This Chile Colorado recipe combines tender pieces of beef with a rich and flavorful red chile sauce. Serve with rice for an authentic Mexican dinner!
Chile Colorado makes my heart skip a beat and I’m super excited to be sharing it with you today!
Made of tender pieces of beef simmered in an rich and flavorful red chile sauce, chile colorado is one of my favorite things I ate growing up. I have fond memories of coming home from school and eagerly walking to the kitchen to see what my dad had cooked for me that day. If it was chile colorado, I was a happy girl.
I didn’t need all the extra stuff like rice and beans and tortillas – all I wanted was a bowl of chile colorado, some tortilla chips and life was good.
Those were the days.
This dish is an attempt to recreate those childhood memories as best as I can. This dish will never taste as good as my Dad makes it, but I think I came pretty freakin’ close!
The most important part of this recipe is the red chile sauce. To make it, you’ll need some dried chiles that can often be found in the Mexican aisle at your local grocery store or a specialty Mexican grocer. If you can’t find any close to you, I recommend ordering from Amazon. Here are the three types of chiles you’ll need.
They’re pretty inexpensive, especially when you consider how many chiles come in a bag, and they’ll last forever! Okay, not literally forever, but they’ll last in your pantry or cupboard for up to a year.
I served myself a good helping of this chile colorado alongside some authentic Mexican rice and I felt like I was back at home. So good, so comforting and oh-so satisfying.
Here are some ideas for sides to eat with this dish.
- Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice
- with some corn tortillas
- Mexican rice
- Mexican refried beans
- with some flour tortillas
- Cilantro Lime Rice
Or you can be like my 13-year-old self and enjoy it an a bowl with some tortilla chips. Highly recommend.
I hope you love this recipe as much as I do! Be sure to leave a comment below and rate the recipe if you make it!
Ingredients
For the red chile sauce
- 8 dried Guajillo chiles, stems removed and seeded
- 2 dried Ancho chiles, stems removed and seeded
- 1 dried Arbol chile, stem removed and seeded (or more if you like spicy food)
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, quartered
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
For the meat
- 2 pounds beef stew meat (like chuck shoulder or roast), cut into 1/2 inch squares
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 3 cups beef broth, divided (or chicken or vegetable broth)
- 2 bay leaves
Instructions
For the red chile sauce
- In a medium pot, add dried Guajillo chiles, Ancho chiles, Arbol chiles, and onion to a medium pot. Cover with water until chiles and onions are completely submerged and bring to a boil over high heat. Once boiling, remove from heat, cover and let it sit for 20 minute to soften the peppers.
- Using a slotted spoon, transfer the softened chiles and onions into a large blender. Add in 1 cup of the chile-soaked water, the dried oregano, salt, garlic and cumin. Blend until smooth. Add some of the beef broth from the meat ingredients as needed if the mixture is too thick for your blender.
- Once the red chile sauce is as smooth as possible, pour it through a strainer into a bowl, pushing down on the solids that accumulate to get as much moisture out as possible. Discard the solids.
For the meat
- In a large bowl, add the beef, flour, salt and pepper. Toss together to coat.
- Heat a large pot or dutch oven, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add in half of the meat and brown on all sides so they have a good sear, about 5 minutes. Transfer the browned beef into a bowl and repeat the process with the remaining uncooked meat.
- Once the second batch of meat has browned, return all the meat into the pot. Add in the red chile sauce, beef broth and bay leaves. Stir to combine and bring to boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 45 minutes.
- Uncover, taste and add more salt as necessary. Raise to medium heat and cook for another 15 to 30 minutes, until the sauce has reduced and thickened slightly. If you prefer a thicker sauce, cook longer.
- Discard bay leaves and serve with Mexican rice and beans.
Isabel’s Tips:
Nutrition Information
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Great recipe! I tweaked mine a bit by first rehydrating the chilis in a quart of chicken stock, then reusing the remaining liquid for the braise. I also rendered the excess fat on my beef into liquid that I used to brown the beef. Mine took a bit longer to reduce but the results were fantastic!
Hi Evan! That sounds delicious! Thank you for sharing your tip.
Q: For Chile Colorado what can I substitute for Red Chile Sauce? 🙂
Hi Trish! We really recommend using the red Chile sauce in the recipe to get the full experience, but you can also use our authentic enchilada sauce, or if you want to use a store bought salsa just make sure its either salsa roja or salsa casera.
Incredible Chili Colorado. Real deal. Delicious.
This was my first time making Chile Colorado and my husband was satisfied and so were the grand chikdren
This is my go-to recipe for Chile Colorado. It truly is the best!
This is amazing! I made it for a gathering and one of the guests made the comment that he would drive 100 miles for this food. Your Ranchero sauce was also a hit.
Hi Deborah! Thank you so much for the compliment!
How much red chile sauce would I use of a pre-made red chile sauce? I’ve made this 3 times so far, but was gifted with a bottle of pre-made red chile sauce and was just wondering how much of that I would use?
Hi Ronnie! I would say about 4 cups, maybe more depending on your preference, but that’s where I would start!
Thank you! I appreciate it!
I’ve made your recipe many times now. With the price of beef being so high, I’ve taken to using Pork Sirloin Roasts and Pork Steaks, prepared the same as the beef, simmer until it is super tender. Wonderful!!
Can the meat be shredded to make Birria tacos? Can I use Pasilla chilies instead or Arbol?
Hello! You can use pasilla peppers instead of arbol. You can also shred the meat to make that version of birria tacos. Birria meat is made differently and has a slightly different flavor profile, but this will still give you the same idea. Let us know how they turn out!
I have made this recipe a few times for my Hispanic husband. His mother was from outside Guadalajara, and he loved her food. He says this recipe is great (I have tried others over time). I make extra sauce and freeze it for future times. I buy the chilis at a local Mexican market. This recipe is a winner!
if you do 20 severing’s what adjustments would you recommend? bigger pot ? longer cooking ?
Hi Cheryl! If you toggle over the serving size on the recipe page, you can adjust it to the serving size you want and it adjusts the ingredients automatically. Other adjustments we suggest are using a bigger pot and it will probably need a longer cooking time, otherwise the process is the same.
I have not made this recipe yet, but so many great comments on it that I think I have to try it. Is this a spicy hot and tasty recipe or a spicy tasty one?. I love a little bit of heat but not lots.
Thanks
Hi Karen! Yes this recipe is definitely one of our favorites and one of our popular ones. I would say it’s just mild-medium spicy. It has a kick but definitely not overpowering. If you make it and it’s too spicy, you can always omit the Chile de arbol next time. I hope this helps!
I love chiili colorado and was tired relying on a restaurant-teet. This recipe is Excellent! Made this for my birthday and it got the stamp of approval from my trainers girlfriend (who is mexican) so that made me very happy. I saved a little time not pressing the sauce, just running it through the blender until really smooth and that worked just fine. It was a big hit!
My go to recipe now! It tastes just like my favorite restaurant but better! 😍 Thank you! ❤️
Great recipe! Best Chile Colorado I have ever eaten! Thanks so much for sharing.
Thank you for this amazing recipe! It was my first time making it and loved it.
Gracia 🍻
I used this recipe for my first time ever making Chile Colorado. This was to die for it was sooooo good! Definitely a keeper! Thank you so much for providing the recipe. I have since started following your site with the emails and have saved every recipe you have provided. Everyone of them seems to be exactly authentic and I now have no problem trying a new one if it comes from your site.
Hi Ronnie. Thank you so much!