2024 Hatch Chile Festival!!!

[barelfly]

We are just a week away from the Hatch Chile Festival! Aug. 31- Sept. 1, in Hatch, New Mexico - a town of 1700 people, will boom to 3-5 times that size with everyone making the trip to enjoy the carnival, crowning of the Chile Queen, the local food fair and of course the green chile!!!!!!

https://hatchchilefestival.org/

I’ll be attending on Saturday, enjoying the fair that includes local food crews, green chile and a number of vendors that made the trip to southern New Mexico. If you are interested in reading more, here’s the website to the festival with a calendar of events and information on the festival. I’ll post up photos like I did last year, see what we end up eating and buying, as last year I picked up one of my favorite Carbon Steel pans from 3Nail Ironware.

And a few photos from last year, just as a preview of what’s to come!

[texastweeter]

Cowboy Rollins is such a hoot.

[barelfly]

What you see in his videos was exactly what you see in person! I had a blast talking with him last year!

[JoeSousa]

Have a great time at the festival! Our local Mexican grocery store did a hatch chile roast a couple weeks ago. We got 17 pounds of them for my wife's business and she turned them into some hatch green chile biscuits





I am not really a fan of hatch chiles plain but they were very tasty in these biscuits. Definitely an earthiness to these chiles that you don't get from jalapenos.

[barelfly]

I love this! What a great way to make biscuits! Back in the day when I made my own bread, I would make a green chile sour dough. It was amazing, especially for a green chile grilled cheese!

Hope you enjoy more biscuits!

[58limited]

I love Hatch chile biscuits and I also add some of the chilies to the cream gravy that I make to go with them. Yum!

[barelfly]

Another idea for you, green chile pasta, any type really, if you have the ability to make pasta. Then a green Chile Alfredo sauce to top it off!

58limited for you as well.

[58limited]

I really want to go to this festival, maybe one year I'll be able to get away and do it.

[LA Pork Butt]

I was vacationing in Santa Fe during the Hatch Chile time and ate at a restaurant called The Shed. I don’t remember the name of what I ordered, but it was a pork dish which I was told was popular and typical food for the area. Anyway the heat was over the top. I couldn’t taste anything.

[barelfly]

The Shed!!!! Excellent place! And one of the more popular pork dishes in NM - could it have been carne adovada? Red chile and cubes of pork cooked for a few hours?

Haha! And red chile can get ya..as can green chile!

[LA Pork Butt]

barelfly It definitely was red chile. If I had to guess between the two you named it would be carne adovada. Although the pork was cubed.

[barelfly]

Post 1 of 2

Hatch Chile Festival 2024!! What a fun time…and packed with people! I can’t believe how many people were there so early in the day this year! Thousands of Hatch Chile lovers, all walking around with the aroma of roasted green chile in the air no matter which way you turned!


Some pretty cool vendors out, including the carbon steel pan maker I purchased my 11” paella pan from last year! Lots of salsa and chile vendors of course, a lot of your carnival and fair style food shops and then chile ristras and chile roasters everywhere!!

Starting off, we hit up the fair area where all the vendors were lined up. We wanted to get a few things, red chile kettle corn and red chile pecan brittle!





while walking around, of course there are some smokers going for some turkey legs and other goodness! Saw a few cookers today, reminded me of DogFaced PonySoldier and his builds lately!





Also this stack of molcajetes, and given I just used mine last week for the pesto I made, I picked one of these up and they are much lighter, really nicely made as well!



and with the temps climbing, lots of places to get some really good drinks or agua frescas!



and for others that were cooking, if you remember from last year, Cowboy Kent Rollins was one of the guest cookers. This year, the owner of Fresh Chile Company, Randy McMillan was out cooking up a storm on a flat top. He had some hot dogs going as well as ground beef and fresh green chile! https://freshchileco.com/



I talked with him a bit and after mentioning his videos with Kent Rollins from last year and discussing Amazing Ribs, he asked for a photo with him and my number so he could contact me after the weekend! He was interested in learning more about our site.



And after the mention of BBQ, He also had me try his Hot Sweet & Spicy Red Chile BBQ sauce. I bought a jar, thinking this would make some excellent Red Chile BBQ pork ribs!! excited to see how this will turn out, as carne adovada style ribs are usually really good!!!!

[RichardK]

barelfly We love Fresh Chile company and order many jars of green chile from them every year. Great products and excellent customer service!

[barelfly]

Post 2 of 2

And something that is talked about here, scoville rating on the various chile and peppers we all love to eat, I liked the way they made this board!!



from there, we walked into the main drag of Hatch, New Mexico to see what the chile stores were up to….besides roasting chile!

We also stopped in the local brewery for a refreshment as we walked around. The favorite pour of the day was the Green Chile Lager that my parents had. They really enjoyed the nice roasted green chile flavor in this!





and…Lots of chile ristras, which were just beautiful again this year!





And it’s Hatch…and New Mexico - so of course, we drive around with chile ristras as hood ornaments!!!!!



and as we walked through, found more amazing cooking going on! Here’s a discit cooking up some carne adovada for burritos for those walking around town!



We also love to see some of the metal art that is on display and this one caught my eye, the Zia symbol, for the Zia Pueblo and the New Mexico State Flag, built into art with chile ristras! I really liked this peace of art!



And of course, I wouldn’t post on the Hatch Chile Festival without posting a few photos of the roasters going full on! Most places had 2-3, but this place had 6 ready to go and had water going to help with the peel!



and for you home roasters, I found this for you! Ready to go and help you roast your own chile!



and last - we have Sparky’s - one of the famous spots for a Green Chile Cheeseburgers! The line was wrapped around the building, at least an hour from end just to get inside the restaurant! Crazy people waiting in that line!!



We had an excellent time! Already dipped into the pecan brittle as I sip on a cold Cider back at home! Hope you all enjoy the photos and tales of our wonderful red and green chile paradise!

[RichardK]

Love the old A&W Root Beer statues on the roof.

[RichieB]

Thanks for sharing barelfly what a wonderful experience. Now I want some of those peppers.

[barelfly]

It was fun, Richie! Really enjoyed the day with my wife, parent’s and my buddy! And the chile ships

[Smoked Transistors]

@barelfly Thanks for taking us along to the 2024 Hatch Chile Festival! Looked like a great time for sure and i can smell those chiles roasting now. Last year, i went online for some of that Red Chile Pecan Brittle, it was good so i shared some of it with my co workers.

[barelfly]

Of course!! What I enjoy about this place so much! And that pecan brittle….oh my it’s so good! We’ve already crushed a bag of regular peanut brittle this afternoon

[klflowers]

Thanks for sharing. My 2025 is full up, but the good lord willing, 2026 may be the year. I really want to visit NM

[barelfly]

Glad you enjoyed! When you do, let me know and I’ll help you with the planning!

[Mosca]

Wow! We need one of those here!

[barelfly]

That would line up great with all of the festivals that way!

[Panhead John]

Excellent post with great pics! Thanks for sharing Jeremy!

[barelfly]

Of course! Glad you enjoyed!

[TripleB]

Went to my local Kroger for some ingredients for tonight’s dinner. And there was a Frieda rep in parking lot roasting Hatch Chiles for sale. Bought ten pounds of roasted chiles. Just got done seeding and cleaning them. Gonna make Mosca roasted Tom/Chile salsa and serve it with some Carnitas tacos on Thursday.

[barelfly]

Carnitas are going to be great!

[RichieB]

I was interested in the BBQ sauce barelfly got. I went to order but with shipping more that the price of the product, no thanks. So I went to Amazon and came across this. Ordered. Good for a lot of uses. Hot of course.

[barelfly]

That should be a great jar of chile! You are going to enjoy!

[smokenoob]

Man, that looks like a blast to the palette! Your write up made me want to go!

[barelfly]

On your way back through, you should see a number of spots roasting! I’m sure the Coloradoans are even roasting.