Back to Recipes

Chile Colorado

Dalyah & Guy from Birdeye

Servings

6

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

3 hours

Calories

390

Cuisine

Mexican

Category

Dinner

A low and slow braised beef recipe with a deep, smoky, rich sauce. It’s the kind of dish that gets better the next day and feeds a crowd without much fuss – prep it in the morning, let it do its thing on the stove, and come back to something delicious.

Chile Colorado

Ingredients

  • 1 SRF Black® Chuck Roast

  • 4 guajillo chiles, deseeded

  • 2 ancho chiles, deseeded

  • 3 árbol chiles, deseeded

  • 1 chipotle pepper in adobo

  • 4 cups vegetable broth, warmed, for rehydrating chiles

  • 3 cups vegetable broth, for braising

  • ½ white onion, quartered

  • 5 garlic cloves

  • 1 tablespoon dried oregano

  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin

  • 1 tablespoon salt

  • 1 tablespoon sugar

  • 1 bay leaf

  • salt and pepper, for seasoning the beef

blank

  • fresh tortillas

  • ½ white onion, finely diced

  • cilantro, finely chopped

  • lime wedges

  • radishes, thinly sliced

Directions

  1. Bring 4 cups of vegetable broth to a gentle simmer. While it warms, deseed all your chiles and add them to a large bowl, then pour the hot broth over them. Let soak for about 30 minutes until soft and fully rehydrated. Don't discard the liquid — it's the base of your sauce.

  2. Transfer the rehydrated chiles and all the soaking liquid into a blender. Add the chipotle pepper, onion, garlic cloves, oregano, cumin, sugar, and salt. Blend until completely smooth with no visible flecks of chile.

  3. Cut the roast into medium-sized chunks and season generously on all sides with salt and pepper. Heat a Dutch oven over high heat with a neutral oil until very hot. Sear the beef in batches — don't crowd the pan — until you get a deep crust on each side. Set aside.

  4. Return the seared beef to the Dutch oven. Pour in the chile sauce and 3 cups of vegetable broth — you want the meat mostly submerged. Add the bay leaf and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer, then cover and reduce to low heat. Cook for 3 to 4 hours, stirring every hour to make sure the sauce isn't burning on the bottom. The beef is ready when it's tender and pulls apart easily, and the sauce has thickened to a deep red.

  5. Ladle the chile colorado into bowls and serve with a big stack of warm tortillas, lime wedges, thinly sliced radishes, avocado,  and chopped cilantro. Keep it simple — the sauce does all the work.