DIY: Roasting Hatch Chiles
Not sure what to do with all those fresh hatch green chiles that are filling up the grocery store? Don’t worry I got your covered! This is your guide on how to roast hatch green chiles right in your kitchen.
See these insanely beautiful chiles? They were sent to me from my friends at Frieda’s and I couldn’t have been more psyched. But, at first I stared at them – hopeless. What does one do with fresh hatch green chiles? Growing up in Ohio I didn’t have a lot of experience with the traditional hatch chile roasting events so I had to figure things out myself.
Luckily I knew how to roast peppers so it wasn’t really that much different. It might seem silly to do a whole post on how to roast fresh hatch green chiles but not everyone knows how to roast peppers. I look at it as a way to share the wealth…you know?
I’m going to walk you through the steps under each picture BUT there will also be a print version of the “recipe” at the bottom of the post. So don’t worry about trying to write down each step.
Step-by-Step How To Roast Hatch Green Chiles
First: Make sure your peppers are nice and clean and lay them out on a silpat lined rimmed baking sheet. You can get those babies pretty close so don’t worry about leaving spaces. I managed to fit all my peppers onto just one baking sheet.
Second: If you have an electric oven turn your broiler to high. The broiler uses the top element of your oven so you will want to move your rack up to the second highest spot. Add your peppers into the oven and place on the top rack. Keep the door slightly ajar and watch for the peppers to start looking black and blistered on the top.
Remove the peppers, flip and add back to the oven and broil until the other side is black and blistered.
If you have a gas range you can either blister peppers over an open flame or in the broiler down below. Just be careful to make sure nothing catches on fire!
Third: Remove the peppers from the oven and add to a large ziptop baggie. I like to use the freezer bags because they are thicker plastic and I fear less that they will somehow melt* from the heat from peppers.
Optional: Have your adorable husband carefully place each pepper in the bag while his wife takes photo after photo capturing the moment.
*I’m pretty sure the pepper wouldn’t melt the bag I’m just crazy like that.
Fourth: Seal up that bag of peppers and let sit on the counter to get all steamy – much like a 1980’s Poconos Resort hot tub.
Fifth: After about 30 minutes the peppers should be nice and steamy and slightly less hot to the touch. It is at this point I recommend putting on some latex gloves (total Dexter style) to start peeling and processing your peppers.
If you’re a rebel you can totally ignore my glove advice and go at it bare handed – much like me. However, you should be warned that just an hour after all these pictures were taken I rubbed my eyes and a fire erupted in my eyeball. I then filled a shot glass full of milk and held it over my open eye. It totally worked but it was also slightly gross. Sooooooo unless you want to spend your night having green chile/milk eye I suggest wearing gloves.
Sixth: After all the peppers have been skinned you want to gently cut down the middle and scrape all those seeds out of the pepper. It sounds like this step would be a pain in the ass but it was actually pretty easy and slightly therapeutic.
Seventh: After your seeds have been scraped you can cut off the tops and either store them whole or dice them up. They will keep in the fridge for about a week or you can portion them up and freeze them.
for the printable directions, take a look at Nutmeg Nanny’s blog here
Next Step: once your chiles are roasted, peeled, cleaned, and portioned out… You’re ready for Green Chile Recipes