Hatch Green Chile Pasta with Chicken is a fantastic pasta recipe that takes advantage of chile pepper season. The pasta is mixed with a spicy cream sauce, chicken breast and spinach. An easy chicken dinner with Southwestern flair!
If you love pasta and you love the flavors of the Southwest, don’t miss this recipe for Chipotle Mac and Cheese with Chicken. And this one for Creamy Chicken Fajita Pasta.
For those of you who are not familiar with a Hatch chile peppers, the chiles are a Southwestern delicacy grown in the Hatch Valley of New Mexico.
In August, we celebrate and evangelize their arrival and start throwing them into everything to Mexican Scrambled Eggs to soups, like this New Mexico Pork Posole.
My latest creation using Hatch chile peppers is making a Hatch Chile Cream sauce for pasta. Adding chicken makes this a hearty savory and just right spicy pasta dinner.
The green chiles are bright and a little tangy and become a natural partner for a cheesy creamy pasta sauce. It’s super easy to make and a decadent way to enjoy roasted chile peppers.
Let’s take a look:
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Baby Spinach
- Half and Half or heavy cream.
- Pasta: I used bucatini noodles. Fettuccine, pappardelle or spaghetti noodles would also work well here. Want to make this recipe extra special? Order some Hatch Green Chile Pappardelle from Pappardelle’s Pasta, a Colorado local company.
- Hatch Green Chile Peppers: Roasted, peeled and chopped. Note: once these peppers are left on the vine to ripen more, they turn the color red. You most certainly can use red chile peppers for this recipe, they’re not any spicier. Most red chile peppers are sold dried or made into ristras.
- Butter: Makes any pasta sauce creamier.
- Grated Cheese: I used creamy salty Muenster cheese. It’s soft cheese that melts very easily.
- Seasonings: Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, Southwest Spice Blend, and New Mexico Red Chile Powder.
Pro Tip: Purchase good quality cheese and grate it yourself. Pre-grated cheese in bags includes additives to keep it from clumping, which will also compromise the melting factor. Grating cheese from a block of cheese will result in a creamier and more consistent melting experience. Plus, it’s less expensive.
Ingredient Substitutions
- Chile Peppers: If you don’t have access to freshly roasted Hatch Chile Peppers, use canned chile peppers found on the Mexican food aisle at the supermarket. Poblano peppers are also a good choice here. Just roast them directly on the gas burner stove top, or under the broiler in the oven. Turn them often until they’re blistered but not burnt. Zip them in a plastic bag for 15 minutes then slide off the peels and clean out the seeds. And you can easily order Hatch Chile Peppers delivered straight to your doorstep from the Hatch Chile Store.
- Cheese: Use any good quality white melting cheese. Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack, or Queso Asadero are all good choices.
- Seasonings: Don’t have any New Mexico Red Chile Powder? Substitute ancho or cayenne. Don’t use a commercial chili powder blend, it’s a blend of spices used to season Tex-Mex Beef Chile Recipes. It brings a completely different flavor profile.
Step by Step Instructions, It’s Easy
- Step 1: Heat a skillet over medium high heat and then add neutral oil. Add cubed chicken breast that has been seasoned with the Southwest Spice Blend and cook until no longer pink inside, but don’t over cook.
- Step 2: In a saucepan, melt butter. Add half and half and heat through. Slowly bring to a simmer. Add spinach, chile powder and parmesan cheese. Cook on low until spinach is wilted. This will only take a minute or so. Add green chile peppers and cooked chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Turn off burner, cover, keeping warm.
- Step 3: Add cooked pasta to cream, chicken, spinach and chile pepper mixture. Stir well and serve immediately.
Questions You May Have
That’s the beauty of chile peppers. Purchase them mild, medium, hot, or even extra hot. Use what you think your heat tolerance to be. I suggest medium heat for a good chile pepper flavor experience.
Shrimp, a firm white fish like halibut, or even Salmon would work well here. This Hatch chile pasta would also be good with cooked ground chicken. The texture of steak would not enhance the quality of this recipe. Stick with a softer protein.
Tips for Success:
- Don’t let the half and half come to a full boil or it will curdle. Heat it slowly and let it bubble a few minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients.
- If the green chile pasta sauce is too thin, make a slurry using 1 Tablespoon corn starch and 1 Tablespoon of the warm cream sauce. Stir to make a paste and add it back into the sauce. Simmer it for a few minutes and the sauce will thicken.
- Use tongs to twirl and serve on your favorite pasta plates.
Storage:
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- To reheat, add a drizzle of milk or half and half and heat in 30 second increments in the microwave.
- I’m not a fan of freezing cream based pasta dishes.
More Creamy Main Course Pasta Recipes
And if you're looking for more Pasta Recipes, don't miss my Pasta Category. You'll find lots of comfort food recipes, including one of the most popular on my site for Rattlesnake Pasta. A restaurant quality meal.
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Hatch Green Chile Pasta with Chicken and Green Chile Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast cubed and sauteed
- 1 tablespoon Neutral oil Canola or vegetable oil work well here
- ½ pound Bucatini Pasta or plain pappardelle pasta, or fettuccini
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup half and half or cream
- 1 cup spinach packed
- ¼ cup chile peppers roasted, seeded, peeled and chopped.
- ¼ teaspoon Chimayo chile powder medium heat, or ancho chile powder
- ½ cup Muenster cheese or Parmesan, grated
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon Fresh ground black pepper
- Garnishes: Crumbled Cotija cheese, thin sliced jalapeno peppers, chives, or a sprinkle of New Mexico Red Chile Powder all optional
Instructions
- Cube chicken breast into bite sized pieces and season with Southwest Spice Mix.
- Heat a skillet over medium high heat and then add neutral oil. Add cubed chicken breast and cook until no longer pink inside, but don't over cook.
- In a saucepan, melt butter. Add half and half and heat through. Slowly bring to a simmer.
- Add spinach, chile powder and parmesan cheese. Cook on low until spinach is wilted. This will only take a minute or so. Add chile peppers and cooked chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Turn off burner, cover, keeping warm.
- In a large saucepan, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil. Add salt and pasta. Cook pasta according to package instructions.
- When pasta is cooked through, drain, reserving ¼ cup pasta water. Add pasta to Cream mixture. Turn burner on low, if it needs to be warmed up. Drizzle in a little bit of the pasta water to add starch and creaminess.
- Divide between two plates, serve immediately and top with crumbled Cotija cheese for garnish if you'd like.
Notes
- Don’t let the half and half come to a full boil. The fat content of half and half is lower than cream and it will curdle if allowed to get too hot. When cooking the sauce, keep the heat on low and the half and half at a low bubbling simmer.
- If the green chile pasta sauce is too thin, make a slurry using 1 Tablespoon corn starch and 1 Tablespoon of the warm cream sauce. Stir to make a paste and add it back into the sauce. Simmer it for a few minutes and the sauce will thicken.
- Want to make this recipe extra special? Order some Hatch Green Chile Pappardelle from Pappardelle’s Pasta, a Colorado local company.
Nutrition
Hatch Green Chile Pasta with Chicken and Spinach …It’s what’s for Dinner.
