In Which I Create Green Chile Sauce

Normally I'm going to write about writing, probably, but I love food. So sometimes I will write about food. Today, I decided to try my hand at making green chile sauce — a project I thought I'd share with the world, since it's a little unusual.

First, for non New Mexicans: Green chile sauce is to green chile what pasta sauce is to tomatoes: it's a culinary creation, not a raw ingredient saucified. Why green chile? Because I am a New Mexican. Green chile is a pretty big deal here in our state, sort of what cheese is to Wisconsin. Most everything you order at a New Mexican restaurant (not to be confused with a Mexican restaurant), from huevos rancheros to chile rellenos to enchiladas, is slathered in a thick, savory, garlicky green chile sauce. Unless you order red. Which would make you evil and wrong, because red chile sauce tastes like dirt.

Our family eats a lot of green chile, typically in sauce form. I add it to almost everything, from soups to stews to casseroles. Lately I've been making a giant breakfast casserole on Sundays that we eat weekday mornings. (Sausage, black beans, green chile sauce, and cheese.) And I was buying the sauce. We have quite a variety of options, even in our most basic grocery stores, but here's a good one:

As good as El Pinto's sauce is, however, we were going through four jars a week at like $5 a jar, and it suddenly occurred to me: I am a pretty good cook. Why am I buying something I could make? I looked at the El Pinto label: pretty much tomatoes, onions, garlic, and green chile. I didn't look up a recipe, I just went with that, and decided I'd fiddle with it till I had it right.

Frozen is nice if you can find it; canned works OK, too

It turns out you need roughly equal portions of green chiles and tomatoes. The acid of the tomatoes adds a necessary flavor dimension to the green chile. Second, you can't overdo the garlic. Well, I can't overdo it, anyway. (No vampires at our house.) I used one onion, an entire head of garlic, a 14-oz can of diced, fire-roasted tomatoes, and 16 oz frozen green chile (half that bag). I added Mexican oregano, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper to taste. No salt; it doesn't need it.

Some people are no doubt scoffing at the "mild." I like hot foods, but green chile actually has a lovely flavor that's lost when it's too hot. So for the sauce (which is about flavor, not merely heat), I deliberately selected a mild variety.

I sauteed the onions and garlic until they were fragrant, added the tomatoes, added the green chile, and let it sozzle. It's been sitting there for about a half-hour and it tastes great already, but it's going to need a bit more time to break down. I've been adding chicken broth to make up for the evaporation from cooking: vegetarians can use veg broth or water.

Mine's on the left, El Pinto's is on the right

The taste test: you can see that my 50-50 sauce is green chillier than El Pinto's. So El Pinto's "green chile sauce" must be more like "tomato sauce with some green chile."(Indeed, tomatoes are the first ingredient on their label.) I prefer the tangy flavor of the 50-50 version. My intention was really to recreate El Pinto's, because I like theirs, but in the end, I truly do prefer my version.

A more serious test: I asked my kids to do a blind taste test. My son liked my version better, hands-down. My daughter looked skeptical, because "green chile is not my favorite thing." But she was game. Result: she also preferred my version. Also, she actually ate the entire bowl. Of sauce! Just gobbled it up with a spoon, by itself. She made several appreciative noises and then said, "That was surprisingly yummy."

Success. :)