Roasted Chile Season is Green for Go!

Two area locations have already begun roasting Hatch Green Chile. Roasters are out and awaiting inspection across our broader community.

_{A Las Cruces Digest Report
Photos By: Kcenia Gwaltney for Las Cruces Digest}

It has begun. In a few short days neighbors in our broader community will be rolling down their windows at the Wal-Mart Pickup to catch the fragrance of roasting green chile–ears tuned to the hum of the propane-fueled flames kissing the skins off our signature agricultural staple. It is also time to plan when to process the freshly roasted chile, stocking up freezers in preparation for winter.

If you are ready to go, so are two area grocers: Lowe’s Fiesta Foods on Main, and Lowe’s Market in the Solano Square shopping center. Both of these locations have been roasting for several days, and have established times for when consumers can buy their green chile to be roasted: daily from 10 to 5.

Here is list of locations confirmed to be roasting Hatch Green Chile:

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How long will these locations offer chile roasting?

A survey of produce managers at the above-mentioned locations reiterated the seasonal nature of roasted fresh green chile. The factors that go into consideration when deciding a length of time to continue offering this service depends on how well the chile is selling and the availability of fresh chile from our local farmers. A good rule of thumb is Labor Day (Monday, September 2, 2024). This is an aspirational goal, and some retailers may not continue into September. Also, depending on demand from other parts of the country, there may not be enough left to sustain such a long green chile roasting season.

The Hatch Chile Festival is held annually over Labor Day weekend, and celebrates the season coming to an end. If you are planning on stocking up on green chile, you should definitely plan to do so by Labor Day.

How does this year’s crop look?

If the 25 lbs roasted an processed in the Las Cruces Digest kitchen are any indication, this year’s crop has yielded some exceptional fruit. The pods were easily peeled and the chile pods had exceptional weight. The “HOT” was definitely on the spicy side, and the “UNMARKED” had a good range (from mild to just enough heat). The flavor is exceptional! [Having grown up in Las Cruces, my first sample of year’s crop is exactly what I would expect–flavor forward with potential heat as a bonus.]

—–See for yourself in the pictures, below—–

How to buy, process and store roasted green chile

Typically, we purchase our fresh green chile inside the location, and after checkout meet the roaster/operator who then roasts your chile. [You can tell them how you would like it roasted, if you have a preference.]

The roaster/operator will pull the roasted green chile from the roasting tumbler into a box lined with a plastic bag. [Some choose to start the cooling process immediately and transfer the freshly roasted chile to an ice-filled cooler for transportation home. We did not do this, and understand that the roasted green chile will continue to cook until it is cooled off. This was not a problem this year because the chile was very “meaty”; however, if there is a larger percentage of “thin” pods in the batch, they can tend to cook soft in the time it takes to get from the roaster to the kitchen.]

Once in your kitchen, the roasted green chile is cooled on a bed of ice and peeled. [Some years, they peel really nice–like this year. There are years when they do not peel as neatly. For those years, we use a “quick and dirty” method of processing by not peeling the chile at all before putting into bags. They are placed into freezer bags “flat”, so (after frozen) each pod can be easily broken away and removed from the bag for recipes that do not require more than one. Freezing them “quick and dirty” saves the flavor of the pods by avoiding too much water in the peeling process. Once frozen, a pod can be removed from the freezer bag and peeled under cold water to easily remove the skin without washing away any of flavor still frozen inside the pod. “Quick and dirty” wasn’t necessary this year.]

Once the peels have been removed, the chile pods are placed in freezer bags. We use two types of bags: Gallon (for “flats”) and Half-Gallon (for “bulk”). There have been years when it was necessary to sort out the “relleno” chile from the rest. A “relleno” chile is very meaty and makes a pretty relleno. This year, they were almost all “relleno” quality, so there was no need to sort them. [We ended up with about half of a quart bag of “uglies”, and they were put into the mix of some ground beef burritos made later that night.]

Once bagged, the sealed bags were placed on ice until cool. They were then placed in the freezer for storage.

A Local Secret…

Save your skins. Las Cruces Digest will be sharing an amazing “trick” using the skins. Simply collect them and put them in a freezer bag and in the freezer. Recipe to follow soon.

Subscribe to the Daily Las Cruces Digest for ways to prepare this year’s green chile harvest.

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