Sunday, August 15, 2010

Hatch Green Chili Huevos Rancheros


It's Hatch chile season now and Central Market is roasting them daily. Every August I buy at least 40 pounds of Hatch chiles, bag them up, and freeze them to use throughout the year.
I buy a combination of hot and mild ones, mix them up and use them in so many dishes. All the dishes that use "canned green chiles" taste so much better with the real chiles. Something about the charred flavor, the freshness of the chile, the heat, all combine to make the food taste so great. I have great memories of eating the most awesome huevos rancheros in New Mexico, covered with lots of hot green chile sauce which was a dark green, not the milky green I was used to seeing. I learned to make these huevos rancheros years ago and still pause with pleasure when I take the first bite because they are so flavorful--the bite of the beans, the chewy tortilla, creamy eggs, spicy green chiles, cheese, and the scallion/cilantro topping adding a freshness. Make this and you will be sold on Hatch green chile huevos rancheros forever!

Green Chile Sauce

3 cups roasted, peeled, seeded, and chopped Hatch green chiles (mix mild and hot as you prefer--I use mostly mild with a few hot)
4 cups water
1 cup chopped onion
2 tsp Mexican oregano
6 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Combine all ingredients and simmer uncovered 30 minutes. For a thicker sauce, in a separate pan make a roux with 2 T vegetable oil and 3 T flour. Cook until it is light brown. Add to chile mixture and cook an additional 15 minutes.
Sauce can be frozen after it cools off. I put it in quart size freezer bags and use if for enchiladas, in chili, on tacos, etc.

Huevos Rancheros

4 cups pinto beans, black beans, or pink beans, cooked. I take canned beans, rinse and drain them, cook them with diced onions, diced bell pepper, a diced jalapeno pepper, 1 minced garlic clove and 2 cups low sodium chicken broth. Of course you can cook your own recipe for beans as well.
4 cups green chile sauce
4 tortillas--flour or corn
Vegetable oil
Butter
8 eggs
3 cups cheese, cotija, Monterey Jack, cheddar (I use Monterey Jack)
1/2 cup sliced scallions
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Heat the beans and chile sauce in separate pans. Lightly fry tortillas in vegetable oil if using corn tortillas, or just heat if using flour.
Heat butter in saute pan and cook eggs as desired. I prefer over easy. Place each tortilla in a oven proof shallow bowl. Spoon 1 cup bean over each tortilla, top with cooked eggs, then cover with 1 cup of green chile sauce. Sprinkle chhese on top. Place under broiler until cheese bubbles.
Garnish with scallions and cilantro and serve hot.

4 comments:

wrightl34@yahoo.com said...

This one of my all time Favorite dishes!! Love love love this for breakfast!!!

Anonymous said...

When you say 'bag the chilis and put them in the freezer'...do you cut the stems or do any kind of prep or just bag them roasted after they cool down?

Unknown said...

Actually I peel them and remove the stems and seeds before I freeze them. You are supposed to rub off the skin with a moist paper towel and not rinse the peppers under water or you rinse off the flavor.

Unknown said...

Julia,

I'd respectfully disagree regarding the "washing off of the flavor". I'm a member of the fourth generation of the Franzoy family from Hatch, NM and market my family's chile online. The vast majority of the flavor is in the meat while the heat is found in the vein within the chile. Always take care not to remove any part of the inner vein when removing the stem (its attached). I'd be more than happy to send you a sample of our chile that is prepared this way.

Because we pick, roast, peel, vacuum seal, and freeze our chile the same day, you'll find it much fresher than the week old bushels you can find at Cental Market in Texas or even at the Albertson's locations you can find just an hour away in Las Cruces.

Also, many people can't find authentic Hatch Chile locally. To fill this void, we market our chile directly to consumers and cut the distributors out of the equation. I'm sure many of your readers from further afield (think back east) would be interested in knowing that the canned "Hatch Chile" is neither grown nor processed here in the Hatch Valley either. Ordering from us (The Hatch Chile Store - http://www.hatch-green-chile.com) or one of the other farms that farm only here in the valley such as the hatch chile express is the only way to get authentic, farm fresh Hatch Chile for most folks outside of the southwest.

If interested in a sample, feel free to shoot me an email at admin@hatch-green-chile.com and I'll ship you a small box of our wonderful chile :)


All The Best,

Preston

Post a Comment

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More