Green or Red Chili Sauce and Powder

Red chili sauce as well as green chili sauce is essential to many, if not most, New Mexican dishes. Chilis are either picked and dried or picked, roasted and used fresh or frozen.

Mainly I used dried red chilis which I would roast then grind to chili powder or frozen, already roasted green chilis.

Green chili peppers are first harvested in late August to early September and can be purchased by street-front vendors in Albuquerque where some would roast your order on-the-spot in revolving round cages over a fire. These would be taken home and used fresh or frozen. They can also be bought frozen in grocery stores.

Of course this was only the first chili picking. There were 2 or 3 more to follow spaced in 2 week intervals. I preferred the second picking myself for I found the ripeness and taste to be the best.

I would purchase large quantities of the second picking, unroasted, and roast them myself at home to be frozen for the winter.

This web page will show how to make chili powder, red chili sauce and green chili sauce. Chili peppers and powder can be purchased on Internet at www.hatch-chile.com When handling dried pods, it is easy to cut your fingers on the sharp edges so be careful. And when handling any kind of chili pepper without gloves, do not touch your eyes or other sensitive parts of your body without first washing your hands or you will regret it.

I probably should mention that in the following recipes I use these abbreviations:

't' refers to teaspoon
'T' refers to tablespoon
'c' means cup
'#' means pound
'oz' means ounce

How to Make Chili Powder

1 bag of dried red chili pods (about 12 to 15 pods)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees fahrenheit

For each chili pepper, cut off both ends to remove the stem, and cut in half. Reach in, take out and discard all the seeds that you can find. Place chili pepper pieces on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 15 minutes, after which they will begin to smell roasted.

Put these roasted pieces in a blender or food processor (a blender seems to work best for me) and simply grind to a powder. Store in a covered container away from light and heat.

Now that we can make chili powder, how do we make the red chili powder into red chili sauce?

How to Make Chili Sauce from Powder

.5 c chili powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
.25 c fresh cilantro (chinese parsely), chopped
2 T flour
3 T olive oil
2 c water
salt to taste

Heat oil in a skillet on medium heat and sautee garlic. Remove from heat and slowly blend in flour and then chili powder. Put skillet back on heat and mix in water, cilantro and salt. Bring to simmer, stirring, and cook until a desired thickness is reached. Let cool and store in refrigerator or freezer.

Here is the method of bypassing the powder altogether and making red chili sauce directly from dried pods.

How to Make Chili Sauce from Dried Chili Pods

1 bag of dried red chili pods (about 12 to 15 pods)
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 T flour
3 T olive oil
2+ c water
.25 c cilantro (chinese parsely), chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 250 degrees fahrenheit

For each chili pepper, cut off both ends to remove the stem, and cut in half. Reach in, take out and discard all the seeds that you can find. Place chili pepper pieces on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 15 minutes, after which they will begin to smell roasted.

Stuff these roasted pieces into a blender, along with oil, cilantro, flour, salt, pepper and enough water to fill the blender up one third of the way. Puree and refrigerate or freeze.

Here is a way to make green chili sauce from fresh or frozen chili peppers.

How to Make Green Chili Sauce

.75 c green chilis, chopped (or more if desired)
6 scallions (green onions), chopped
4 tomatoes, chopped
.5 t garlic powder
1 t olive oil
.25 c cilantro (chinese parsely), chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Cut up ingredients. If using whole, frozen green chili let thaw and peel by hand.

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours and use as sauce or salsa.

Return to New Mexican Food from Red Chili Sauce Page
Return Home from Red Chili Sauce Page

footer for red chili sauce page