Green chile stew is the flagship of New Mexican dishes. It’s also the most popular of all green chile dishes. This delicious stew is made up of a base of stew meat, potatoes, and green chile. It can be eaten alone, soaked up with tortillas, or used as a sauce. One of my favorite New Mexican breakfasts is green chile stew poured over sunny side up eggs (huevos rancheros). When the nights start to get chilly out, this hearty stew will warm you up from the inside out.
This dish is also perfect for using up leftovers in your fridge and pantry. You can substitute any kind of beef or pork, any kind of potato, use up any kind of broth, etc. You can add more or less of or omit any ingredient to your liking. It’s an easy one pot meal your whole family will love. It can be made quickly, or you can simmer it away for hours if you have the time. It’s quite versatile. This recipe is how I usually make it in my home, with beef stew meat.
Green chile is a staple in every land of enchantment home. We eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Once bushels of green chile are harvested in the fall, they must be roasted. The roasting process blackens the chile’s skins so they can be easily removed, while also creating by default the most amazing wafting smell. Green chile (Hatch) needs to be roasted and peeled before use. Roasted green chile and storing them whole in their charred skins keeps beautifully in the freezer so we can use the ingredient all year long. Once thawed, the roasted peels are easily removed, the chile is broken down into strips, and the strips are diced into small pieces. The diced pieces are seasoned with garlic salt and can be used to top almost anything (eggs, hamburgers, pizza, etc.) If you don’t have access to fresh roasted green chile, it can also be found in both the freezer section and the canned Hispanic section of your local grocery store.
Green Chile Stew
Beloved New Mexican dish
Ingredients
- 1/2 onion diced
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1-2 pounds beef stew meat
- 2-4 large potatoes, diced (peeled optional)
- 1 quart of stalk (chicken, beef) or water
- 1 can fire roasted tomatoes
- 1/4-1/2 cup diced green chile
- Salt, Pepper, Garlic Salt, Onion Powder, Cumin (to your liking)
Directions
- Sear the meat in a large stew pot in vegetable oil on medium high. Remove the meat and set aside. Add in and saute the diced onions until translucent. Add in the minced garlic at the end so it doesn’t brown.
- Add a splash of the stock to deglaze the pan, scraping up the bottom. Add the remaining stock, seared beef, diced potatoes, canned tomatoes, green chile, and spices to the pot. Mix and bring to a boil.
- Once its boiling, turn down the heat to medium to medium-low and allow the pot to simmer until the meat and potatoes are the desired doneness (~30 minutes).
- Serve with tortillas.
Tips & Tricks: My personal preference is beef stew meat, chicken or beef broth, and unpeeled golden potatoes. But so many variations come out great too. You can even used ground meat. I use green chile from my freezer that had been roasted, but canned and commercial frozen varieties work great too. I like this stew best when served tortillas.
