Chile Colorado (Recipe 118 of 150)

I'm almost speechless! This dish is BY FAR my most favorite this year, maybe ever. It ranks up there with the Carne Guisada favorite I had but overshadows that favorite. 

I order Chile Colorado all the time at Mexican restaurants. It's my gage on how good a Mexican restaurant is (Bolognese is my gage for Italian). I've had some good one and I've had some great ones, but NONE of them rate with this one. 

Chile Colorado is a beef stew that cooks in a chili sauce made up of guajillo, ancho and arbol chilies. I've started using this combination several times in making my own enchilada sauce this year. It tastes way better than can. 

Chile Colorado is named for the Spanish word "colorado", which means "colored red", which is represented because of the deep red color of this sauce. 

I made a couple modification, mostly just because not because I think the recipe needed it. I had to cook my stew longer than this recipe recommends because I was using stew meat and I think it needed more braising time. 

I cannot express enough how much you need to make this recipe. I served it with mexican type rice and tortillas.

Chile Colorado

Recipe from Carlsbad Cravings

Serves 6

• 8 dried guajillo chile peppers
• 4 dried ancho chile peppers
• 1-3 arbol chile peppers optional if you like heat (3 is very spicy - I used 2)
• 1 15 oz. can fire roasted diced tomatoes, with juices
• 3 pounds chuck roast
• 2 T flour
• 1/2 tsp EACH salt, pepper
• 2 T Vegetable oil
• 1 yellow onion chopped
• 6 cloves garlic minced
• 1 T beef bouillon or better than bouillon
• 2 tsp EACH ground cumin, dried oregano
• 1 tsp EACH ground coriander, smoked paprika
• 2 tsp EACH unsweetened cocoa powder, sugar optional but recommended for mole flair ( I did not do this)
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon optional but recommended for mole flair ( I did not do this)
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 c reduced sodium beef broth [JW note: I used some of the steeping liquid to make up this 3 c of liquid]

Cut the tops off of all the chilies with kitchen shears. Cut chilies along one edge to open like a book; scrape out all of the seeds. Reserve some of the seeds to finish the soup if you want more heat. [JW Note: You may want to rinse the chilies too. Mine were a little dusty.]

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chiles and briefly toast until fragrant. [JW Note: I didn't toast my chilies.]

Cover the chilies with enough water so that they aren’t touching the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes, then turn off heat and let the chilies soak to soften while you prep the beef. [JW note: Mine steeped for about 15 minutes.]

Trim the beef of excess fat then chop into 1-inch pieces. Whisk together the flour, ½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper in a plastic bag or large bowl. Add the beef and toss to evenly coat; set aside.

Remove chilies to blender along with 1 cup of the soaking liquid and the can of fire roasted diced tomatoes. [JW Notes: I kept all of the liquid and used that in place of some of the beef stock for the stew.] Process until smooth, leaving a corner of the blender open so steam can escape; set aside. If you don’t have a high-powered blender, then strain the chili sauce through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl, using rubber spatula to push the mixture through and discard the solids. [JW Note: I have a nice high powered blender and I still had to strain my mixture. I'm glad I did. It was nice and smooth.]

In a Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in the Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add half of the beef in an even layer and sear; flip the beef over and sear the other side then stir to evenly brown all sides; remove to a plate with a slotted spoon. Repeat with remaining beef.

Add a drizzle of olive oil if needed to the now empty skillet. Cook the onions over medium heat until softened, scraping up the brown bits, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ground cumin and sauté 30 second

Add the beef back to the pot followed by the chile sauce and rest of the ingredients (oregano, coriander, smoked paprika, bouillon, cocoa powder, sugar, cinnamon, bay leaves and broth). 

Cover and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer over LOW for 45 minutes or until the beef is tender, stirring every 10 minutes or so and replacing the lid so the bottom doesn’t burn. [JW Note: This is where I took a hard left from this recipe. I put the dutch oven, covered, in a 300F oven for 2 hours. Stirring every hour. For the last 30 minutes I kept the lid off.]

Uncover, increase heat to medium and simmer an additional 15 minutes (uncovered), or until the sauce has thickened to desired consistency. Taste and season with additional salt if desired or some reserved chili seeds or cayenne pepper for heat.

Discard bay leaves and serve with Mexican rice, beans, tortillas and desired toppings.

Cook until tender. If your beef isn’t crazy tender, then cook on! It just means the proteins needs more time to break down and tenderize. Even 15 more minutes can make the world of difference between “okay” and melt-in-your-mouth beef.