Hatch chile season is here. This cookbook author shares her favorite chile recipe ideas

In most parts of the country, the first sign of fall might be the first leaves changing on the trees or a nip in the air as the weather starts to turn cold. But here in the Southwest, it just might be when hatch chiles start to show up on the grocery store shelves. Or, better yet, when you smell them roasting outside.

So here to give The Show her annual hatch chile recipe ideas is Jackie Alpers, cookbook author and food photographer based in Tucson and expert on all things to do with Sonoran cuisine.

Full conversation

LAUREN GILGER: It's Hatch chile season once again, and you're back to kind of tell us about this uniquely Southwest pepper. I want to begin with a little bit about where this pepper comes from because there are specific growing conditions it sounds like in this specific region of New Mexico that very much lead to this very specific pepper. Tell us about that.

JACKIE ALPERS: So, the Hatch chiles come from the Hatch Valley in New Mexico. And there's something about that specific valley that is just the perfect setup to make these chiles. So whether it's the soil, the elevation, the weather, it's created a very special chile that has a very unique terroir.

So it has a flavor profile that's really unique to the chile because of that region. Very similar to the way that wine also has terroir based on where it grows.

Jackie Alpers

GILGER: Right? It almost tastes like the place it's from, right?

ALPERS: Yes, and, and you can really taste the difference between a Hatch green chile and say an Anaheim chile or like say a bell pepper because some of the Hatch chiles are actually very mild. Some of them are insanely hot. Like I would say the green peppers are always very bright, while the Hatch peppers are more earthy.

GILGER: Yeah, yeah, earthy and the way the wine is, this makes sense.

OK, so how did this season become such a thing because there's, you know, there's a festival, you start to see Hatch chiles just pop up everywhere in your grocery store and outside of it roasting right this time of year. Give us a little of the history.

ALPERS: Well, I think part of it has to do with just the enthusiasm of having like mounds of chiles already at once and being kind of distributed across the region. And what makes it even more special is that there are like chile roasters outside of like grocery stores and at farmers' markets who are roasting these chiles in these giant baskets over mesquite wood and the smell is so incredible.

It's almost like, you know, how Christmas has like a smell of cinnamon and that gets you excited for that. Well, chile season, it's, it's like that here in Arizona, where the smell of these roasting chiles is so magnificent that it brings you into the kind of fever of Hatch chile. You can't help but get excited.

And it kind of coincides with another really important late summer, early fall crop, which is green corn, which is the fresh green corn comes to the markets as well, and that creates part of the fever for like green corn tamales, you know, which is, which is really unique to this region as well, and it incorporates kind of the best of both of those things.

GILGER: Yeah, yeah, it's a sign of the season for sure.

What is it about roasting them, right? Because this is such a ubiquitous part of Hatch chile season you start to see outside of Ranch Markets here in the Valley and outside of lots of grocery stores, I'm sure in Tucson, you know, the big, big things of roasters, people spinning them in the roasters outside. What is it about roasting them that brings out or changes the flavor?

ALPERS: Oh gosh, OK, they're already kind of earthy, and then when you add the smokiness of the char and the wood and the smoke, well, smokiness of the smoke, of course, but you know, it kind of brings it, it, it kind of takes it to a whole new level.

I think part of it is the aroma. I mean, because it does, the smoke infuses it with that, you know, mesquite, especially these mesquite, but that wonderful mesquite woodineness that just complements the chiles so well.

GILGER: OK, so let's talk recipes because that's why you're here. I know like we think of maybe a Hatch chile enchilada or like a soup with Hatch chiles in it, but what are, what are you cooking this year with Hatch chiles? I know you tend to get creative with this.

ALPERS: I do. OK, so I've gone a little bit more traditional this year. I mean, I always kind of do the machacan eggs, which is one of my favorites. I've been making an omelet with that.

I remember many, many years ago I used to work at El Charro Cafe, and they would have like a pickup truck filled with the green corn, like just like all the way filled and then they would just dump it out and make all these amazing green corn tamales, which to me really signify, you know, a signifier of what like late summer in Tucson is really all about.

So I've really been craving green corn tamales. They're so neat because, you know, they use the, the fresh green corn husks instead of the dried corn husks that you see like at Christmas time.

So this is kind of almost like a, it's like a precursor to that kind of holiday season where I really do feel like in Arizona, especially, we really do kind of celebrate that late summer, early fall, monsoons are kind of still happening. It's more of a transitional kind of period then like summer to fall and some of the other places because we kind of have different seasons here.

GILGER: I had a Hatch chile margarita this weekend that was fabulous. What are your favorite kind of drinks to infuse a little Hatch chile into?

ALPERS: I think the margarita is a great thing to do. I also like, like a paloma, you know, with the grapefruit. I know that ranch water is really popular right now, which is like tequila and like sparkling water with just a little bit of lime and chile would be great, I think.

Oh, and you know, there's this new drink, this Ray Ray Sonoran iced tea, that's a brewed iced tea that's made here in Tucson that pairs really well with like chile. And a little bit maybe of like chamoy, you know, yeah.

GILGER: OK, so let me ask you lastly, Jackie, about some of these grocery store products that pop up this time of year infused with green chiles in various ways. I'm sure Trader Joe's has something every year using Hatch chile. What are some of your favorites?

ALPERS: You know, I love that Hatch chile popcorn is spectacular, and I'm, I can't remember if they had it last year, but I'm really hoping they do like a potato chip because they've been doing kind of really intensely flavored potato chips at Trader Joe's, too, so that would be awesome.

And they've been, they've been doing different goat cheeses. So gosh, I would really like, oh, green chile goat cheese would be like, the best.

GILGER: That sounds great.

ALPERS: But I mean, oh my God, it's like in everything, it's like in cheesecakes and meats and all kinds of crazy stuff and so, but I admire the innovation, you know, I'm like, show me all your crazy stuff. I will try all of it. All worth a try.