Hatch Chile Fever Has Spread To Chicago!

[Sid P]

I’ve lived in Chicago’s suburbs my whole life, and had never heard of a hatch chile until the subject came up here last summer. I was able to find a few small bags for sale, but there weren’t any cases available, and there certainly wasn’t any hype.

So last night I’m reading the Jewel (large Chicago grocery chain) ad in preparation for our weekly shopping trip, and I see this:


We decide to take a drive to check it out, and it’s an EVENT! Big signs at each door insured that everyone knew what was going on.


There’s maybe a hundred cases stacked in front of the store.


There’s a guitarist playing (no pic), there’s samples of fresh made hatch chile salsa and cheese dip (both delicious, no pics), and they really were roasting them on site.


The parking lot smelled amazing. Their FB page mentioned hatch chile enchiladas, but someone dropped the ball on that, much to our disappointment.

OK, they only had these events at five stores, and there’s probably a hundred Jewels in Chicago, but it’s coming. Hatch chile fever is spreading. Can you feel it?

[DaveD]

Wow, $2.49/lb for already roasted is a darn good deal. But that last photo is a little concerning... rather over-roasted IMO.

[Sid P]

I wondered about that, Dave. I haven’t done any hatches, but I’ve roasted other peppers, and there’s no need to go that far.

[Sid P]

The LW just had some on a salad. They came out of the package black, were easy to skin and tasted great 🤷♂️, but we’re total newbs.

[barelfly]

Roast ‘em if you got ‘em! Love it!

[barelfly]

Sid P - i just got back from the Hatch Chile Festival and posted up a bunch of fun photos in my Hatch Chile Festival thread if you are interested!

[SheilaAnn]

barelfly are the chiles from Melissa’s legit? I wonder. I recall Melissa’s started here around the mid 80s here is greater LA/OC.

[Sid P]

https://www.melissas.com/pages/about-us

That’s them. They claim they’re now the largest distributor of specialty produce in the US.

[barelfly]

They give a good write up about Hatch, but does that mean they are straight from the valley? I don’t know. It could be that the seeds used are of the Hatch Variety, but I’m sure those listed on the Melissa site are good.

But I did watch the video they have on the Hatch Pepper page and the farmer Duane Gillis is legit - Gillis Farms was farm of the year for 2023! So if they are getting the chile from them or having shipped direct - that’s legit

[barelfly]

And check out my photos I posted yesterday from the chile festival

[Mosca]

Excellent!

I myself would pay the extra $1/lb to get them already roasted… they lose a good bit of weight over the heat, after all. I measured it last year, it is about 50% after trimming, seeding, roasting, and peeling. You’re looking at almost a push there for that 66% premium.

[STEbbq]

Whoa. I missed this one because I was cooking but Batavia is 5 minutes away so maybe they will do it again next year. Those black chilis look like maybe they need more practice so it is all good.

[Sid P]

I saw your "Very Disappointed" thread when I logged on yesterday afternoon, and I realized you might have been interested. Sorry about that.

[STEbbq]

At least the brisket exceeded expectations and apparently the roast beef is great. The pastrami is fine but…not what I wanted.