Roasted Green Chile

When we lived in New Mexico the end of summer meant one thing: the smell of green chiles roasting on nearly every street corner.

This intoxicating scent permeates the state starting in late August through October. Sometimes we would get extra lucky and hit a cold day and the air would be a mixture of the pinon burning in fireplaces and green chiles roasting…olfactory bliss!

Since moving to back west to Colorado nearly 15 years ago, we haven’t let a fall pass without getting a bushel or two of roasted green chile. For the past five or so years we’ve relied on The Chili Guys in Denver (FYI – technically chile with an ‘e’ is the correct spelling for the pepper, chili with an ‘i’ is for what is commonly eaten as a bowl of cumin-scented beans and meat). 

This year we just got one big bushel (nearly 20 pounds) of medium-heat Hatch chiles. Cost, including tipping the roaster, about $30. After the chiles are roasted, we bring them home to cool down and package them up in gallon Ziplock bags, with each chile laid out straight and flat so that not only do they freeze well, but if we just need one chile, they are easy to just break off. And, yes, we keep the charred skins on in the freezer, as they help prevent freezer-burn and they also continue to impart that wonderful smoky taste to the chile while frozen.