Hasselback Potatoes with Chile Oil and Chipotle Sour Cream
New Mexico Chiles are the dried form of the Red Anaheim Pepper. This chile has a thin flesh with an earthy chile flavor and undertones of wild cherries. This chile ranges from 2 – 4 on a heat scale of 1 to 10. The New Mexico Chile may be referred to as the California Chile or Chile Colorado. New Mexico Chiles are commonly used in Red Mexican or Southwestern sauces and is grown in Mexico. This mildly hot chile. Scoville heat units 8,000 – 12,000.
Suggested Use:
New Mexico Chiles are mildly hot and very popular in Southwest cooking. Great in sauces, salsa, rice dishes, stews and soups. Add directly to the cooking liquid along with other spices. Use in stir fry, or add to chicken or fish marinades.
Ingredients:
1 cup olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 dried guajillo chiles or dried New Mexico chiles
4 tablespoons butter
4 small to medium sized potatoes (russet or yukon gold work well)
1 cup sour cream
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce
Sea Salt to taste
1 green onion, green part only, thinly sliced or chives
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
In a small sauce pan, heat the olive oil, garlic, and dried chiles. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce the heat and add the butter, heat until melted, do not brown the butter. Strain.
Wash the potatoes well, use a potato brush if necessary. Dry well. Place the potatoes on a cutting board between two chop sticks or the handles off two wooden spoons. At one end of the potato, make thin slices (a quarter inch apart) across the potato. Do not cut all the way through the potato. The chop sticks or wooden spoons will stop the knife from cutting all the way through the potato. But, be careful not to cut through the potato on the first few slices on each end of the potato, the chop sticks may not stop the knife.
Place the potatoes on a baking sheet and brush well with chile oil.
Bake for 45 to 55 minutes until the potatoes are fork tender inside, but the skin is crispy.
Remove from oven and drizzle with some of the remaining chile oil.
Plate the potatoes with a dollup of chipotle sour cream on the side. Sprinkle with sea salt and sliced green onions.
Tips for cooking Hasselback Potatoes for a crowd:
1. If you are cooking a large number of potatoes, make the chile oil in advance.
2. You may slice the potatoes early in the day if you keep them submerged in lemon water. Make sure the potatoes are very dry before you bake them so that the skins roast and become crispy.
3. Don’t over crowd the pans or the oven, the potatoes will not get crispy. If using two racks, make sure there is space between the racks for the are to circulate.
4. Do not use a pan with tall sides, the air will not circulate around the potatoes and the skins will have a hard time crisping up.
From everydaysouthwest.com