One of my favorite recipes I learned how to make during quarantine was this Chile Colorado. When the world closed down, I found myself craving all of my favorite dishes from local restaurants that hadn’t yet opened up for take-out. El Novillero in Sacramento has been my favorite Mexican restaurant since I was a tiny human. Their Chile Colorado is my favorite dish! This recipe is our take on that delicious, wonderful entree.
Over the past two years we’ve done a lot of testing (scientific cooking method, right?) to find our favorite combination of dried chiles. We think we nailed it with these! The complex flavors from the California, Guajillo, and New Mexico chiles are perfect and add a richness to this sauce. The tender chunks of beef really absorb the sauce and all of those flavors. We cannot recommend this one enough!
A couple notes:Â
- If you like this more spicy, swap out one or two California chiles for Guajillo chiles
- If you like this less spicy, swap out the Guajillo chiles for California chiles
Â
Homemade Beef Chile Colorado
Equipment
- Dutch Oven
- Blender
- Strainer
Ingredients
- 2 lb Beef Chuck, cut in 1" cubes
- 1 tbsp White Flour
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 4 cups Beef Broth
- 5 Dried California Chilis
- 2 Dried Guajillo Chilis
- 2 Dried New Mexico Chilis
- 1 tbsp Avocado Oil
- 1 tsp Ground Cumin
- 1 tsp Minced Garlic
Instructions
- Heat beef broth in a medium pot until it just begins to boil. Before boiling, turn off heat.4 cups Beef Broth
- Rip the dried chilis into roughly 1" chunks. Discard the seeds. Add the dried chilis to a large bowl.5 Dried California Chilis, 2 Dried Guajillo Chilis, 2 Dried New Mexico Chilis
- Pour hot beef broth over dried chilis in bowl. Cover with a towel and let steep for 20 minutes.
- In a large ziplock bag, add the flour and some salt and pepper (to taste). Add beef chunks. Seal the bag and toss to cover all beef chunks with flour.2 lb Beef Chuck, cut in 1" cubes, 1 tbsp White Flour, Salt and Pepper
- Add avocado oil to the dutch oven and heat stove to medium-high. Add half of the beef and brown on all sides (about 5 minutes). Remove and set aside, and repeat with the remaining beef. Remove from dutch oven.1 tbsp Avocado Oil
- Add garlic and cumin to dutch oven and stir into the liquid left from the beef. Add all beef back to dutch oven. Set stove to medium heat.1 tsp Ground Cumin, 1 tsp Minced Garlic
- When chilis and broth have finished steeping, remove towel and pour contents into blender. Blend until combined (no large chunks of chili).
- Place strainer over dutch oven. Pour chili/broth mixture from blender into dutch oven. Only allow liquid into the dutch oven and dispose of the leftover chilis.
- Stir contents in dutch oven until meat is distributed in a flat layer and sauce covers all of the meat.
- Lower heat to medium-low and add lid to dutch oven. Let chile colorado simmer for 1 hour.
- After 1 hour, remove the lid from the dutch oven and turn the heat back up to medium. Stir a few times. Let cook for 20 more minutes uncovered.
- Let cool and serve!
Notes
