Green Chili

It's been a year, today, since my Mother in Law passed away.

So, I thought it would be nice tribute to post her recipe for green chili.

 

 

My MIL was born and raised in a small town in southern Colorado, just near the boarder of New Mexico, so green chili is kind of a big deal where she came from.

 

She spent her entire working life in the food industry- from waiting tables to being a cafeteria lady at school to owning and working her own restaurant (or two).  And green chili was her specialty.

 

Nobody in our family ever made it, except her.  We bowed to her green chili expertise.  In that expertise she swore the only chiles to use were Hatch green chiles and always bought cases in August during the big roasting fests that happen around these parts.

 

 

Before she became too sick to cook, she showed me how to make it and wrote the recipe down for me.

 

Sandy's Green Chili

 

4lbs. Hatch green chiles chopped

2lbs. ground pork

2lbs. ground Italian sausage (hot or mild)

3medium onions chopped

8cloves garlic chopped

1lb. 12oz. can Rotel (original)

5Tb cumin

2Tb cilantro (1/4C if using fresh)

1Tb salt

Water (about 1C)

Browned flour (about 1/4C)

 

Brown meat and drain off fat.  Add the chiles, onions and everything through to the salt.  Stir in water and simmer for 2 hours.  Give it the occasional stir adding in more water if it becomes too dry.  After 2 hours, add in 2Tb to 1/4C of browned flour to thicken to your personal preference.  Cook for 10 more minutes.

 

Makes: A boat load!

 

This is SO delicious over fresh homemade sopapillas.  But honestly, I don't know the first thing about making sopapillas.  So unless we're eating this in Colorado and the Farmboy's cousin's girlfriend has blessed us with her perfect sopapilla-making talent, we eat the chili as is or over chimichangas bought in the freezer section of the grocery store.

Sad, I know.

 

If you decide to give it a try, please let me know what you think, cuz we think it the diggity-shniz.

 

PS.  I should probably warn you- if you use fresh chiles and you've purchased the hot ones and then use hot Italian sausage and you have a delicate palate like mine, it may take a whole gallon of milk to cool your mouth off afterwards.