Chile Colorado

I bought the dried peppers for my first attempt at Chile Colorado some time ago after seeing the recipe on Pam’s “For The Love OfCooking” blog.  Upon noticing that the recipe she used came from Isabel Eats and my recent success with her Chile Rellenos, I knew those peppers had to be put to use if these two good cooks made the recipe.  I had a couple of pieces of flank steak in the freezer needing to be used so they were the meat of choice and since I wanted to use a slow cooker, I varied the directions to do that.  I also varied the chiles as shown. You can click on the above link for the original recipe and more excellent pics like this one.

Chile Colorado – Adapted from For The Love Of Cooking

Ingredients:

Red Chile Sauce:

5 8 dried Guajillo chiles, stems removed & seeded, chopped

5 2 dried Ancho chiles, stems removed & seeded, chopped

1 dried Arbol chile, stems removed & seeded, chopped

½ medium yellow onion, chopped

1 tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried cumin

1 clove of garlic, minced

Beef:

2 tbsp vegetable oil

3 lbs beef flank steak, trimmed & cut into 1” cubes

2½ tbsp flour

Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

3 cups beef broth

2 bay leaves

1 tbsp. Larry’s chili powder (added by Larry)

2 tbsp. Chamayo chile powder (added by Larry)

Instructions:

1. Prepare the red chile sauce by combining the dried Guajillo chiles, Ancho chiles, Arbol chile, and onion to a medium saucepan.

2. Cover with water until chiles & onion are completely submerged and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, remove from the heat, cover with a lid and let it sit for 20 minutes to soften the chiles and to allow the flavors to mingle.

3. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the softened chiles & onion into a large blender (Larry used an immersion blender in a tall container).

4. Add 1 cup of chile-soaked water, the dried oregano, garlic, cumin, minced garlic and blend until smooth.

5. Once the red chile sauce is as smooth as possible, pour it through a fine sieve into a bowl, pushing down on the solids to get as much sauce as possible. Discard the solids. Set the chile Colorado sauce aside until needed. (Larry didn't do this).

6. Prepare the meat by heating the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.

7. Combine the cut beef with the flour, sea salt, and freshly cracked pepper together, to taste. In a bowl or zip lock bag; toss to coat evenly (Larry used his Bass Pro Shop Breader).

8. Once the oil is HOT, add in half the meat and brown on all sides, about 3-4 minutes; remove from the pan to a bowl and repeat the process with the remaining beef (Larry cooked in three batches).

9. Once everything is cooked, pour out the oil and deglaze the pan with some of the beef broth scrapping up all of the brown bits. 

10. Add this along with the browned meat, the red chile sauce, bay leaves, and the remaining beef broth to a slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours until the meat if fork tender. 

11. At the four hour cooking point, we didn’t think the sauce was rich enough so we added the chili powder and Chamayo.  We also added salt several times and used 2-3 tsp.

We served it with tortillas and Mexican salad (next post).  My shots are not nearly as good as Pam's.

The Verdict:

We all thought the Chile Colorado was very good and would definitely make it again – it had very little heat so I added a little cayenne powder to my bowl.  The hardest part of the job was prepping the peppers and getting the seeds out – I used scissors for the cutting and a knife to scrape out the seeds.  I believe that next year I will turn some of our poblano peppers into anchos but remove the stems and seeds prior to dehydrating.

Earlier in the week, we enjoyed Cindy's Honey Garlic Glazed Salmon. 

And we took advantage of a 72F afternoon to go for a boat ride but unfortunately we have few pretty trees along the lake.  The forest around here are mostly poplar, oak, and hickory which just get yellow and brown but it was still a fine boat ride.

The second shot from the top is pretty special on a clear winter day when there is snow or hoar frost on the mountain.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

11/14/21 event date