Hatch Green Chile Sauce is a flavorful sauce filled with Hatch fire roasted green chiles, fire roasted tomatoes, onions and garlic. It’s the perfect addition to a New Mexican style breakfast burrito.
Hatch Green Chile Sauce has been a staple in our kitchen for many years. It’s a featured ingredient in the favorite and most requested breakfast of all time—New Mexican Breakfast Burritos with green chile sauce. It’s so popular that if you have spent the night in our home, you have enjoyed breakfast burritos the next morning!
My husband and I were introduced to Hatch Green Chile Sauce just after graduating from college. We were on an apartment finding trip prior to starting our first job in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We were excited to try New Mexican food and had talked with our hotel concierge to get recommendations for the best restaurant. She directed us to an amazing restaurant and warned us to get chile on the side. We thought that was an interesting warning. Why would a Mexican food restaurant serve chili on the side? Or even chili at all?? We ordered our enchiladas and I asked for chili on the side. We had to decide between green or red… what a strange request. My husband figured he could handle chili on his enchiladas; he likes to try new, interesting foods. When our enchiladas arrived, my green chile—not green chili—was on the side and had nothing to do with meat and beans like I had supposed. My husband, on the other hand, had his enchiladas smothered with the meatless green sauce. It looked really good! And after several bites, my husband, who eats very spicy hot foods, couldn’t handle the heat any longer! He helped me eat my enchiladas instead. Newbies!
Hatch Green Chile
Here’s what we learned about Hatch green chile while we lived in New Mexico. Hatch is a valley location in New Mexico where green chile is grown and harvested. Hatch green chile is a specific type of chile pepper, not meat and bean stew. In September/October and you can buy farm fresh roasted Hatch green chile outside the supermarket because it is harvest time. Roasted Hatch green chile smells amazing next to the big metal roasters in the parking lots! If you are truly New Mexican, you buy a huge black plastic garbage sack full of Hatch green chile, let it sit and continue to cook until the next day when you don gloves to de-seed the chiles and freeze them—preserving fresh green chile for the entire year! Red chile sauce is made from green chiles that have ripened to a red color and then dried on ristras (beautiful hanging red chiles). The red chiles are ground and made into a smooth, chunkless sauce. Whereas, green chile sauce is chunky with chopped green chiles, onions and tomatoes.
My husband loved being part of the creation process for this recipe. We spent a long morning combining ingredients to make our all-time best version of Hatch Green Chile Sauce and then enjoyed it on New Mexican-style Breakfast Burritos. My husband has most often been the breakfast chef in our kitchen and has definitely made green chile sauce more than I have. His added expertise on amounts and spices made all the difference! We, of course, made our green chile sauce spicy hot—because we can handle our heat now! But, you will notice a mild option in the recipe for those who really want to enjoy the wonderful flavor of Hatch green chile, without a burning mouth!!
Ingredients for Hatch Green Chile Sauce:
- Roasted Hatch Green Chile: Since you can only purchase roasted Hatch green chile in the fall in New Mexico, our family is grateful we can find it bottled at most any grocery store. Our favorite brand is 505 Flame Roasted Green Chile, Medium heat. Costco even sells a 40-ounce bottle of it. You can also buy canned green chile for this recipe, especially if you are wanting the spiciness to be mild.
- Rotel Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes and Green Chiles: The brand really matters on this ingredient. Rotel tomatoes have amazing flavor and the fact that they are fire roasted tomatoes, with added green chiles, adds that “wow” factor to this green chile sauce recipe.
- Spices: cumin, celery salt, oregano.
- Minced garlic cloves and diced onions: Fresh garlic and onions contributes so much more flavor than dried alternatives.
- Chicken Broth: Choose your favorite brand, but the chicken flavor is better than just using water. You can also use water and chicken-flavored bouillon.
Ingredients for New Mexican Breakfast Burritos:
The New Mexican-style breakfast burrito is one of the big food take-aways from our time living in Albuquerque. Our favorite time to buy them was during the International Balloon Fiesta. Mostly, we made breakfast burritos on the weekend in our home. New Mexican-style breakfast burritos have the following ingredients:
- Fried Potatoes or Hashbrowns: Fry cubed or shredded potatoes in butter or oil and season with seasoning salt and pepper.
- Ground Sausage or Bacon: Fry up ground sausage and/or bacon so it’s in small pieces so the flavor filters throughout the burrito.
- Scrambled Eggs: Scramble the eggs however you prefer.
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese: You can use mild, medium, or sharp cheddar cheese. Really any semi-hard cheese, like cheddar, pepper jack, Monterey jack, or a Mexican blend, works perfectly.
- Refried Beans: This is an optional ingredient, but tastes very good when added. Sometimes we substitute this ingredient for the potatoes.
- Hatch Green Chile Sauce: This is the star ingredient that really makes a breakfast burrito New Mexican. Smother as much sauce as you prefer on top of all the ingredients and wrap it all up in a tortilla.
- Flour Tortillas: Most New Mexican Breakfast Burritos are wrapped in flour tortillas. But if you really prefer corn tortillas or tortillas made with alternative flours, don’t hesitate to use what you like best.
How to Make Hatch Green Chile Sauce:
- Saute garlic in hot oil for about 1 minute. Be extra careful to no burn the garlic.
- Add diced onions and continue to saute until onions are translucent.
- Quickly add spices (cumin, celery salt, oregano), plus cornstarch to onions. Stir on heat to combine well, so the cornstarch will not be chunky, but don’t allow to burn.
- Add chicken broth and mix until incorporated. Then, stir constantly until the sauce slightly thickens.
- Add green chile and tomatoes. Stir to combine.
- Continue to simmer until heated through. The sauce can be used at this point, but you can simmer longer, another half hour to hour, for a more robust flavor.
- Add salt and pepper as desired for flavor.
- A note about salt: If you use farm fresh, fire roasted Hatch green chile instead of bottled/canned green chile, add at least ¼-½ teaspoon salt. The preserved green chile has added salt, so the recipe does not have salt as an ingredient—except to taste.
How to Assemble Breakfast Burritos:
- Make the Hatch green chile sauce.
- Fry your potatoes or hash browns until tender and crispy.
- Fry your ground sausage and bacon until cooked thoroughly.
- Scramble your eggs in the manner you desire.
- Shred the cheese.
- Warm your tortillas either on a fry pan or in the microwave. Keep them warm in a towel.
- Assembly Order: Tortilla flat on plate. Add potatoes and then ground sausage/bacon. Top with scrambled egg and shredded cheese. Smother top of ingredients with green chile sauce. Wrap tortilla into a burrito shape. Eat immediately or wrap burrito in aluminum foil to keep warm until you are ready to eat it.
I am excited to share this favorite family recipe with you! Enjoy the flavor of New Mexico for breakfast on Cinco de Mayo… and every day after that!
–Kim
Hatch Green Chile Sauce and Breakfast Burritos
Ingredients
Hatch Green Chile Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon neutral flavored oil
- 2-3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 medium-large onion diced
- 1 ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon celery salt
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 ½ teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 bottle (16 oz) 505 Flame Roasted Green Chile
- 1 can (10 oz) Rotel Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes and Green Chiles
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Ingredients Needed for Breakfast Burritos:
- 3 potatoes cubed and fried in 1 Tablespoon oil and seasoned with seasoning salt
- 1 can refried beans optional
- 1 pound ground sausage (and/or 1 pound cooked bacon)
- 8 eggs scrambled
- ½ pound shredded medium cheddar cheese
- Hatch Green Chile Sauce (recipe above)
- Your favorite style of tortillas (preference of flour burrito size tortillas)
Instructions
- Add oil to heated medium saucepan.
- Add garlic to hot oil and saute for 1 minute, being careful not to burn.
- Add onions and continue to saute until onions are translucent.
- Add spices (cumin, celery salt, oregano) and cornstarch to onions. Stir on heat to combine.
- Add chicken broth and stir until slightly thickens.
- Add green chile and tomatoes. Stir to combine.
- Continue to simmer until heated through. Simmer longer for a more robust flavor.
- Add salt and pepper as desired for flavor.
Notes
