I have to admit, I can’t stand Will Ferrell 98% of the time, but Elf is ridiculous and awesome. And while smiling might be Buddy’s favorite, green chile might be mine. Okay, it’s a toss up with Einstein Bagels’ Vanilla Hazelnut coffee.

But I wouldn’t be a New Mexican if I didn’t love me some chile. And that’s chile with an e, people. Chili is that spicy meat and bean and tomato stuff made famous in Texas. Chile is the pepper, the sauce, the glorious deliciousness we love here in NM. And for die hards, we also love it red. And when you serve the two side by side, we call it Christmas. Hence my thinking about Buddy the Elf.

But green chile. I love to play with the stuff, and buy it by the 30lb box (okay, maybe I buy two) every August and sniff the air as they roast it, preserve the fragrance in my minivan for days after I bring it home, bag and freeze and revel in the nom all year long.

Usually in the fall I make caramel from scratch, which is its own sort of fun. One year I decided to make green chile caramels. This year I went a step further and made green chile vanilla cupcakes with green chile salted caramel frosting.

Can I just say, nom? Yes, I can admit my kitchen fails but I will also acknowledge the wins. And whoa. These were a win.

But I digress. Sorry, I may not have shown my penchant for rabbit trails just yet.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine gave me the easiest recipe for sandwich bread ever. It’s already a new standby because it’s awesome. But today, I needed green chile cheddar bread. I needed it. So…

This happened. Don’t worry, I will totally share the recipes below.

Of course, if you want the whole food blogger experience with step by step pics, I have to apologize. I don’t do that here.

And of course, every good bread needs a good soup to go with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that’s how this happened.

Green chile chicken soup is my stand by for crappy weather. Oh, I will pretty much concoct any kind of soup out there that sounds good. (I used to stink at making soup until I learned that making bone broth from Costco rotisserie chickens is key.) But green chile has more vitamin C and capsaicin than pretty much any other food item out there. So it’s perfect for cold season.

Plus, it’s just good eating.

Back to the point. I wanted to share with you a little bit of deliciousness and the culture I’ve adopted. Oh, but I’ll warn you. When I cook, I concoct. So measurements are an estimate for the soup below, with options for making life easier. The baking stuff will have precision, though, so you can stop sweating.

Let me know what you think! I’d love to hear from some of you. What’s your favorite local flavor where you are?

 

 

 

 

 

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Seriously easy and delicious white sandwich bread:

*This recipe came from my friend Bethany H, but after it wasn’t nearly as pretty as hers the first time, I modified it slightly based on other disasters experiences I’ve had with making bread.

• 2 Tbsp active dry yeast
• 1/2 c. warm water (I microwave it for 30 sec)
• 1/2 Tbsp sugar

Mix and set aside. Warm oven to 170 degrees (or a handy dandy bread proof setting if you have one).

• 1 c. HOT water (not boiling, but hot)
• 1 c. HOT milk (again, not boiling, and the fattier the better, I’ve even used a blend of skim and half&half)
• 2 1/2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. salt
• 1/3 c. oil
• 3 c. flour
• *For people like me who usually have epic bread fails, I’m going to give you a secret that will make ALL the difference in the world. Bob’s Red Mill vital wheat gluten. Yeah, I know, the “g” word. But if you live in high altitude or have problems, give it a try. Usually a health food store or the health food section at Smith’s carries it in a bag for about $7 that will last in your fridge for a year or so. Use 1 Tbsp. per 1 c. of flour in your recipe, give or take. I usually use less than that (about 1/4 c. for this whole recipe).

Mix these ingredients with the paddle attachment on a stand mixer (or whisk out all of your aggression by hand if you don’t have one) until smooth, about a minute. Switch to the dough hook.

Add 3 c. more flour and the yeast water to the goo above and mix until all the dough scrapes cleanly from the bowl and hangs on the hook. It should look soft and smooth. I give it 3-4 minutes, give or take. Eyeball it.

Oil or spray 2 bread pans (size is flexible). Split the dough in half and gently form loaves in the pans. Cover with a towel, place in the prewarmed oven, and turn it off.

Let the loaves double, which can take anywhere from 20 min to an hour, and they’ll rise to about 1″ above the pan. I take them out and let them sit in the microwave while I preheat the oven to 350. Remove the towel, bake 25-30 minutes until golden. Let it cool 2-3 minutes in the pan, then turn the loaves on their sides for another 2-3 minutes. Dump them out of the pans and cool completely on a rack. Seriously. Do not touch, slice, or mess with bread until it’s cool. No one wants to eat spongy funky gum bread, so let it cool all the way before you slice it.

Green Chile Adaptation:

BEFORE YOU START, take either 2 small cans of chopped green chiles (if the back says they’re from Hatch, you’ve got a good can) OR get some fresh or frozen whole chiles that are peeled and seeded. I used about 4 whole chiles per loaf, but you can decide how much to use based on your family’s love or fear for the stuff. Chop them fairly fine.

No matter what form your chiles come, the most important thing is to squeeze out as much moisture as humanly possible (use cheesecloth, a clean towel, or a thick layer of paper towels).

Make the bread using the recipe above, but at the final step when it’s kneading, toss in:

• 1/2 c. flour
• 1/2 c. shredded cheddar
• the squeezed out chiles
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. cumin, if desired

Let the bread knead and every other step as directed in the original recipe. About 5-10 minutes before the loaves are fully baked, sprinkle on additional shredded cheddar and finish baking.

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Green Chile Chicken Soup

Sorry, I didn’t make any of these printable. Like I said, I’m not a food blogger.

Also, I cook for an army. So my soup is going to serve probably 8-10 people, give or take. My 5 eats it for dinner with leftovers for everyone to take for lunch.

• A quart of chicken broth, give or take.
• 2 lb. chicken, either breasts, tenderloins, or thighs, or combination thereof
• 1 medium white or yellow onion, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced

Bring the broth to a boil and toss in the rest. Let it simmer until chicken is fully cooked.

While the chicken is cooking, peel 2 large baking potatoes and cube them to about 1/2 inch.

Remove the chicken from the pot, place on a cutting mat to shred. Place your cubed potatoes into the pot and let them simmer while you shred the chicken using two forks.

When you’re done shredding, get out a small saucepan.

• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1/4 c. flour
• 1 c. milk (or half & half)

Melt the butter in the saucepan and whisk in the flour until it’s golden, then whisk in the milk until everything is smooth (have you ever heard people talk about making a roux? That’s it.).

Pour this into the simmering broth and add the chicken back in. Stir til it looks consistent and taste, adding salt as needed. You’ll know it’s done when the potatoes are soft enough to eat but not falling apart. You may need to add additional water, milk, and/or broth depending on the consistency you prefer.

GLUTEN FREE ALTERNATIVE: Sorry about the bread, but you can do the soup GF.

• 1/2 c. water or cool broth plus 1/2 c. or so milk
• 1-2 tsp. xanthan gum

Use an immersion blender to smoothly mix the xanthan gum and liquids, then place in saucepan. Cook until it’s thick. Xanthan gum is tricky, so if it’s getting too thick, just add more milk and whisk til it’s incorporated nicely. Then add it to the soup pot with the chicken and stir. Add additional liquid as necessary. It’s done when the potatoes are soft enough to eat but not fall apart.

ALSO, if you’re a crock pot person, you can easily NOT cook the potatoes. After the chicken is cooked, just dump everything in your slow cooker, do the roux and mix it in, then let it go on low for a few hours until dinner.