the Older Bolder Life Friday Feast: Roasted Green Chile (Enchilada) Sauce

Several weeks ago I had the pleasure of being on a multi-person Skype call talking food with several friends and foodie professionals; most of us happen to be in Texas currently, most of us aren’t professionally trained chefs (though two, including friend Libby from Austin, were culinary school trained), and to the person all of us are immersed in some aspect of the food world more or less on a daily basis.

Somehow the topic of verde or green enchiladas came up, prompting a debate as to whether or not verde sauces (and you might even argue salsas) should include our tart friend – the tomatillo.

Opinions ranged widely as you might imagine, some invoking the hallowed “New Mexico Green” enchilada, which collective opinion insisted was built around the revered Hatch Chile (probably New Mexico’s finest export) and not the tomatillo, though many of our Texas-allied compadres insisted that “it’s just not a (insert colorful adjective of choice here) green enchilada if tomatillos aren’t in the (insert second colorful adjective of choice here) sauce”.

While those on the call parted amicably, a few days later I chatted with Libby about tweaking a verde enchilada sauce recipe to include hefty piles of roasted green chiles along with tomatillos – preferably roasted.

She didn’t have time to play around with recipe trials given her catering schedule that week, so I ventured off and started playing with several combinations of these great flavors we’d been arguing about days before. While it’s probably best to do over live fire on the grill, I started off by roasting onions, poblanos, and tomatillos in the oven after drizzling with a good olive oil, and then combining them with a more or less typical assortment of ingredients you see time and time again in most roasted green chile based sauces.

Hot damn, this ended up being a very tasty approach, and one that can be spiced up (more serranos or jalapeños) as desired, and left fairly thick or thinned out as needed. My wife insists it makes a damned fine salsa verde, and she’s pretty good at the salsa game.

Try this next time the verde enchilada siren calls your name; we’ve been using it as a salad dressing, topping for roasted proteins and vegetables, even as a dip for fresh, crunchy veg as well. It’s amazing over eggs or migas, and I find it delightful over a simple salad too.

I’ll also feature this roasted green chile (enchilada) sauce in an upcoming post covering a green chile chicken casserole I helped a buddy cobble together for a family gathering around the 4th, it was a huge hit…

1 small onion, trimmed and halved
1 poblano chile, trimmed and halved
5-6 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
1 tbsp (or more) olive or avocado oil
Kosher salt

4 4-ounce cans roasted green chiles (Hatch if possible)
4 garlic cloves, rough chop
2 serrano peppers, stemmed, seeded, rough chop
1/2 cup cilantro, leaves and tender stems
1/2 to one cup chicken or vegetable stock
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 and 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp kosher (or to taste)

Preheat your trusty oven to 400, and place the onion, poblano, and tomatillos on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with the oil, dust with a sprinkle of salt, and throw in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the vegetables are soft and browned. Let cool for several minutes, rough chop, and throw in the blender, along with any juices that leaked from those beautifully roasted tomatillos.

Now add the next 8 ingredients, taking note that you should start with 1/2 cup of chicken stock, adding more as needed to reach the desired consistency. Puree until smooth, taste, and adjust for cumin and salt.

Note: Pending how thick or thin it is, you can either add more chicken stock or throw the sauce into a pan on the stove and reduce to the desired consistency.

As noted in the narrative above, this recipe was most recently used for a friend’s 4th of July party feed down here in Texas, though this makes an astoundingly tasty verde enchilada sauce as well.

Enjoy.

And by the way, it’s kinda hard to get really sexy images of salsa and sauces; the image below is looking right down the barrel of a blender loaded with this sauce in progress…