the steam. Steaming makes the tough outer skin easier to peel off, a critical step as the skin is not pleasant to eat. Let them steam for about 10 minutes.
- Peeling and De-seeding: Once cooled, peel off the skin from the chile pods. The skin should slide off relatively easily after steaming.
Also, when handling Fresh Chile, wearing gloves can prevent capsaicin (the compound that makes chile hot) from coming in contact with your skin or eyes. Take it from us: it burns.
Hatch Chile Salsa Verde:
Now that you've roasted your Hatch Chile, they can become the star ingredient in a variety (cough cough ALL) of your recipes. Here's your classic Salsa Verde:
Ingredients:
- 1/2 lb. tomatillos
- 1-1 1/2 lbs. Roasted Hatch Green Chile or 2 Jars Hatch Green Chile Roast
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 tsp. oregano
- 1 tbsp. salt
- light oil (for thinning purposes)
Instructions:
1. Remove husks from tomatillos and rinse off to remove stickiness.
2. Cut tomatillos in halves or quarters. Place in pan and broil in the oven for 7-9 minutes.
3. Stem and seed 1 lb. of Hatch green chile, rough chop.
4. Remove tomatillos from oven and add all ingredients to a food processor or blender (tomatillos, green chile, garlic, oregano and salt).
5. Blend until smooth. At this point you can stream in some light olive oil or oil of your choice if you would like the consistency to be a little more thin.
Can't get enough Hatch Chile and want to start adding it to breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert? We have Hatch Chile recipes for every occasion on our website here!
Ready to dive in? We offer delicious Hatch Green Chile shipped right to your door. Click below to order now!