Green Chile Sauce

This New Mexico style hatch green chile sauce uses roasted New Mexico hatch green chiles to give it its distinct flavor. It's a versatile sauce that goes well smothered on eggs, potatoes, meats, burritos, tacos, burgers, or simply eaten as a soup with tortillas. To be honest, it goes well with a LOT of things, and I think your going to dig it!

There are a ton of different varieties of green chile sauce, and New Mexico green chile is a relatively smooth sauce, made from a roux using hatch green chile peppers. Other green chile sauces will be more of a soup, and some very similar to a salsa.

In Colorado where I grew up, I was surrounded by restaurants all offering their own versions of green chile sauce. Like barbeque sauce, depending on who is making it, there will be subtle variations in the types of fat used to make the roux, flavor, and meats offered (if any) inside.

Traditional green chile uses pork and lard to thicken and flavor the sauce. I however, find that onions sauteed in a good dose of oil provide sufficient flavor, and this recipe accommodates my readers with dietary restrictions. This sauce made with pork absolutely has more flavor, so if you eat pork, try it out!

More about Mexican Chiles & Roasting Techniques

To make this dish, roasted hatch green chiles are the way to go. However, they are only offered once a year in the store. You can buy them in bulk and roast them, or buy them roasted, if you live around Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. If you do not have access to hatch green chiles, don't worry!

You can absolutely still make this recipe with other roasted chiles, just make sure your using a variety if you can, it will increase the flavor profile. You can learn about the other types of mexican chiles here. Find whatever your local store has, keeping in mind some are hotter than others, then roast those bad boys up.

Roasted chiles are what provide the distinct flavor green chile has. If you need some helping figuring out how to roast chiles, check out this guide on roasting peppers using different methods of heat.

A Note On Spiciness

There is really no way to tell how spicy a chile is unless you taste it. When your adding your roasted chiles to this recipe, make sure you add them slowly and test the spiciness of your dish before adding more. You don't want to end up with super spicy, inedible green chile. If you end up having leftover roasted chiles, you can always freeze them for the next round of this recipe.

Home Cook Hack

When I roast chiles, if I have time I roast a bunch of them at once. Then, I deskin them, dice them, and portion them out in little balls on a baking sheet that I stick in the freezer. In a few hours, you'll have little pre-portioned green chile balls that you can place in a freezer safe bag to use in future recipes!

I also like making green chile sauce in large batches, which I freeze in old pasta jars. To use the frozen green chile sauce simply take a jar of sauce out the freezer the day before and set it in the fridge to thaw. Alternatively, make a hot water bath, add the jar, and let it sit for a while, changing out the water if needed to thaw. As long as you thaw it enough to get the sauce out of the jar, you can continue thawing it on the stovetop.

Green Chile Sauce

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A delicious sauce made from roasted hatch green chiles that is smokey, spicy, and salty. It's great smothered over a variety of things, from eggs to burritos to burgers. Gluten-free instructions in notes.

• Author: Emily Marrs
• Prep Time: 15
• Cook Time: 30
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 5 servings 1x
• Category: Main Course
• Method: Stovetop
• Cuisine: Mexican

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 1-2 cups diced roasted green chiles, skinned (for roasting instructions see notes )
• 1 medium diced white onion
• 4-7 cloves minced garlic
• 1 can rotel or fire roasted tomatoes
• 1-2 pounds pork butt or shoulder, diced (optional)
• ⅓ cup oil (olive or avocado work well)
• 4 cups chicken broth (I used bouillon to make my broth. )
• 3 tbsp all purpose flour (for gf see notes)
• ½ - 1 tsp kosher salt (or to taste)
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp onion powder

Instructions

1. NOTE: If you do not have a blender, food processor, or immersion blender, chop all of your veggies very finely.
2. Preheat the broiler, burner or grill. Wash and dry chiles, and then roast until skins are charred black. Let them rest while you prepare the rest of the sauce. Roasting instructions in the notes.
3. Next, add your oil to a stock pot or large saucepan over medium heat. If you will be using pork, add this now and cook until done, then remove and aside. Then, add your onions to begin cooking.
4. If your not using pork, add your diced onion and cook until soft and fragrant.
5. Once the onions are cooked, add the minced garlic and stir.
6. Next you will make the roux. Sprinkle the flour over the onions and stir well to coat.
7. Continue stirring the onions to help cook out the raw flour flavor. After a few minutes the flour will smell nutty and may be slightly browned.
8. Add 2 cups of broth to the onions, whisking well so the flour soaks up all the broth. The mixture will resemble a gummy paste.
9. Continue to add the rest of the broth slowly, whisking well so you do not get flour clumps. (Smack out any onions that get stuck in the whisk when your done).
10. Next add the spices and canned tomatoes. By now the roasted chiles should be cooled. Peel the skins off, dice them, and taste test a few to see how spicy they are. Add in half the chiles.
11. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce it to a low simmer for 10-15 minutes. Taste the green chile and adjust it for spiciness and saltiness. If it isn't to spicy yet, continue adding more chiles. Adjust the salt & spices to your preferences.
12. Turn off the heat and blend ½ of the chile in a blender, food processor (be careful here), or using an immersion blender. This is what makes it less chunky and more of a sauce. I like to blend half to retain some chunks.
13. Add the blended green chile back to the original pot. If you used pork, add the cooked pork back to the pot and heat for a few minutes.
14. The sauce should be slightly thick, but it will thicken more as it cools. Serve over eggs, potatoes, burritos, tacos, burgers. Anything really!
15. **If it's runny, see the notes for troubleshooting, as well as roasting and freezing instructions.

 

Notes

    Roasting Instructions:

Here are roasting instructions based on the type of heat source you have available.Ro

If Sauce Is Too Runny:

• Add 1-2 tablespoons of flour to ½ cup of warm water and mix well. Dump this mixture into the green chile, bring to a boil, and then simmer for another 5 minutes. This should thicken the sauce more.
• If not, continue to do this until its at the desired consistency, keeping in mind the sauce thickens as it cools. 

Freezing instructions:

• you can make large batches of this and freeze it, so you have it on hand.
• freeze any leftover roasted chiles for your next batch, see the blog post for further instructions. 

For Gluten- Free:

• Substitute Gluten Free flour.
• If it is still not thick enough, make a chia egg by mixing 1 tablespoon of chia seeds with 2.5 tablespoons of water and letting it sit for 5 minutes before adding it to the sauce.

Keywords: green chile, vegan green chile, hatch green chiles, colorado green chile, new mexico green chile, sauce, mexican sauce