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 guajillo chiles, stems removed and seeded
- 2 ancho chiles, stems removed and seeded
- 1 árbol chiles, 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 freshly ground 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:
Nutrition Information
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Perfection! This recipe is amazing…
I love your recipes. Should I use Mexican Oregano or “European “ Oregano in Mexican dishes. They are different (plants and taste.)
After blending the peppers can I leave the solids instead of straining? Thanks
Hi Steve! You can if you prefer, its mainly to give the sauce a velvety smooth texture but if you dont mind it it’s totally fine.
First time making it with pork. This is good! I may like it even better than beef. Other than substituting pork for beef, I followed the recipe as written. My wife likes chile colorado – now we have two ways to make it. Thank you, Isabel.
Can you make this recipe with Pork?
Hi Amy! Yes you can!
Amazing recipe! I have made several times. Family always asks for it! Great flavor! Everything I have made from Isabel has always turned out delicious. She is my go to for authentic Mexican meals. Thank you!
Isabel, Your chile colorado recipe caught my eye. My recipe is very very close to yours with NM red chiles and I have always been in favor of simplicity (“don’t get in the way of the Hatch”). That’s why I like yours. Simple. But, if you were to add some green to the stew (green onions, green peppers, leafy green, green peas, etc.), what would it be? I already throw in some chopped carrots for texture and sweetness, and thought some green might be nice. Thanks.
Hi Steve! Thank you so much for sharing. You can definitely add green onion or even top with cilantro if you’re wanting to add some green.
It’ll make you cry with joy! This recipe was a total hit and absolutely authentic. It was a dish I never attempted as I was intimidated with the ingredients and process. My mom and tias made it for me growing up and I never asked for their recipe. So thank you for this! I added a couple more cloves of garlic and a bit more chile de arbol (my husband likes spice!), otherwise, I followed the exact instructions . It was very easy and so delicious.
The sauce IS amazing! Perfect blend and taste. Cooking the meat however via slow cooker is tricky. I love chili colordo and have tried this twice with the meat being too tough based on the instruction times. In my cusiant 6 quart slow cooker, I had to take the lid off and bring the temperature to 400 and boil for 17 minutes to reduce the sauce and cook the meat to soften, otherwise it was to soupy. I do love the recipe once I figured it out….great recipe and thank you!!
There is no better Latin dish than this. The flavors are magnified by the heat from the peppers, even to the last bite.
My recipe:
5 California Chilis no seeds
6 Arbol chiles no seeds
Homemade vegetable, bone chicken, and beef stock
Under-the-shoulder chuck roast
Taco seasoning
Fresh tomatoes and peppers
Corn Starch
Garlic powder
Cumin
Thank you for sharing Simon!
I’m a relative newcomer to your site & I’ve made a few recipes so far and loved them. Chile colorado is ridiculously amazing. A couple of observations + question: 1.) I like spicy heat to a moderate degree. My wife does not. I was worried even after reading your links, not about the ancho or guajillo, but the arbol. It was great. Hint of heat, but my wife enjoyed it too. 2.) We added some corn based thickener towards the end as it was fairly soupy. We used a GF flour, maybe that mattered? Any suggestions to thicken it more? 3.) Radishes? Sounded weird, but the radish texture and taste was a perfect little complement. Love it – thanks.
My wife also.
The sauce is excellent, family loved it. Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe!
Thank you Angie!
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!
Thank you so much Pachee!
Yes, I made it today February 26th and it’s delicious. Thank you for the recipe.
The best I’ve ever ate
Love this recipe. Easy and tastes great. Whole family enjoys
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
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!
Hi Anita! Thank you so much for sharing! We’re glad you enjoyed this recipe 🙂
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.
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. ❤️
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.
Hello! Yes, Mediterranean oregano has a milder, almost peppery taste versus Mexican oregano that has a much stronger and potent flavor.