One thing that is super cool about living in Texas is that once a year we get hatch chiles. Hatch chiles are a particular variety of chiles from Hatch, NM. When they are fresh they are light green in color and shaped similar to a poblano pepper. It is pretty typical here for Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants to have seasonal dishes using hatch chiles. Burger places will even do a hatch chile burger!
I like hatch chiles because of their level of heat. They aren’t typically super hot but they aren’t as mild as poblanos. So they are really good roasted. My favorite thing to do with them is to make a green salsa. I typically use hatch chiles, tomatillos, cilantro, lime juice and salt.
The most difficult part of the whole process is roasting the chiles and tomatillos. You can do this using the broiler on your oven but roasting them on the grill makes for easier clean up. I typically put metal grill “plate” for veggies down to do this. It keeps things from falling through the grates on the grill and makes for easier clean up because you can pull it off when its cool and scrub it.
Once you have your roasted chiles and tomatillos you need to pull the skins off the remove the seeds from the chiles. I recommend two things to make this easier. First put you hot roasted stuff into a bowl and cover with a towel. This will create steam which pops the skins off. Second, use food safe gloves. Nothing is worse than getting spicy chile juice plus tomatillo acid on your hands.
Put the chiles, tomatillos, fresh squeezed lime juice, salt, and fresh cilantro into a blender and puree. The final product is a terrific green salsa. You can cook with this if you want but I’d HIGHLY recommend you just serve it fresh on some tostadas, quesadilla or tacos so you can really appreciate the flavors.