Hatch Green Chile Enchiladas

Hatch Chile season is here so keep an eye out for these beauties over the next few weeks!  And if you can’t find any in your local markets you can always source them directly from New Mexico.  I recently put together a post with some good online buying options — see Where To Buy Hatch Chiles Online.  

Roasted Hatch chiles have a distinct flavor and they are prepared to do all the heavy lifting if you just give ’em the chance!

I’m making chicken and cheese enchiladas in this recipe, but keep in mind that you can use just about any protein you want as the Hatch sauce is the key to this dish and everything else is just a bonus.

 

How To Make Hatch Enchilada Sauce

Hatch chiles are typically harvested in late summer and will stick around for a few weeks depending on your area.  How hot are Hatch chiles?

You can usually find frozen, roasted Hatch chiles in today’s freezer aisles, but if you get a chance to roast your own you’ll get a massive upgrade in flavor.

I put this batch of 8 Hatch chiles in the oven for about 25 minutes.   You can always roast them on the grill or over an open flame if you want.

And yes, they smell delightful!

Once they cool a bit we’ll de-stem and de-seed the chiles, but don’t worry about getting rid of every last seed.

And if the skin is puffing up you can pull off and discard as much of it as you can, but again don’t sweat it too much as it’s only removed for texture purposes and won’t affect the final flavor of the sauce.

7-8 chiles will give you about 1.5 cups of chile pieces — this will make plenty of sauce for 8 enchiladas, or enough for 2 hungry peeps.

Next we’ll finely chop a half onion.   Most of it will be used for the sauce, but you can keep a few tablespoons in reserve for the inside of the enchiladas, something like this:

Add the majority of the chopped onion to some oil and give it a good sweat over medium heat.

Add a finely minced garlic clove and cook for an additional minute or so.

Add the chile pieces to a blender along with a splash of water or stock and combine well.  Then we’ll add the blended chile pieces to the onion-garlic mixture along with:

1 cup stock
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
pinch of cumin
1/4 teaspoon of salt (plus more to taste)
freshly cracked black pepper

Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes and then give it a taste.   Hatch savory buttery goodness?!

I added another generous pinch of salt to this batch but the exact salt level will depend on which stock you’re using.   I used this homemade chicken stock that has almost zero sodium, whereas most store-bought stocks will be quite high in sodium.

If you find yourself eating the sauce straight from the pan that’s a good sign!   But we’ll make some enchiladas with this batch so don’t eat it all yet.

For chicken enchiladas I’m in the habit of poaching the chicken, but you can cook the chicken any way you want (see Mexican Shredded Chicken for a good brine-and-bake method).   For poaching, simply cover a single chicken breast with cold water, bring to a boil, and then reduce heat to a simmer.  Give it 20 minutes or until the inside of the chicken is no longer pink.

The chicken takes about the same time to cook as the chiles, so I usually put it on right after adding the chiles to the oven.   You can optionally add some onion, cilantro and salt to the poaching water for a hint of additional flavor.

Once the chicken is cooked you can set it aside to cool and then shred it using two forks.

To make the enchiladas start by warming up the tortillas to make them more pliable.  I usually just stick them in the oven for a few minutes, but you could also nuke them for 60 seconds covered with some damp paper towels.  More info on warming up corn tortillas. 

Add some sauce to a plate, dredge a tortilla in the sauce, flip, and then fill with shredded chicken, some diced onion, and plenty of shredded cheese.  Dredging the tortilla in the sauce and then flipping it will ensure you’ve got some sauce on the inside of the enchiladas.

Roll tight and place seam side down on a baking dish.

I usually add a layer of the sauce to the baking dish to prevent sticking.

Keep rolling until you’ve used up all the chicken.   A single chicken breast is usually enough for 7-8 enchiladas.

And then drench them in the Hatch enchilada sauce!   You should have plenty of the sauce so feel free to goop it on.  I usually give the enchiladas a jiggle so the sauce seeps in between them.

Add a layer of shredded cheese on top and bake the enchiladas for about 10 minutes in a 400F oven, or until all of the cheese is melted and the edges of the tortillas are just starting to brown.

Hot corn tortillas, melted cheese, and savory Hatch enchilada sauce — sold!!

You can optionally garnish with freshly chopped cilantro, a squeeze of lime, or a drizzle of Crema, but lately I prefer them bare bones so that the Hatch flavor stays at the forefront.

Okay, please keep these Hatch Green Chile Enchiladas in mind the next time you’ve got a bag full of Hatch chiles!

And don’t forget that the Hatch sauce is wildly versatile — once you get the flavor to your liking you’ll find all sorts of ways to use it.   Some good options:  beans, eggs, cheese quesadillas.

Buen Provecho.

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