Go Back
Print Pin

Chile Colorado Base

a red salsa to be added to stews for color and flavor
Course Sauce
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword chile colorado
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes

Equipment

  • 1 Molcajete

Ingredients

  • 4 dried ancho chilies
  • 6 dried guajillo chilies
  • 1 quart chicken stock
  • 1.5 cups water
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 2 tsp Mexican oregano
  • 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
  • 1 tsp dried piquin chilies
  • 2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1.5 tsp kosher salt

Instructions

  • Remove seeds, stems, and ribs from dried ancho and guajillo peppers.
  • Heat chicken stock and water in a pot and add dried peppers. Bring to a boil then reduce and cover. Simmer for 30 minutes.
  • Dry-toast black pepper, piquin chilies, and cumin seeds in a pan for a minute or so
  • Add pepper, cumin, oregano, salt, piquin chilies, and garlic to molcajete and pound to a paste.
  • After the chilies have simmered for 30 minutes, remove from heat and let cool for an hour or overnight. There should be about 1 quart total volume between solids and liquids.
  • Take chilies from liquid and put in blender. Add a small amount of the simmering liquid to the molcajete and use the mortar to scrape and loosen the paste from the molcajete. Pour the paste into the blender, and rinse with more simmering liquid if required. All the simmering liquid and molcajete paste should end up in the blender.
  • Puree the chili mixture until smooth. Reserve for use in other recipes