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A Green Chile Road Trip Through New Mexico


 From Traveler

Few states are as defined by a single food the way New Mexico is. Here, green chile is both the name of a plant and a prepared dish. It can be served as a salsa or in a stew. Spanish colonizers brought chile with them when they founded Santa Fe in 1610, and it has shaped the state’s cuisine for more than 400 years. As scholar Kelly Urig writes in her book, New Mexico Chiles: History, Legend and Lore, this is what gave New Mexico the time and space to develop foodways more distinct than its East Coast counterparts.

Today, chile in New Mexico is more than tourist trope. As Dave DeWitt, the Albuquerque-based historian and author of Chile Peppers: A Global History, explains, chile here is all things: condiment, spice, main meal, and even art—most notably in the form of ristras, the strings of dried red chiles that adorn doorways. In this road trip, we trace the history of chile through Santa Fe, Chimayó, Taos, and Albuquerque. And while Hatch Valley, in the southern part of the state, is famous for its green chile, there’s not much to do there outside of the Hatch Chile Festival, which takes place every Labor Day weekend and will hopefully resume post-pandemic.

August through October is green chile harvesting season. The state is achingly beautiful year-round, but the autumnal contrast of golden aspens against blue Sangre de Cristos is a special kind of sight.


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