Roasting Hatch New Mexican green chiles Recipe
A “Hatch" New Mexican pepper it must be grown in the area of Hatch, New Mexico. It is not a variety. There are four main types:
Mild: NM 6-4
Medium; Big Jim
Hot: Sandia
Extra hot; Lumbia
The mild and medium are what is usually sold commercially and most recipes are based on those. Be careful with the hot. They are blazing.
Until the pepper is cut, there doesn’t seem to be a way to tell the heat level. Local markets sometimes mix the medium and hot together … Hatch roulette. For safety, ask for peppers from an unopened box. Better yet, buy a whole box. They freeze beautifully.
Choose chiles that are bright green, smooth, symmetrical, heavy for their size, mature and crisp
Because of the thick skin, the whole peppers are often roasted and the skin removed. The most common methods:
- In the oven or broiler until skins blister … about 7 minutes at 450 degrees
- Grill outdoors until skin blisters
- On the stove, use a heavy pan and on high heat, roasting for about 10 minutes, turning occasionally until skin blisters
If roasting in a pan or oven, select peppers that are flat and straight to increase surface area exposed to heat. Chiles that curl up tightly are difficult to blacken
Peppers last longer in the freezer with the skin protecting them and the skins will come off easily after thawing. Bacteria can grow on the peppers, so they should be frozen within a day of roasting and thawed in the fridge.
Affinities: cumin, sour cream, cheese, pork, eggs, chorizo, tomatoes,... read more
- Hatch chiles
- Use rubber or protective gloves when handling chiles.
- Roast until the skin is black and blistered, but NOT charred. If roasted too long the whole chile can burn or get mushy
- Put hot roasted peppers in a plastic or paper bag and wait till they cool then skin and remove seeds
- The reason for putting them in bags after roasting is to let them steam and loosen the skins.. Covered plastic storage containers may also be used for the cooling/steaming step.
- Tip; Use bottle paper bags–the tall narrow ones that stores pre-wrap glass bottes in before putting on the larger bag. Their small size allows for good steam buildup
- To jump-start the peeling process is give the chile a rubdown with a sheet of newspaper/papertowel/dishcloth. This will remove the majority of the skin.
- To peel do NOT run under water to remove skin. you lose not only the smoky flavor but lots of the fragrant and tasty oils!. So for all your work, all you’ll end up with is a slightly soggy, peeled chile.
- Remove skins and seeds by hand. Your fingers will get messy. Run water over your HANDS not the peppers to clean as necessary.
- While freezing skin-on may make them last longer, peeled and seeded peppers last for quite a while in the freezer. They may be chopped and frozen in ice cube trays for ease of use in recipes.
Member recipes are not tested by the CHOW food team.
I bought roasted chiles but left in the refrigerator for 3 1/2 days before freezing - do you think they're safe?
The BEST part of roasting your own is the way it fills your house with the scent of charred green chile. Fond memories of my uncle manning the grill, while the women peeled chile inside.
Excellent article. A few extra points about home roasting:
1) Some people recommend removing the stem and seeds before roasting. This does make it a bit easier to remove them, but it opens the chile's inner flesh up to the heat of the grill. This cooks it and dehydrates it, so you loose a lot of the flesh and it sticks to the skins like crazy. It's like a fruit roll-up. So wait to deseed and...+READ
Excellent article. A few extra points about home roasting:
1) Some people recommend removing the stem and seeds before roasting. This does make it a bit easier to remove them, but it opens the chile's inner flesh up to the heat of the grill. This cooks it and dehydrates it, so you loose a lot of the flesh and it sticks to the skins like crazy. It's like a fruit roll-up. So wait to deseed and destem after roasting.
2) Peeling them right after roasting, then packing them in ziplocks and freezing has the big advantage of letting you put a frozen glob of chile directly into a skillet without advance planning. To me, it's worth it. But the downsides are significant too: HUGE increase in work on the day of roasting and loss of some texture to the frozen chiles, in addition to the articles #9 above.
3) Ordering chiles from outside of NM: Several good companies online will ship to other states. Only one that I know of will roast them for you, pack them on ice and ship overnight for you to peel/pack as desired (nmchili.com). The rest will sell them fresh unroasted or frozen in 1# bags, roasted and unpeeled. I don't think you can find roasted and peeled whole chiles.-COLLAPSE