Hearty, warm, and perfect for when you’re looking for a cozy meal. Chili Colorado isn’t what it seems at first glance. As in, it’s not a chili recipe from Colorado! The word ‘Colorado’ refers to scarlet or the red color of sandstones. This is a traditional Mexican dish from the Northern part of Mexico. Chile Colorado gets its signature color by using dried chilies that are common in authentic Mexican cuisine (such as chili de Arbol, ancho, and guajillo peppers.) It’s the most flavorful stew that’s ideal to serve with fresh homemade tortillas and fluffy rice. You could even use the meat to make tacos!
Ingredients for Chile Colorado:
Dried Chile peppers: You’ll need a good variety of dried chiles for this recipe. I use chili de Arbol, ancho chiles, and guajillo chiles for this recipe. Ancho chiles are also sometimes referred to as pasilla chiles though they aren’t exactly the same thing, they can be used interchangeably in this recipe. The trick to developing the best flavor for the red chile sauce that the meat will simmer in is to dry roast the chiles before blending.Roma tomatoes: When I was developing this recipe, I did a lot of research on whether tomatoes are authentic to Chile Colorado. I’ll tell you this much – there are a lot of opinions on this! Personally, I preferred my chile recipe with the tomatoes, however, you can simply omit them if you’d like.Chicken stock: We’ll use the chicken stock to blend the peppers and tomatoes before adding it to the stew.Oil: We’ll use the oil to saute the stew meat and then the aromatics. Flour: We’ll coat the beef in flour before searing it in a hot cast iron dutch oven pot.Beef: You can use a few different things for this recipe. The first is a chuck roast that you can cut down into 1 ½ inch pieces. The other is stew meat from the grocery store. I prefer to buy leaner stew meat from the grocery store so that you don’t have to skim the stew after it’s done cooking.White onions: I like to use white onions for this recipe, but yellow onions will also work if you happen to have those on hand.Garlic: You’ll need a handful of garlic cloves for this recipe. I use a good 12 cloves. It might seem like a lot, but you won’t be able to single out the garlic flavor in this recipe. However, the flavors work beautifully with all the other ingredients we’re using to make this stew.Seasonings: You’ll need a variety of dried herbs for this recipe. I use bay leaf, Mexican oregano, ground cumin, ground coriander, and Mexican cinnamon. I haven’t bee able to find ground Mexican cinnamon in my area, so I usually use a small piece and crush it to make a powder in my cast iron spice grinder. It does the job beautifully!
How to make Chile Colorado:
If you like this recipe, you might also like:
Texas Rancher’s ChiliMost Delicious Taco ChiliCheesy Bean and Rice Enchilada SoupMexican Chicken Noodle SoupThe Best Carne Asada
