As Hot as You Like: Hatch Chile Peppers Add Sizzle of the Southwest to Everything

Here are four recipes that make the most of New Mexico’s signature green chile sauce.

Kathy Trent cooks Hatch chiles as they are roasted, as she roasted 2 bushels of the freshly picked New Mexican chiles they shipped to Pittsburgh from the Hatch Green Chili Co. These chiles are then grilled and used in recipes, and some are frozen for later use at her home in Emsworth on Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. Justin Guido/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/TNS

Cooking creates all kinds of wonderful and comforting smells, whether it’s sugar cookies in the oven or a hearty stew on the stovetop. But for me in fall, there’s nothing quite like the smoky-sweet scent of Hatch chiles roasting over an open flame or the grates of a hot grill.

The aroma is intoxicating, so intense as it wafts through the air that you can almost taste it. And when you actually lay your hands on peppers that have been so blistered by heat that the skin slips off as easily as a too-big pair of mittens? Expect a rush of endorphins.