Hatch Green Chile Season: Hatch Chile Huevos Rancheros
Today I got up early and headed to our local Albertsons, where they were roasting Hatch green chiles for the weekend. Thank god I got up early because they only had 250 sacks direct from Gillis Farm in Hatch, New Mexico and they had already sold 230 on Saturday. It turns out that I got one of the last 5 sacks that they had to roast. Score!
The deal was that if you bought a sack they would roast them from free with the big chile gas burners in front of the store. When I saw the ad for the Hatch Chile Fest, I had no idea how big the sack was, but we love green chiles so we immediately knew that we wanted to get one. Turns out that I bought 1 1/8 bushels of Hatch green chiles, or basically a 30-lb burlap sack of freshly roasted green chiles for $28.99.
This photo is deceiving because it doesn’t illustrate just how many chiles we have. Obviously we had more than we could possibly eat this week, so Carlo and I decided to pack up the chiles in ziploc bags and freeze them in small batches, so we can have enough until next season.
We ended up filling 30 bags each with 6 chiles inside, equaling around 180 Hatch green chiles for us to eat. Unfortunately, the chiles have now overtaken our freezer.
Since it was still early after we bagged all the chiles, I decided to make some Hatch Huevos Rancheros for breakfast to make a dent in our bounty of chiles. These spicy eggs feed 4 people at $1.27 per serving.
Hatch Huevos Rancheros
10 to 15 Hatch chiles, stemmed and deseeded
1/2 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
olive oil
salt and black pepper
8 eggs
8 corn tortillas
cilantro, chopped
4 tablespoons Mexican crema
Put the Hatch green chiles in a pan and cover them with water, although I threw in a chicken stock cube for some extra flavour. Simmer the chiles for around 30 minutes and then take them off the heat for a few minutes. Blend the chiles and liquid in a food processor until smooth.
Heat up some olive oil over a medium heat, and sauté the onion and garlic. Once they have softened, add the chile puree and let everything simmer for 5 or so minutes. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.
Toast your corn tortillas in either a toaster oven or frying pan. Place two tortillas on each plate and cover with a few scoops of Hatch green chile sauce. Drizzle some Mexican crema over the sauce and top with two fried eggs. Sprinkle some chopped cilantro over the eggs and enjoy.
By the way, this will probably be the first of many Hatch green chile posts over the next few months. Check your local grocery store to see if they are doing any special roasting events over the next couple of weeks. In case you can’t find any Hatch green chiles, you can used the canned version or roast fresh Anaheim chiles as a substitute.
This looks really good!! You said you bought roasted Hatch chiles, so I’m guessing for the recipe that this is what you’re using… or are you using unroasted chiles and softening them first in the broth?
I am using roasted chiles, but you can easily roast your own at home. The best way is to roast them over a high gas flame or on a high bbq until the skin is blistered and charred. Then place the peppers in a closed brown paper bag so that they steam and you can remove the skins easily under running water. Here is a link of Carlo doing his peppers on the grill: http://recessionrecip.es/2009/05/28/pork-and-green-chile-stew/
and me doing them over the gas flame: http://recessionrecip.es/2009/04/30/salmon-roasted-in-cilantro-salsa-with-quinoa-sopa-seco-and-cucumber-avocado-salsa/
Good luck!
OMG *DROOL*
That looks awesome!!!!!!
hello
I am really enjoy all your recipes , however do you have suggestion for alternative to hatch chillis , as her in ireland the chilli variety come in red or green .
Niamh, I’m glad we have some Irish fans! You could use mild green chillis and that would work too. Hatch chiles range from mild to hot, so I would just play around with the green chillis with a little bit of the red chillis thrown in there to up the heat.
Can you get poblano peppers in Ireland? Jalapenos will be too hot.
Please let me know what you find and I hope this helps.