It's time for Hatch Chilies! Don't know what a Hatch Chile is....it's a unique pepper grown in New Mexico and it is just starting to be available around here. I noticed about a month ago that my local Hy-Vee was celebrating the Hatch Chile Festival. I decided to buy and roast a few pounds of these special chilies to see what all the fuss was about! Of course, I thought it would be a good idea to add them to my Chicken Tortilla Soup :)
In some areas of the country- you can buy fresh roasted hatch chilies at the grocery store. I roasted my own. I simply placed the rack in my oven on the highest level, threw the chilies on a cookie sheet and turned on the broiler.
Turn them a couple of times until they are black on all sides.
Toss them into a ziploc bag or a glass bowl with plastic wrap on top and let them steam until cool enough to handle. This makes the skins easier to remove.
After my last mishap with peppers, I decided not to take any chances and I wore gloves. The skins peel right off!
And- knowing now what I didn't know then...these peppers are HOT! I would cut off the stems and remove the seeds before roasting next time. Not to mention how irritating those little seeds are to remove after the pepper is soft :)
For my Chicken Tortilla Soup....you need 6 cups of chicken broth, one onion, 4 cloves of garlic, one can of diced tomatoes, one can of black beans, chili powder, garlic salt, cumin and CHICKEN!
Begin by tossing an onion and some finely minced garlic into the stock pot. I don't use oil, just 1/4 cup of the chicken broth to soften these.
And the chilies....normally I used 2- 4 oz cans of diced green chilies. I only needed 2 TBS of the Hatch Chilies and it was spicy enough!
Rinse the black beans and dump into the pot. Add the tomatoes and the rest of your chicken broth. I season mine to taste with cumin, chili powder and garlic salt. Sorry- I never measure. My chicken is usually shredded and frozen, so I add it once the broth is hot. Cook about 20 minutes over medium heat.
We like to eat ours with shredded cheese and crushed tortilla chips on top. This is a GREAT use for those crumbs at the bottom of the bag. I save them in ziplocs all winter to top all our favorite soups.
***I froze the rest of the roasted chilies for use in various dishes over the Fall/Winter***
I'll have to look for those, Kathleen...thanks!
ReplyDeleteHatch are making their mark, aren't they? This is the second blog I've read in two days that mentions several pound purchase. Your soup looks really good, by the way. I think you'll like having that roasted chilies supply in the freezer to draw from.
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