Green Chile Stew

This is an easy, New Mexico-style green chile stew. Use whatever meat you have lying around, although beef, venison or pork would be best in my opinion.

Recipe by Hank Shaw on February 15, 2021

Prep time: PT20M

Cook time: PT180M

Total time: PT200M

Rating

4.7 stars (30 reviews)

Keywords

chiles, javelina, pork, stews, venison

Ingredients

1 cup dried field corn (chicos), ((optional))
1/4 cup vegetable oil or lard, (divided)
2 to 3 pounds venison stew meat, (or beef or pork)
Salt
1/2 cup flour
2 cups chopped white or yellow onions
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon Mexican oregano ((optional))
1 quart venison or beef broth
1 pound roasted, seeded green chiles, (chopped)
1 1/2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, (cut in chunks)
Black pepper and hot sauce to taste

Cuisine

American
Mexican

Steps

If you are using the dried corn, put it in a pot of water and start boiling it before you start anything else, because it can take a long time to soften.
Salt the venison well, then dust it in the flour, pressing the flour into the meat. Heat 2 tablespoons of the lard or vegetable oil in a Dutch oven or similar soup pot set over medium-high heat.
When the oil is hot, brown the meat in batches. Make sure no piece is touching another, and take your time with this. You want each piece well browned. Move them to a bowl as you go. You will likely need to add another tablespoon of oil late in this process.
When the meat is all browned, add the final tablespoon of oil and the onions. Stir this well, as the moisture from the onions will deglaze the pot. You want that. Sauté the onions until they too are nicely browned. This whole process, meat and onions, can take 30 minutes or more.
Add the garlic to the pot, stir well and cook a minute or three. Return the meat and all of the accumulated juices in the bowl to the soup pot. Add the cumin, oregano and broth, then another quart or even two of water. Stir and bring to a simmer. Add salt to taste. If you are using the field corn, move it from the plain water to the soup pot now to continue cooking.
If you want green chiles as an invisible presence in your stew, add them now. Or add some now and some later. Regardless, simmer the stew until the meat is mostly tender, anywhere from an hour for pork to three hours for an old deer or elk.
When the meat is getting close, add the potatoes and chiles, if you haven't already. You can add sweet corn here, too, if that's the choice you made. Simmer gently until the potatoes are ready, then add salt and pepper and serve.

Nutitrion

Serving Size: 1 serving
Calories: 350 kcal
Carbohydrates: 33 g
Protein: 32 g
Fat: 10 g
Saturated Fat: 7 g
Cholesterol: 96 mg
Sodium: 510 mg
Sugar: 5 g

Reviews

Jesse Howe on 2026-01-27 (5 stars):
Beautiful stew for a cold winter day.
Immanuel on 2025-02-06 (5 stars):
This has become our go-to cold weather stew recipe for our Tex-Mex household. Incredibly fragrant. another great Shaw show.
Jen B on 2024-09-13 (5 stars):
Made a triple batch with pork shoulder for a backyard chile roasting party. It was a potluck, with all sorts of yummy things, but this was the centerpiece and it was a huge hit. Used a combo of medium and hot Hatch chilies for a slow burn that wouldn't blow anyone's eyebrows off, and even the non-spicy- food fans loved it. Great recipe!
Chris Mullin on 2024-02-21 (5 stars):
dried field corn (chicos) Do you have a source for these? I used to live in Los Angeles and I still think I never saw these. I liked your to the bone posting on Chihuahua. Touring Mexico you must frequently run into ingredients that are hard to find in the states, and perhaps even other parts of Mexico. I have all you cook books, looking forward to the next one.
Andy on 2023-02-06 (4 stars):
I have substituted general 1:1 GF flour in many of your recipes will good results!
Jesse Howe on 2022-09-29 (5 stars):
Receta bonita y sabrosa, con un buen toque picante del chile. Saludos Hank
Jeff B on 2022-06-07 (5 stars):
This took me back to my youth growing up along the AZ-Sonora frontera — about as authentic as it gets. Made this 2 weeks ago with mule deer and Hatch chiles (actually harvested the buck not 60 miles or so from Hatch!) and making it again now with NM elk and NM64 green chile from Rosales Farms (Socorro).
Samuel Raoul Garcia on 2022-06-04 (5 stars):
Hi Hank, Fantastic recipe, its very similar to my family recipe (our Garcia clan has been there for 400 years). We almost always use potatoes and chicos (if we can find them, I live in california too). But to each their own, potato or no potato, it is still the food of the gods. thanks for sharing.
Jill on 2021-12-23 (5 stars):
Thank you again for another keeper! We were amazed at the tenderness of the venison. Had my heart set on trying this recipe today, before I realized the I didn't have any more Hatch in my freezer that I'd roasted when it was available here, and had to resort to a bag of diced frozen Hatch peppers that had not been seeded, or at least not seeded well. We didn't notice the seeds. Used venison stock made with your recipe. We really enjoyed this recipe.
Ben on 2021-09-26 (5 stars):
Very versatile recipe that lends itself to curiosity and substitution to preference. We prepared this with cubed black bear meat and a dark wild turkey stock and it was fantastic. Thank you for sharing this!
Don B on 2021-09-09 (5 stars):
I absolutely love this recipe and buy extra hatch chiles during our “hatch fest” in town just so I’ll have plenty. This stew ages very nicely and leftovers are even better so make plenty.