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HomeRecipes

Authentic Chile Colorado

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By: IsabelPosted: 10/18/17

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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!

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!

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 Chile Colorado recipe combines tender pieces of beef with a rich and flavorful red chile sauce. Serve with rice for an authentic Mexican dinner!

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.

  • dried Guajillo chiles
  • dried Ancho chiles
  • dried Arbol chiles

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.

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!

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.

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!

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!

Recipe

4.66 from 237 votes

Authentic Chile Colorado

Serves: 6 people
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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!
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 1 hour 35 minutes
Total : 1 hour 50 minutes
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!

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.

Video

Isabel’s Tips:

Serves 6 big meat-eaters or 8 smaller portions.
Sauce can be made ahead of time and stored in the freezer for up to 6 months until needed.
To make gluten-free and paleo, use tapioca starch or white rice flour instead of all-purpose flour.

Nutrition Information

Serving: 1serving - 1/6th of recipe Calories: 377kcal (19%) Carbohydrates: 8g (3%) Protein: 50g (100%) Fat: 16g (25%) Saturated Fat: 11g (55%) Monounsaturated Fat: 3g Cholesterol: 107mg (36%) Sodium: 1073mg (45%) Potassium: 94mg (3%) Fiber: 1g (4%) Sugar: 1g (1%) Vitamin A: 350IU (7%) Vitamin C: 3.3mg (4%) Calcium: 10mg (1%) Iron: 9.9mg (55%)
Author: Isabel Eats
Course:Main
Cuisine:Mexican
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!
Did you Make my Authentic Chile Colorado?Leave a comment below and tag @isabeleats on social media!
@isabeleats

Did you make this recipe?

I’d love to know! Leave a comment below and tag @isabeleats on Instagram with the hashtag #isabeleatsfood.

This page contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase on Amazon after clicking one of my links, I may receive a small commission. The price of the item stays the same and any money I make goes to supporting this blog. I only endorse products and services that I fully believe in.

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Recipe Rating:




  1. PACHEE THAO says

    Posted on 3/10 at 7:51 pm

    5 stars
    I love this easy recipe to follow. I used guajillo, japones, puya & dried and one raw Thai Chile. I didn’t add beef broth as the one cup of pepper water did it for the amount of meat I have. I add chicken tomato bouillon to this dish versus salt. I followed the recipe almost exactly besides using different types of peppers. This dish came out delicious. Thanks for the share!

    Reply
    • Ana @ Isabel Eats says

      Posted on 3/13 at 2:15 pm

      Thank you so much Pachee!

      Reply
  2. Marilyn says

    Posted on 2/26 at 12:11 pm

    Yes, I made it today February 26th and it’s delicious. Thank you for the recipe.

    Reply
  3. Lonnie says

    Posted on 2/11 at 8:42 am

    5 stars
    The best I’ve ever ate

    Reply
  4. Patty says

    Posted on 1/7 at 10:50 am

    Love this recipe. Easy and tastes great. Whole family enjoys

    Reply
  5. tom g. says

    Posted on 12/19 at 5:49 pm

    4 stars
    i too love chili colorado. i am retired in óaxaca mexico and cant find it in restaurants, so i make iþ at home.
    this is a great recipe, a crowd pleaser. i add more garlic and a little tomato paste, and a little sugar.
    yum yum tum tum

    Reply
  6. Anita says

    Posted on 11/18 at 10:17 am

    5 stars
    This recipe is so tasty!! This was my first main course I’ve made from your site; my son and I watched the video on Insta and he told me I definitely have to make it and I’m glad I did! He loved it too! I did a couple of things differently – I couldn’t find Arbol chiles at my grocer’s so I subbed with red pepper flakes. I also didn’t strain the sauce before adding it to the meat – I added the whole thing to the meat. I reduced the amount of beef broth since I had so much sauce and still had a lot of liquid, so next time I’ll omit the broth (just the liquid! Keep the beef base for flavor!) and see how that turns out. This recipe was perfect as we got into the 40s down here in TX, so it was warm and comforting. Looking forward to trying more of your recipes!

    Reply
    • Ana @ Isabel Eats says

      Posted on 11/21 at 11:04 am

      Hi Anita! Thank you so much for sharing! We’re glad you enjoyed this recipe 🙂

      Reply
      • Larry says

        Posted on 1/18 at 1:03 am

        5 stars
        This was really good. I put it over some mexican rice with cotija, cilantro, and green onion. The only thing i did different was, roughly, a few tablespoons of brown sugar and couldn’t find ancho so i threw in some dried hatch that i had. I’ll be sifting through this site for more now. Nice work.

        Reply
  7. JJ says

    Posted on 11/11 at 2:56 pm

    This turned out so delicious! I am in Chile Colorado heaven now that I don’t have to go out to eat this wonderful dish! It has long been a favorite of mine. ❤️

    Reply
  8. LB says

    Posted on 11/8 at 2:37 pm

    I wonder if you could address the difference between Mexican oregano and Mediterranean oregano. The latter is ubiquitous in American grocery stores and has and has a different flavor and potency than the Mexican version. In fact they are completely different plants! I’m sure it would change your recipe amounts depending on what type you use.

    Reply
    • Ana @ Isabel Eats says

      Posted on 11/9 at 12:25 pm

      Hello! Yes, Mediterranean oregano has a milder, almost peppery taste versus Mexican oregano that has a much stronger and potent flavor.

      Reply
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Isabel Orozco-Moore, Founder of Isabel Eats
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i’m isabel

A first-generation Mexican American who loves to cook! Here at Isabel Eats, you’ll find a mix of all your favorite authentic Mexican recipes with a twist!

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