What's the deal with Hatch chilis? Need a quick answer!

[davinski]

What locals are saying about Pueblo vs. Hatch chile battle

The ultimate chile roast is taking shape with governor's plans for a taste challenge in Trinidad

www.chieftain.com

I've witnessed generally rational adults get seriously spun up about the Hatch-Pueblo issue! I prefer to remain an equal opportunity consumer of green chile. But, man oh man, they're good when they're roasted. Chopped up in eggs or burger, or just lay a whole one across your cheeseburger, my mouth is watering as I type this.

Our local City Market grocery store usually has Hatch green chile dusted bacon in the deli. I'm no longer allowed to cook it if I'm home alone since I usually eat the entire pound and make myself ill. It's awesome. Lay that onto a cheeseburger that already has chile in it...heaven. If you're in the square states and have a Kroger grocery store, you might be able to find it.

And yes, rubber gloves are key to handling more than one. I usually freeze 3 or 4 whole roasted chiles in small bags, then thaw them out, peel, and use them that way. It's a whole day operation to roast and peel an entire bushel of roasted chile and that just saves a bunch of time.

 

[Dave N]

No Kroger’s here. You are in Illinois, correct?

Yep. Fred Meyers?

 

[SWNMELK]

GREEN CHILE STEW
Take 1 1/2 pounds stew meat of your choice and brown it with 1 tablespoon oil and 2 tablespoons of flour.
Add in 1-1 1/2 pounds chopped green chile (about 8-10 chiles).
Add 1 good size onion diced up.
Add in 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes.
About 2 cups water.
A couple cloves of garlic or about a tablespoon garlic powder.
Salt to taste.
Simmer until about 1 hour
If you want to stretch it out you can throw in 3 descent size potatoes cubed.
And a 15 oz can of pinto beans.
Cook until potatoes are soft.
Eat with warm flour tortillas.
Makes a great meal at home, but is hard to beat from a dutch oven at camp. Guaranteed to warm the bones in a cold elk camp.

 

[MThuntr]

Chokecherry syrup. 1/2 the jars have roasted Hatch chiles. All but 1 jar have been given away already

 

[Khunter]

Are these available around us?

pretty sure in south dakota they pronounce it “green bell pepper”..

 

[warmer]

pretty sure in south dakota they pronounce it “green bell pepper”..

Hell, I’ve got them in my garden.

 

[Bigjay73]

Chiles, corn, cantaloupe, peaches, the best produce comes from Colorado.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

pretty sure in south dakota they pronounce it “green bell pepper”..

Hahaha! I never knew black pepper was considered spicy until I moved to the upper Midwest!

Now when I go to like an Indian restaurant and they ask me how spicy, I have to ask if it's a Midwest scale, or the Indian spice scale. I can do a 5/5 on the Midwest scale, but I'm pretty sure that would kill me on the Indian scale ha!

 

[Trial153]

I smoked a small batch of hatch then layered them in sea salt and weighted the container. Came out pretty good with the salt taking on flavor. Next batch i find i am going to skip smoking them and just salt them

 

[TOGIE]

i'm not sure how far reaching this stuff is outside of west/southwest states. but i gotta be frank, 505 is a crappy way to get your green chile fix off the shelf.

these are my much preferred and recommended grocery store frozen and jarred options:

Frozen pork green chile sauce:


Jarred, more like a salsa:

 

[Irrelevant]

Ok, after all this Hatch hype, I happened to be walking through the grocery store and they have a display for "Fresh Hatch Chilies" so I figure if guys are talking them up this much, even putting them above a poblano, then they must really be good. I picked up a half a dozen, roasted three, stripped the skin and seeds, diced, and mixed into some cheesy mashed potatoes. That is one of our favorite ways to eat poblanos.

However, this is one of the few times where the HT collective has completely failed me. Those things had the same flavor as a green bell pepper and almost no heat. Severely underwhelmed. I give them 1 star.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Ok, after all this Hatch hype, I happened to be walking through the grocery store and they have a display for "Fresh Hatch Chilies" so I figure if guys are talking them up this much, even putting them above a poblano, then they must really be good. I picked up a half a dozen, roasted three, stripped the skin and seeds, diced, and mixed into some cheesy mashed potatoes. That is one of our favorite ways to eat poblanos.

However, this is one of the few times where the HT collective has completely failed me. Those things had the same flavor as a green bell pepper and almost no heat. Severely underwhelmed. I give them 1 star.

Sometimes you get a bad batch. Shit excuse I know, but it does happen. I sometimes wonder as you get further from NM of the quality goes down from shipping

 

[TOGIE]

Ok, after all this Hatch hype, I happened to be walking through the grocery store and they have a display for "Fresh Hatch Chilies" so I figure if guys are talking them up this much, even putting them above a poblano, then they must really be good. I picked up a half a dozen, roasted three, stripped the skin and seeds, diced, and mixed into some cheesy mashed potatoes. That is one of our favorite ways to eat poblanos.

However, this is one of the few times where the HT collective has completely failed me. Those things had the same flavor as a green bell pepper and almost no heat. Severely underwhelmed. I give them 1 star.

i personally never devein or de seed peppers. total loss of flavors and spice, IMO.

i've found it hard to get good green chilis from grocery store produce sections. always mild, who knows how long they've been sitting there.

except for the jarred and frozen varieties i like, all my chile's come from dudes on the side of the road, shoveling them out of the back of a semi that pulled in from new mexico probably 12 hours or less prior, and roasting them per your order on big spinning propane roaster. they usually have options ranging from medium to xx hot. like most peppers, spice is inversely proportional to size. i've had green chiles from a stand that i can barely eat they were so spicy, and i consider myself a spice fiend.

there are literally a hundred such road side stands found throughout the denver metro area this time of year.

 

[shootbrownelk]

Lots of great info already. Eat them a ton, more so when my mom lived in NM. Heat is usually not bad, like a midwest jalapeno. But can be as hot as a habanero if the grower worked his magic on them haha!

Great on burgers, or the New Mexico classic pizza: pepperoni and green chilis... Yummm

Hatches whole chilie on an Elk burger with sharp cheddar is the best.

 

[shootbrownelk]

Sometimes you get a bad batch. Shit excuse I know, but it does happen. I sometimes wonder as you get further from NM of the quality goes down from shipping

S

Ok, after all this Hatch hype, I happened to be walking through the grocery store and they have a display for "Fresh Hatch Chilies" so I figure if guys are talking them up this much, even putting them above a poblano, then they must really be good. I picked up a half a dozen, roasted three, stripped the skin and seeds, diced, and mixed into some cheesy mashed potatoes. That is one of our favorite ways to eat poblanos.

However, this is one of the few times where the HT collective has completely failed me. Those things had the same flavor as a green bell pepper and almost no heat. Severely underwhelmed. I give them 1 star.

You probably got the mild variety by mistake.

 

[Dave N]

The ones I bought said they were mild. I may leave some seeds in to try and kick it up some. I like heat as long as it's not melt your face off hot! Going to stuff with cheese and shrimp then bacon wrap and broil. I'll post up results tonight.

 

[Benfromalbuquerque]

I know that the Bueno brand (chopped/frozen)is available in Kroger stores across the US. Got it from Harris Teeter in NC. Here in NM you can get it added to most any food and we do that. No joke, even McDonald’s has it on the menu in NM. A standard cheese, pepperoni pizza pie with chopped green chile added will blow your freakin’ mind! Red chile (frozen or dried) added to a slow cooker with any meat is phenomenal.

 

[wytex]

Early chiles do not have the flavor of later, in Sept. Try them out later in season if you can.
We luckily have a good farmer from Colorado that comes to our local farmers market, they bring Hatch chiles before theirs are ripe.
Moscos have the heat and great flavor to rival the hot Hatch's.
I prefer Big Jims as well, good fleshly chiles with a little heat.

 

[Valley1320]

 

[Dave N]

Ok, dinner over. Followed the recipe I found (except for the cilantro, we both hate it) and it was OK. NO HEAT!!! Broiled until the bacon was crisp and turned over to get that side done. Not cooked enough, the peppers were still crunchy. I put the rest back in the oven and baked for a while to get them softer. This time they were better. I topped with more Cotija cheese and a sprinkle of Cayenne. Not bad, we think a partial roast before stuffing will help along with zipping up the filling. It was worth trying out at least! Thanks again!