Prep time: 1 hour
Cook time: 35 minutes
Makes about 2 cups
Acapulco, a Mexican restaurant in Alameda, is a favorite of Carolyn Olson of Shingle Springs. Olson particularly enjoys their chili colorado served on their beef enchiladas and chiles rellenos. She was hoping for a recipe.
Janice Thornton of Merced shares this Better Homes and Gardens recipe.
Chili colorado is the basic red chili sauce of New Mexico. You can serve this all-purpose sauce on a variety of Mexican dishes including enchiladas, tamales, huevos rancheros and chiles rellenos, as well as grilled poultry and meats.
Note: The prep time does not include the 1-hour soak time for the peppers.
INGREDIENTS
12 dried ancho peppers or dried mild New Mexico red peppers (4 ounces)
4 dried chipotle peppers, or 4 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, rinsed, drained, seeded and finely chopped
3 cups water
½ cup chopped onion (1 medium)
1 tablespoon snipped fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
3 cloves garlic minced
1 tablespoon olive oil or cooking oil
1½ cups chopped tomato (2 medium)
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
INSTRUCTIONS
Cut dried peppers. Open peppers, discard stems and seeds. Cut peppers into small pieces. Bring water to a boil; remove from heat. Add peppers and let stand for 45 to 60 minutes to soften. Do not drain.
Meanwhile in a large skillet cook onion, oregano and garlic in hot oil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat; set aside.
Place half of the undrained dried peppers (and canned chipotle peppers, if using) and half of the chopped tomatoes in a food processor bowl or blender container. Cover and process or blend until nearly smooth. Strain through a fine sieve to remove pepper skins and tomato skins and seeds; discard skins and seeds. Repeat blending and straining with remaining peppers and tomatoes. Add strained mixture to onion mixture in skillet along with salt and cumin.
Bring to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 20 to 25 minutes or to desired consistency. Serve with your favorite Mexican dish or grilled poultry or meats.
Per ¼ cup: 104 cal.; 3 g pro.; 15 g carb.; 4 g fat (1 sat., 2 monounsat., 1 polyunsat.); 0 mg chol.; 95 mg sod.; 5 g fiber; 2 g sugar; 37 percent calories from fat.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
If you choose to use our "reply to comment" feature, you should note that the length of the quoted comment will count against the size limits for your comment.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.