Hatch Chile Tortillas

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. This is a mildly hot chile. Scoville heat units 8,000 – 12,000.

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Yields about 12 Tortillas

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 heaping tsp salt
  • 5 Tbsp softened butter, oil or shortening (I usually use olive oil)
  • 4 roasted hatch chiles, seeds removed, or ~2 cans (1/2 cup) diced chiles, drained really well
  • 1/3-1/2 cup warm water

Instructions:

  1. Pulse the flour, baking powder, and salt a few times in your food processor fitted with the dough blade.
  2. Add the fat and process until the mixture is uniformly-ish crumbly.
  3. Add the chiles and then slowly stream in the water, just until the dry ingredients form a ball and starts traveling around the bowl (you might not use all of the water or you might need a little more).
  4. Let the dough knead for ~30 seconds. The dough should clean the sides of the bowl, be soft and not overly sticky. (You can most certainly do this by hand with a pastry cutter, a wooden spoon, and your hands – but it will be easier to mince/puree the chiles first.)
  5. Turn out onto a flour-dusted surface and divide dough into golf-ball sized portions (I weighed mine out to 2 oz each).
  6. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for 10 minutes.
  7. Heat a large, dry saute pan over medium high heat.
  8. With a rolling pin, roll the dough balls into thin rounds, dusting the top with just enough flour to keep the tortilla from sticking to the rolling pin.
  9. (You may have a few larger pieces of hatch chiles in the dough that interfere with rolling – just press those back into the tortilla dough before cooking.)
  10. Lay tortilla flat in the heated pan and cook on each side for ~20 seconds, until the bubbled areas brown.
  11. Keep covered with a kitchen towel to keep warm and pliable. Eat warm.

Recipe from The Brewer and The Baker, 2014