Remember those fresh red chile ristras from Red or Green? It doesn’t take long under the New Mexico sun for them to become dried red chile. Once dry, they can be ground into red chile powder or turned into red chile sauce.
I always go for the red chile sauce. Every year we purchase a bag of dried red chiles or a fresh ristra. The ristra we hang it in the backyard to dry. Once dry, I break off the pods at the stems and make a couple of big batches of red chile sauce. I freeze most of it in small containers for future use, but always reserve about two cups for enchiladas. Below is my recipe for New Mexico Red Chile Sauce. For the heat level, I try to buy “medium” when I have a choice, but most of the time, the only choice is hot – but we like it hot.
New Mexico Red Chile Sauce Recipe
Yields 3 to 4 cups
Prep, cook and processing time: 1 hour
Ingredients
About 20 pods of dried red chile, washed, stems and seeds removed (just shake out the seeds once you remove the stem)
3 cloves garlic, smashed
½ small onion, coarsely chopped
3 cups water
½ tsp. cumin seed, toasted and ground in a spice grinder
½ tsp. dried oregano (Mexican oregano if you have it)
1 tsp. salt
Instructions
- Rinse the chile pods. Break into pieces discarding stems and seeds.
- In a large pot, add the water, chiles, onion, garlic, and oregano. Bring the water t
o a boil and reduce heat for a simmer. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or longer until the pods are rehydrated. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, for another 10 minutes. - Purée – I usually purée in 3 batches in order to get a smooth texture.
- Fill the blender with about 1/3 of the chiles, onion and garlic and some of the water. Add about 1/3 of the ground cumin. Purée.
- Continue to purée until you have a smooth texture. Add more water if you need to. Once you get a smooth texture, pour into a bowl and finish off the rest of the chile in two batches.
- To get a even smoother sauce, blend again after the sauce sits for 20 minutes.
- Divide the sauce into 1 to 2 cup servings. Freeze what you can’t use in 3 to 4 days.
Kitchen Notes
This sauce freezes great and last for up to a year or more in the freezer – although I really wouldn’t know for sure because mine never last past 6 months.
When I plan to freeze it, I usually make a thicker sauce and transfer to small freezer containers. This takes up less space in the freezer and freezer space is always an issue.
To use frozen chile sauce, remove frozen chile from the container to a small sauce pan. Heat on low, breaking apart the frozen pieces and stirring as it thaws. You could also “defrost” in your microwave for 3 minutes before transferring it to a sauce pan. Once thawed, whisk to regain the smooth texture. Add more water if needed.
Dishes for Red Chile Sauce
Burritos – Smother your favorite burrito (bean, chicken, beef, pork or egg) with red chile sauce. One of our favorites consists of pinto beans, cheese, fresh tomato, chopped onion, lettuce and sour cream or yogurt wrapped in a warm flour tortilla and smothered in red chile sauce.
- Huevos Rancheros
- Egg Quesadilla – replace the Jamaican Jerk sauce with red chile sauce.
- Carne Adovada – Pork marinated in red chile sauce and slow roasted in a slow cooker, on the stove top or in the oven.
- Christmas Breakfast with Eggs and Chorizo
- Red Chile Enchiladas – Cheese, chicken or beef enchiladas
- Black Bean and Shiitake Mushroom Enchiladas
- Tamales – A little chile sauce inside and out.
- Roasted Pumpkin and Red Chile Soup
- Shepherd’s Pie, New Mexico Style
These are just a few suggestions for using red chile sauce, most of which are pretty common in New Mexico. Many of these recipes and more will be posted on this site in weeks, months, and years to come.
This red chile sauce recipe has been linked up to the following blog hops: My Meatless Monday, Made from Scratch Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, Katherine Martinelli’s “Peppers” Hop, Gallery of Favorites, Frugal Foods Thursday, Gluten-Free Monday.
New Mexico Chile Series
During September of 2011 I did a series on New Mexico Chile. This post was part of that series; however, I have continued to update this post and the others by adding more links to recipes that use New Mexico chile.
Part I – Red or Green? and Christmas – Red and Green
Part II – NM Red Chile: Recipes
Part III – NM Green Chile: Recipes and Green Chile Stew and a Video
Part IV – NM Green Chile Enchiladas
Part V – NM Red Chile Enchiladas
OMG! This soup is soooo red, and it must be sooooo hot! Great!
Giulia – Actually it is a sauce and yes – it can be quite HOT!!!! I do know some people that would eat this as a soup – my BIL for one – but I add it to dishes or pour over burritos, tacos, and such. Just eating a bowl of red chile sauce is a little over the top for me.
I wrote soup for sauce… today I’m out of my mind (and I have to work tonight O___O)!
A chile soup would be too much for -almost- everyone
Sounds like you need a strong cup of espresso!
I love chili sauce but the redness of your sauce tells me it’s too much for me…but my husband is gonna love this!
Don’t let the rich color scare you off. This particular batch was actually “mild” because that’s the only chile that was left at the market. Even with heat – the flavor is worth it!
Hey, MJ. Great series on chile. Two suggestions.
Tell folks to WASH THEIR HANDS!! after handling red chile pods.
Do you want to jump into the fray about why we spell it “chile” in NM instead of “chili”?
Good point to make Anna! Although I have found that even washing the hands doesn’t help the burn if I’ve been handling hot chile! It’s already soaked in, but I still wash. It I have gloves, I’ll wear them. I mentioned the “e” thing, but didn’t explain why. I’ll add that to my next post on New Mexico Green Chile. Thanks for the idea!
I would make this chile sauce with the red chile and then make enchiladas with the green chile.
Oooo spicy. Just the way I like it! I do believe your red chili sauce will wake up my saturday morning chilaquiles. Yum!
I LOVE spicy!!! hehehe Thank you so much for sharing the recipe of such a great sauce MJ!!! The next time I am in the US, I will have to visit NM… I am sure I will love all that food!!!
I love enchiladas, so it would be great to make some homemade red chile enchilada sauce.
I have a whole bag of dried red chili’s and now I know what I can do with them. This sauce looks great and I love spicey, great with a bean burrito. Thanks!
Suzi
Hi MJ, Beautiful job on the chili sauce, bet they’d go great with some nachos.
Arrrg!!!!! Love this giveaway!!! My husband and I love NM. We went this summer to Santa Fe for the Indian Market. We had a great time… That was our 4th trip to the area. A few things we would make…. chicken enchiladas with green chile or maybe carne adovado. Thanks for the chance to win..
Following on Twitter… hootowl29
Love the red or green article… We had some green chiles roasted right before leaving!! Wish we had one of those big roasters!!
Oh – my husband LOVES green chile stew with pork. I would make him a huge pot with these chiles.
susitravl(at)gmail(dot)com
Your red chile is the kind of authentic New Mexican recipe that I love. Too often I see red chile sauces diluted with tomato sauce and other unnecessary ingredients. The chiles take center stage in this recipe and nothing gets in the way of their great flavor. Love it!
MJ, this is GREAT! The pictures of the chilies are incredible and – to be honest – I’ve never worked with the chillies! …but I know exactly what I’d do!
I’d take some of them and grind up for chili flakes
the rest I’d make your chili sauce.
I’ve “liked” your facebook page!
I follow you on twitter! I don’t know why I haven’t been! Thanks!
I love Huevos Rancheros with rice and refried beans with red sauce in large quantity. Makes my mouth water just to think about it.
I just made red sauce last week. Yummy!
I love learning about these chiles. And you’ve got some GREAT recipes on how to use them. The colors are so vibrant! Just beautiful!
Looks like we have some chile lovers out there!
Thanks for your comments and entries!
I bought my first ristra while we were in NM last week. I hung it in my kitchen – so pretty! I thought I’d only use it for decoration, but I suppose I could use it to make this too. I tend to buy bags of various dried chiles – from pasillo to guajillo, ancho, chipotle, and anything else I can get my hands on. Love to make chile sauces like this as a base for a good pot of Texas Red in the winter. Yum.
Oh look at those peppers! This sauce sounds amazing and the possibilities are endless of it’s use!
I would use it in enchiladas and so much more!! YUM!
I liked you on FB.
I follow you on twitter @aniheartsjapan.
Your red chili sauce looks so good! It must be spicy! I did not realized people do use chilis from the ristras for cooking. I thought they were decorative. I bought a string when I visited NM and kept it for several years until they fell off.
I’m a hot pepper junkie! I would make these chilies into this salsa and can them up (I’m new to canning so can’t wait to try this out! ) http://www.theyummylife.com/recipes/180/Roasted+Salsa+for+Canning
My husband and I just returned last week from our first trip to New Mexico. We made a figure eight starting in Albuquerque, Alamogordo (White Sands), Ruidoso (Billy the Kid By-way), Sandia Tram, Turquoise Trail, Santa Fe, Taos, Enchanted Circle, Los Alamos, Jemez Springs, Bernalillo & back to Albuquerque. We saw a lot of wonderful sights in your beautiful state and ate lots & lots of wonderful foods (many new to us) with green, red & Christmas. Once we were back in Georgia, we started a quest to find the best source of your wonderful peppers so that I could start to experiment with duplicating those dishes at home. We thought we loved the food at our local Mexican restaurant, until we ate our way thru New Mexico. Our list of things to try at home (with peppers) include breakfast burritos, enchilidas, and those wonderful tacos.
What a great loop! You definitely got to see the diversity of our landscape and why we’re called the Land of Enchantment. Sounds like you also got addicted to our wonderful chile and cuisine! Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!
What a neat giveaway! I’d make your red sauce, of course!!!
I am a facebook fan
I love green chile I miss it since I moved away.Would love to have some.
Where to begin.I love it so much I cheat before dinner and heat up a tortilla just to sop it up..slurp up the sauce like its soup. .. Last night for dinner I made Carne Adovada. This morning I had it again with eggs. Tonight with the leftover sauce. I am making red chile enchiladas. Yesterday and today, my fav color is red.
We have chili for almost every meal, depends on the menu, but I prefer red most of the time!!!!
Thanks for linking your great post to FAT TUESDAY. This was very interesting! Hope to see you next week!
Be sure to visit RealFoodForager.com on Sunday for Sunday Snippets – your post from Fat Tuesday may be featured there!
http://realfoodforager.com/fat-tuesday-january-24-2012
Share your great fermented food recipes at my Probiotic Food Linky – open through Februray 6, 2012.
http://realfoodforager.com/probiotic-food-challenge-linky/
We’ve always bought our chili sauce in the past. As I make my way through ridding ourselves of prepackaged products, this would be next on the list. I just love chili sauce. Do you think if you fermented it it would last longer in the fridge?
I’m hosting Whole Food Wednesdays at beyondthepeel.net. I hope you’ll swing by and even share if you like. Have a great rest of your week.
France – thanks for stopping by! I hope you do try this chile sauce. I don’t know about fermenting it, but it freezes quite well. Whenever I make a batch, I divide it up into little containers and freeze it. That way I can enjoy it for weeks to come!
This is so great! And so perfect for my pepper blog hop
Thanks so much for linking up! Pinned!
What a gorgeous colour your Red Chile sauce is! It sounds delicious too. It’s wonderful that it freezes, and it would be so much better for you than commercial sauces (not to mention it must taste so much better!).
I have never purchased a ristra – how fun! I love the idea of making my own chile sauce so I could tailor it to my tastes. I’m glad you included a list of recipes. I have been wanting to try a new enchilada recipe.
I was raised in AZ and grew up eating red and green chilis from New Mexico, I currently live in Maine and there are none of my beloved chilis anywhere around here, any suggestions??
Yum! I love red chile sauce! Looks fantastic!
I’ve never had red chile sauce before, but I was just reading about a very similar sauce in the Muy Bueno Cookbook and I’m fascinated. The color is incredible and the texture is just so smooth and silky. Thanks so much for sharing, MJ, and I hope you’re having a great Monday!
I love making my own sauces. I love hot sauces and this looks so good. Pinning this to make it!! And I’m adding it to ideas for holiday gifts from the kitchen this year
bought some red chili in a red onion sack have moths are the chili pods bad
Richard No – they are not bad. Just wash them before using. Snap the stems off and open up the pods. If you see black spots on the insides, just remove the spots and keep the rest. Good luck and thanks for stopping by!