Green Chile Roasting

You can buy your green chile ready to use, whether it is canned, frozen, or simply roasted and ready for you to peal and chop! However if you are lucky enough to be able to roast it yourself you are in for a real treat! The smell of roasting green chile is amazing and your neighbors will appreciate it too!

Here are the steps to one of the best parts of fall in New Mexico, roasting green chile!

Preparations Wash and dry your chiles. Prepare your gas grill by making sure you have enough gas, clean/scrape the grate clear, turn it on high and let it get hot.
Grilling Your Chile Arrange your green chiles on the grill in a single layer. Blister (blacken) the skins on each side, this will require using tongs to turns the chiles over one time. The skin on the chiles should look mostly black. Sweating the Chile Once the chiles have been evenly blistered they need to be steamed so that the burnt skin can be removed from the meat of the chile. The best way we know how to do this is by getting a medium sized cooler/ice chest and lining it with a new trash bag. Place a folded-up, dampened hand towel on the bottom of the bag. Throw the chiles in the prepared cooler directly after taking them off the grill. Place another dampened towel on top of the freshly roasted chiles. Repeat the roasting process with adding more chiles to the cooler until finished roasting all chiles. You do not have to add a new towel for each new batch of chiles, simply keep placing the existing top towel back on top after adding chiles. Once roasting is complete let chiles steam in the cooler for 30 minutes to an hour. You're almost there! The next step is to remove the skin, seeds, and stem from the chiles or you may choose to freeze the chiles whole at this point. If you decide to peal all or some of the chiles fill up a clean sink with water. Place the chiles under water while removing the skin, digging out the seeds and pealing off the blackened skin. Place the remaining chile meat on a cutting board and sprinkle with garlic salt. This important step brings out the amazing flavor of the world famous Hatch Chile! Chop the chile into small bit sized pieces. Chile can be used immediately or frozen for future use. Enjoy the best ingredient known to New Mexico!