This is Anthony Bourdain’s Beef Chili Recipe. New Mexico Style, this is richly flavored, hearty beef chili stew featuring beef chuck and New Mexico Hatch Chiles and Poblano peppers. One of our favorite Hatch green chili recipes!
The passing of Anthony Bourdain has simply stunned and numbed me. To say it’s a shame it’s ended this way is a gross understatement.
He had so much more to give us. Inspiration, influence, knowledge. I’ll miss his brilliant skill for interviewing and remarkable style of story-telling.
I’ll miss his insatiable curiosity to explore. I truly admired his unapologetic manner. There will never be another like him.
So with that said, let’s get to our kitchens. Let’s cook, let’s explore, let’s inspire. Let’s do his memory justice and relish in all of it.
Anthony Bourdain’s Legacy
Shortly after I learned of his death, I dug out the only Anthony Bourdain cookbook I own, Appetites, A Cookbook. I received it as a Christmas gift a couple years ago.
It’s a great read, includes recipes he’d collected over the years with particular attention to recipes that his daughter liked.
When I came to page 230, I found his New Mexico Style Beef Chili Recipe. I think of Anthony Bourdain as an East Coast, food thrill seeker, and world traveler to parts unknown.
For some reason never pictured him hanging out in New Mexico. I knew I had to make this recipe and I had to make it soon.
This is an incredibly rich and deeply flavored bowl of chili. It gets its flavor from New Mexico Hatch Chiles and Poblano peppers. An additional layer of goodness comes from using a full-flavored New Mexico or Mexican Beer.
If you’re a regular reader, you know that I obsess over Hatch Chiles.
Late August into September brings these wonderful chiles to Colorado and the roasting drums fire up and the aromas of cooking chiles fill the air.
A perfect time of year to make this chili recipe. One of my favorite articles about the Hatch Chile phenomena comes from Saveur Magazine. You should give it a read.
Anthony Bourdain’s New Mexico Beef Chili Recipe:
This recipe is deep and rich in flavor.
It’s an easy recipe because once prep is completed there’s a long slow stove-top simmer where the ingredients are allowed to blend and marry.
The hardest part in preparing the recipe is cutting the beef chuck into bite-sized pieces, flouring them, and searing them in the Dutch oven. A little bit of a mess but worth every splatter of oil and every dusting of flour that accidentally hits your countertop.
I used Veal Stock, which provided an even deeper and richer flavor to the chili. You can find it frozen in some specialty shops and it’s worth the purchase. If you can’t find it, beef stock will work just fine.
The recipe calls for a cup of beer. Choose a Mexican or New Mexico beer, or even a rich ale. Any will be delicious in this beef chili.
If you don’t have fresh roasted Hatch Chile peppers Anaheim peppers will work. You can roast them under an oven broiler until charred on all sides, or over an open flame on your gas stovetop. Or you can buy them canned at the grocery store.
Serve corn chips or white flour tortillas with this beef chili. A squeeze of lime juice brings out the flavor and a sprinkling of cilantro is always welcome.
So, if you’re looking for New Mexico Chili recipes, I hope you give Anthony’s Beef Chili recipe a try. And if you do, please come back and let me know how you liked it and give the recipe a star rating.
Your feedback is valuable to me for developing future recipes. And if you have a favorite beef chili recipe that uses beef chuck or beef roast, let me know, I’d love to give it a try.
More Chili Recipes
And if you’re a chili aficionado, you might want to take a look at:
- Bourbon Beef and Bean Chili
- Hatch Green Chili, Colorado Style
- Award Winning Chili Recipe
- Chipotle Bison Chili with Lime Crema
Don’t miss my latest classic New Mexico recipe, New Mexico Carne Adovada. If you love all things New Mexico, this is a must for your data base.
Or this Southwestern Sweet Corn Soup with Roasted Corn Guacamole.
And check out my Mexican/Southwest Category. You’ll find all kinds of ole’ love.
Anthony Bourdain’s New Mexico Beef Chili Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 poblano peppers roasted, chopped
- 1 pound Hatch chili peppers roasted, chopped
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 pounds beef chuck cut into 1-inch cubes
- 2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 large yellow onion coarsely chopped
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 2 jalapeño peppers seeds removed and chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried Mexican oregano
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 cup beer
- 2 cups veal or beef stock
- Chopped cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat broiler and position rack as close to the broiler heat source. Line the bottom of a broiling pan with aluminum foil (this will catch any juices from the peppers). Place poblano peppers on top of the broiling pan. Place under the broiler. Let cook until peppers’ skin is blackened, turning peppers with tongs so they blacken on all sides, approximately 10 to 15 minutes.
- Place peppers in a large plastic bag and loosely seal for 30 minutes. Remove and discard as much of the blackened skin as possible along with the stems and seeds. Use your hands. Don’t rinse peppers under water, you’ll rinse away flavor. If you want your chili to be hotter, leave in some of the seeds (source of the peppers’ heat). Coarsely chop peppers and set aside.
- Repeat this roasting process for the hatch chile peppers. If you’re using frozen (no need to thaw) or canned peppers (no need to drain), they are likely already roasted, peeled and seeded. In some cases they are already coarsely chopped, too – if not, then coarsely chop them and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour and about 2 teaspoons each of salt and freshly ground pepper. Toss beef in the flour mixture to coat. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a Dutch oven (at least 5 quarts) over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add beef in batches and sear until dark brown on all sides. Be sure not to crowd beef too much. Using tongs, remove cooked beef to a plate. Continue to cook remaining beef in batches, so you’re not crowding the beef pieces.
- Add onion, garlic and jalapeño peppers to the pot and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Cook over medium-high heat, scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon to dislodge browned bits. Add an additional tablespoon of oil if necessary to keep the caramelized bits of onion mixture and beef (know as “fond”) from scorching. You can also add a splash of stock at this point. Cook for about 5 to 7 minutes or until the onion has begun to soften and brown.
- Add cumin, coriander and Mexican oregano and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
- Stir in tomato paste and beer. Bring to a boil and cook until liquid has reduced by about two-thirds. Scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any bits of fond.
- Stir in stock and return beef to pot. Add reserved poblano and hatch chili peppers. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook, covered for 2-1/2 hours or until beef is fork tender.
- Remove chili from heat and serve in bowls with chopped cilantro, corn chips or flour tortillas and a wedge of lime. A splash of acid always brightens the flavor.
Could you do this in a slow cooker after browning the meat?? I made yesterday (and love it), but life with an infant means I couldn’t stir as much as I should have and it burnt a little.
Hi Christine
Starting with steps 4 and 5, I would follow his instructions to brown meat and sautee vegetables. This should be done with any crockpot meal.
The purpose to sear meat and sautee vegetables is to build a layer of flavor for the overall end result.
After that, You could most certainly finish the recipe in the slow cooker. I’d say cooking time for meat to be fall apart tender would be 6 – 7 hours. (Low)
Let me know if you have any other questions.
I’m assuming the references to “Hatch chili peppers” mean using the green chili pepper. Wonder if using red chilis would make an even richer/deeper flavor profile???
I really don’t have access to fresh red chile peppers. Yes, I made this with green chile peppers. I’d love to give those red peppers a try. Let me know if you make it.
What makes it so dark in this picture though?
Hi Erin. The process of browning the beef and the beef stock will color the soup. Also, I used a dark beer.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Tony Bourdain was dishonest. The average person would not use veal stock. This is to make it appear “snazzy”, or
french, or sophisticated.
Most will not get veal stock. It’s simply a borrow- and his worship is uncalled for.
Hi A.P. I agree the average person probably wouldn’t use veal stock. Unless you have access to a commercial kitchen, it’s pretty much impossible to make. But if you can find it, it sure is a treat.
His original recipe actually calls for chicken stock or universal dark stock (recipe for which is in his cook book).
Oh my word! I need this in my life. I have to rethink dinner tonight. lol.
It’s a really good recipe – hope you like it. Anthony Bourdain out did himself with this one.
I was born and raised in Carlsbad, NM. Mr Bourdain knows whereof he speaks regarding NM Chile, although I would leave out the Poblanos and add two more Hatch chiles, possibly the Sandia varietal for extra heat. But technically, this would not have been considered “chili” when I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s. In that period of time, “chili”consisted of various chiles, coarsely ground beef, pork, and/or venison, onions and chili powder (LOTS of chili powder), along with a rich beef stock. No tomatoes! The older range cooks even left the onions out, although they did cube the beef(smaller cubes, about 1/2”), rather than grind it. No beer either, at least not in the chili. Just to add a little controversy here, no beans either. The beans were cooked separately and made an option, rather than an ingredient. Same with cheese, sour cream, avocado etc.To thicken the chili, a slurry of masa and stock was used. If I use Mr Bourdain’s recipe, I would probably add 1 Tbsp of espresso powder, or maybe some good deep red wine.
But I prefer the way I, learned. I have no objection to any of the myriad ways to eat chili, so long as the cooking separation is observed. I love Cincinnati chili, as long as the pasta and chili are kept separate until ready to eat.
Wow, including Cincinnati Chili in comments on hatch chili. I love Skyline Chili, 5 ways, but it is more of a Greek pasta sauce then a southwestern chili. Thanks for your recommendations. I had planned on skipping the Porblano’s anyway, but like your recommendation on masa and red wine/espresso. First pass,I’ll follow the recipe…then incorporate your recommendations into pass 2.This should be fun!
I just stumbled onto your blog and have a related question. What is the best way to freeze the roasted chilies? We’d like to try buying a half or whole bushel but not sure how to freeze them in a way that makes it easy for grabbing some as needed all during the winter when making dishes like this. Thanks
I get quart zip lock baggies. I lay about 8 roasted chile, side by side, inside each bag, seal and then lay them flat in the freezer.
When I need them, and if I only need 4, I’ll microwave the bag long enough so that I can separate them, and then refreeze the remaining. They refreeze well.
Let me know if you have any more questions, and thanks for the visit to my site.
Lea Ann, do you have Netflix? If so, you can watch the Parts Unknown episode of Anthony in New Mexico. My husband, who didn’t know a thing about Anthony Bourdain, watched the entire series with me and commented that he was glad he hadn’t seen it before Anthony’s death or he would have been really sad when he died. He could see why I cried that day. This recipe sounds great and is one I will definitely be making soon. Thank you.
My husband reminded me that we had seen it. I do remember it now, and remember there were guns and shooting. Not one of my favorite episodes. BUT, with that said, I’d love to watch it again. 🙂
Well, Mr. Tony sure does know how to make chili. I was a fan of his from way back when he wrote Kitchen Confidential. Working in the restaurant biz during that time made me identify with him. Of course, he was a wee bit taller.
Really nice post about Mr. Bourdain. Such a sad end! We all need to cook this to honor him. I’m in luck — Hatch chilies just arrived in our grocery stores. Roasted and froze some yesterday, as a matter of fact. So I’m all set to make this! 🙂
A very nice tribute to Anthony B. He will be missed. 🙁 I’ve never been much of a chili fan, but I do like the ones that are more stew like with large chunks of beef – just like this one. Fritos would be a must. I don’t have the book, so I’m pinning to make sure to make this in the fall and cooler weather. We’re still in the salad mode. 🙂
BTW – he did do a New Mexico Parts Unknown. It wasn’t one of his best shows and didn’t put NM in very good light, which was quite disappointing. It’s the only Parts unknown that I didn’t like. Maybe just too close to the subject.
I love any kind of corn chips in chili. And I need to be in salad mode! My husband reminded me about the NM show. Totally agree – it wasn’t all that flattering to one of my favorite food states. 🙂
I agree, it was such a shock when he died. I still can’t quite believe it.
The chili looks great; your photo is fantastic! Thanks for the shout-out for my chili recipe.