The Crunchy Moose: Roasted Hatch Chiles

I love hatch chiles! They are very similar to the anaheim pepper, but spicier. The hatch chiles grow in Hatch, New Mexico and are only in season for about 6-8 weeks a year (August, plus a week or 2 before or after depending on the weather). I decided to roast a bag of them this year and freeze them. Most people that do this buy boxes of them. I bought 1 bag.

Here's my bag of chiles. It's a little over 3.5 pounds. They were $0.49 a pound! My big bag was $1.80.

Roasting them is super easy. Throw them on a cookie sheet and throw in the broiler (on the top half of the oven). My broiler is on 500 degrees. The skin will blister. Turn them as they blister, then remove them from the oven when they are blistered all over.

Here's them starting to blister. Turn them and blister the other side. It'll take about 10-15 to roast them on all sides.

Put them in a bowl and cover with a towel. The heat will steam them and make the skins slide right off. Leave them to steam about 5-10 minutes.

You want to remove the waxy outer layer of skin. Then pull off the stem and remove the seeds. I do this with my hands. You can use a paper towel if your skin is sensitive to the heat (this batch wasn't the spiciest I've had, but still spicy!). Some people rinse under running water to remove all the seeds. I do not get that particular and feel like I'm rinsing away flavor. So I just do a rough run-through with my fingers and get as much as I can and leave the rest.

This is about 10 of the peppers.

I will dice these and use them as a garnish on, well, everything. Eggs, tacos, salads, soups, and on and on and on.

You can freeze them with the peel on or off. I roasted them and then froze them with the skin on (honestly, I was going to peel them, but it was getting late). I put 5 chiles in each bag and put them in the freezer.