Moose Tracks Chili is the 2015 World Champion Chile Verde and was created by Eileen Beaty. This is a full-flavored classic green chili with lots of pork, easy to make. It comes out very thick, almost solid and makes an excellent filling for street tacos
This 2015 Chile Verde world champion is very meaty, easy to make, and has a classic, full chile verde flavor. If you make it strictly per the recipe, it comes out very thick – almost solid. The first thing that occurred to me was to put it on a street taco … so I did. Came out perfect. I use the artisan corn tortillas in the bread department at King Soopers. If you use regular corn tortillas, they are not as soft and flexible and break easily. See the instructions in the notes for making street tacos.
As you can see in the photo, I chopped some of the chiles into large chunks. This is just a personal preference thing. Or maybe sloppiness. I like a mix of textures in my green chili.
If you are serving this in a bowl as a classic green chili, you will need to add a lot of liquid – I’d say at least 2-3 cups of water or chicken broth, maybe more. Right now, I’m making batches of green chili to freeze so that I can serve some fabulous green chili on a moment’s notice when friends come over. So it only makes sense to leave the additional liquid out and add it when I’m heating it up to serve. This also gives me the option of making street tacos when I serve it.
For more detail on the ingredients, see below.
Moose Tracks Chili - 2015 World Champion Green Chili
2½ lbs pork loin, cut into small cubes (dice sized)
2 tbsp lard
¾ cup chopped onions
1 14.5 oz can chicken broth
1 tbsp chicken base (or chicken bouillon)
1 tbsp fresh minced (or pressed) garlic
1 tsp celery salt
½ tsp crushed oregano leaves
2 tbsp cumin
1-4 serrano peppers, seeded and minced
1 tsp hot green chili powder
14 oz green enchilada sauce
3½ cups green chiles, chopped into ⅜ inch cubes
½ cup hot green chiles, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 packet Sazón Goya (sold at Safeway, see notes)
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Green Tabasco Sauce to taste
Instructions
Brown pork in the lard and drain.
Add onion, 1 serrano pepper, chicken broth and green enchilada sauce. (Warning: Go very light on the serrano peppers as they are hot! Start with no more than 1 and add more in the final stage of simmering to get desired heat.)
Simmer for 1½ hours, stirring often.
Add cumin, celery salt, fresh garlic, oregano leaves, chicken base, Soza Goya and salt. Continue to cook for 1 hour (add water as needed), stirring often to avoid sticking.
Add the chopped green chiles, hot green chiles and hot green chili powder and cook for another 15 minutes.
Add chopped cilantro leaves. Adjust flavor & heat with more minced serrano peppers and up to 1 more tsp hot green chili powder, Green Tabasco Sauce and salt to taste
Notes
About Sazón Goya - I bought this seasoning at Safeway. There are 3 different "flavors" - with coriander and annatto, with saffron, and with cilantro and tomato. It does not matter which one you use; these spice mixes are nearly identical.
Warning: this is a very hot, spicy recipe. Start with no more than 1 serrano and you may want to leave out the hot green chile powder until the very end and add just a small bit at a time.
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Chile Verde Street Tacos is made with the 2015 World Champion Chile Verde – Moose Tracks Chili from Eileen Beaty. Satisfying and simple street taco, great for parties and small meals.
Southwestern Spaghetti Squash is simple to make, nutritious, versatile, and always popular. Add seasoned ground beef to make a hearty main dish.
A very easy, popular, and nutritious dish – it’s also Paleo if you leave out the Parmesan cheese. Basically, I just took my recipe for Southwestern Bruschetta and blended it in with a baked spaghetti squash. The proportions worked out perfectly: 1 recipe of Southwestern Bruschetta (plus extra green chiles) is exactly right for 1 whole spaghetti squash. I usually make half at a time; both the remaining bruschetta sauce and the half spaghetti squash keep well in the fridge. Everybody loves this.
I also turned this into a meal – just add seasoned ground beef and it becomes a main dish casserole.
Want a video to walk you through the recipe? I just made my first cooking video (for this dish) and you can watch it here. It’s still rough around the edges, but I’ll be polishing it up shortly.
Cut the spaghetti squash in half and scoop the seeds out.
Put each half in a baking dish with a half cup of water (or both in 1 large dish). Lightly brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover and pop in the oven for 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, take a medium bowl and blend together the tomatoes, 1 tablespoon of the McCormick Bruschetta seasoning, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar, and 2 tablespoons of diced hot green chiles. Set aside.
When the squash is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes.
Take a fork and use it to shred the meat of the squash into strands.
Place the strands into a baking dish, then blend the squash strands and the bruschetta mixture together.
Set aside 2 tablespoons of the grated Parmesan and blend the rest into the spaghetti bruschetta mixture. Spread it evenly in the baking dish and sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan on top.
Bacon Chile Stuffed Mushrooms have a bacony, cheesy, somewhat crumbly topping – spicy if you use hot green chiles, and overall flavorful if you use mild.
Are you watching March Madness?? Having a few friends over? I figured I’d whip up some really tasty finger food, like stuffed mushrooms. And how can you go wrong with bacon, chile and cheese? You really can’t, unless you work at it.
Here’s the clincher: Stuffing mushrooms is more work than many other appetizers. And I’m lazy. I used about 8 mushrooms, each about 2 inches in diameter. And I ended up with enough filling for 2 or 3 more mushrooms. So I did what any self-respecting chef would do – I ate the extra filling straight out of the bowl. It was really good. Definitely worth making again. But I think I’d rather spread the filling on top of some sort of casserole than put the work into stuffing mushrooms. What do I plan to try it on? Mac and Cheese for sure, and zucchini or yellow squash. I might try it on top of calabacitas. Stay tuned, you’ll be seeing this topping again, but most likely morphed into a casserole-topper.
Now back to the mushrooms: I used the white mushrooms from Costco that come in a 24-oz package and selected the biggest, about 2 inches in diameter. You could certainly use the giant mushrooms made for stuffing, and it would be less work. I steamed them first to make sure they ended up fully cooked.
Lightly spray a small baking dish (I used one about 7 inches by 9 inches) with cooking spray and set aside. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Select 8 to 10 mushrooms; then wash and remove stems. Dice the stems and set aside.
Place the mushroom caps in a steamer with about 1 inch of water in the lower part. Bring to a boil, reduce to medium low heat and let steam for 15 minutes.
While mushrooms are steaming, fry bacon until crisp and then place on paper towels to drain.
Pour bacon fat from skillet, leaving 1 tablespoon of fat for cooking onions and garlic.
Saute the onion, diced mushroom stems, and garlic in 1 tbsp bacon fat until soft. Add the cumin and green chiles and blend well.
In a medium bowl, blend the cheeses, breadcrumbs, and onion, garlic, chile mixture.
Crumble the bacon and blend in.
Take the steamed mushrooms off the stove, pour out any water in each mushroom cap, and place each cap cup side up in the baking dish.
Spoon about a heaping teaspoon of filling into each mushroom cap.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes at 375 degrees.
Remove from oven and serve.
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Are you watching March Madness?? Having a few friends over? I figured I’d whip up some really tasty finger food, like stuffed mushrooms. And how can you go wrong with bacon, chile and cheese? You really can’t, unless you work at it.
Here’s the clincher: Stuffing mushrooms is more work than many other appetizers. And I’m lazy. I used about 8 mushrooms, each about 2 inches in diameter. And I ended up with enough filling for 2 or 3 more mushrooms. So I did what any self-respecting chef would do – I ate the extra filling straight out of the bowl. It was really good. Definitely worth making again. But I think I’d rather spread the filling on top of some sort of casserole than put the work into stuffing mushrooms. What do I plan to try it on? Mac and Cheese for sure, and zucchini or yellow squash. I might try it on top of calabacitas. Stay tuned, you’ll be seeing this topping again, but most likely morphed into a casserole-topper.
Now back to the mushrooms: I used the white mushrooms from Costco that come in a 24-oz package and selected the biggest, about 2 inches in diameter. You could certainly use the giant mushrooms made for stuffing, and it would be less work. I steamed them first to make sure they ended up fully cooked.
Chile Relleno Omelet Roll is a super simple baked egg dish perfect for brunch. It’s very versatile, just top it with pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream, whatever you want and roll it up.
My son asked for seconds on this one. Super simple and versatile, we’ll be making this over and over. This is a very basic recipe with only 7 ingredients – you bake it in the oven for just about 10 minutes and then roll it up and slice it. Put whatever you want on top before rolling it – cream cheese, salsa, guacamole … or nothing at all. I chose pico de gallo, just love those fresh tomatoes, onion, and cilantro.
After slicing it and putting a couple slices on each plate, I topped it with Winking Girl Mild Tomatillo Salsa. That added an amazing touch. It’s a bit tart and tangy with a fresh, interesting flavor that complemented the omelet roll perfectly.
I used mild green chiles, whole chiles that I cut up into large strips. Diced chiles will work fine also – I just like the big strips of chiles in this dish. I definitely prefer this dish with mild chiles rather than medium or hot. Eggs have a rather delicate taste, and hot chiles tend to overwhelm them.
I also made this in a Cuisinart 3-in-1 Multicooker (a slow cooker plus). Worked great. I set it to brown/saute at 400 degrees. Once it comes up to temperature (5 to 10 minutes), it takes about 8 minutes to cook. This Multicooker is rounded oblong, 8″ x 12″, and when cooked, the egg layer ends up about 1/2 inch thick. This is a bit chubby for rolling, but works fine. If you bake it in the oven, you might want to use a 9″ x 13″ baking dish and it will come out a bit thinner.
1 cup whole mild green chiles, cut into large strips
1 cup shredded cheese - Colby/Jack or Cheddar
optional: guacamole, pico de gallo, whatever you want to roll up inside, salsa to pour on top - Winking Girl Tomatillo Salsa is particularly good on this
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9" x 13" baking dish with cooking spray.
Dump the eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and flour into a blender and blend until smooth.
Pour into the baking dish and spread the chiles over the top. Then sprinkle the cheese on top.
Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes or until completely set.
Take out of the oven, top with whatever you would like (I used pico de gallo), and roll up, starting with a short end.
Slice into rolls about 1 inch wide, placing 2-3 slices on each plate. Top with salsa.
I really love this soup! As a matter of fact, I expect to experiment with it quite a bit. It has a rich, tangy, full-bodied flavor. The mustard and chiles are sooo complementary! The flavor reminds me of the kind of sauce you might serve with a high quality roast beef or steak. So I’m going to experiment with making this with perhaps less chicken broth to make it more like a sauce and drizzling it over beef. It would also be very good spooned over beef tips on rice. I might also try smothering burritos with the thicker version of this (less chicken broth).
Take a look at the notes: After I finished making this soup, I added chopped fresh green spinach and more chicken broth – it turned into an excellent Mustard Chile Spinach Soup. I would tend to serve this thinner, with 2 to 3 cans of chicken broth in it.
Right now I have some in the freezer – I’m experimenting to see if it freezes well. If it does, I have more ideas on what to do with it and you’ll be hearing back from me on this one!
I used Big Jim green chiles (medium hot) for this. I think it can work with mild, medium, or hot – depending on how hot you want it. Note the Coleman mustard is pretty hot; this is an English mustard powder that probably any King Soopers (and most likely other grocery chains) carries. It isn’t cheap but keeps well.
Got any other ideas on ways to serve this? Let me know!
(optional) 1 - 2 cups chopped fresh spinach (see notes)
Instructions
Fry off the bacon in a frying pan until it is cooked and crispy, set aside. Drain off any excess oil by placing the bacon on a paper towel.
Melt butter in a sauce pan and saute the garlic and shallots just until soft - about a minute.
Next make the roux (the base of this soup). Add the flour and stir quickly into the butter mix with a wooden spoon until coated, then gradually add the stock, whisking constantly with a metal whisk until the soup starts to thicken. This should take about 7 minutes.
On a medium heat, add the cream, mustard and nutmeg. Stir thoroughly, then check for seasoning. If needed, add salt and pepper to taste.
Stir in the chiles and crumble the bacon in, setting aside some of the bacon bits.
Serve in small soup cups, garnishing each with bacon bits.
Notes
Variation: Mustard Chile Spinach Soup Add 1 to 2 cups chopped fresh spinach and simmer until spinach is tender, about 5 more minutes.
You may want to adjust the thickness of this soup with more or less chicken broth. The thicker it is, the richer and more like a sauce. Thinner makes it more like a soup.
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An alternative version: Mustard Chile Spinach Soup
Yummy! And just as easy. I like this made thinner, with more chicken broth, than the above version. Just add chicken broth till you get your desired consistency.
Honey Sriracha Chicken Meatballs – an easy slow cooker favorite ideal for a party or buffet. These are spicy-sweet with the extra dimension of Hatch chile flavor. Quick to prepare and they can sit on low in the crock pot for hours!
Wow! These are awesome! I wanted to publish a recipe perfect for an Oscar party. To me, that means an easy, memorable, appetizer/dinner dish that’s more elegant than your basic Super Bowl fare. And these are perfect for that!
Not only are they easy to make, but also easy to adjust for different heat tolerance. Plus, you can do 90% of the prep (which is only a half hour) the day ahead of time. Also, they can sit in the slow cooker on low for hours – for the entire 4+ hours of Academy Awards shenanigans.
How can you adjust the spiciness? You can reduce the sriracha to 3/4 cup to make it less spicy, more sweet … or you can use mild green chiles, medium, or hot. If you use hot, these will be very spicy. Mild is the safest. You can also leave out the green chiles. Of course, I think these are much more interesting with the green chiles. I’ve made this to satisfy both chileheads and wimps by dividing the meatball mixture in half and putting the green chiles in only one half. Then I’m careful to put the spicy ones on one side of the slow cooker and the others on the other side – easier with an oblong slow cooker.
I made these with Big Jim chiles (medium) and I used 505 Southwestern Sriracha Sauce.
1 cup sriracha hot chili sauce (I used 505 Sriracha)
¼ cup fresh lime juice (1 large or 2 small limes)
2 pounds ground chicken
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 cup panko bread crumbs
¼ cup milk
2 large eggs
¾ cup diced green chiles
Instructions
Dump honey, sriracha, and lime juice into slow cooker and set it to high heat.
Put the ground chicken in a large bowl and sprinkle the onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper over the top.
Dump the panko bread crumbs and milk on top and stir to combine.
Add the 2 eggs and mix.
Stir in the diced green chiles.
For ease of forming the meatballs, cover and chill for several hours or overnight (not necessary, they just will be firmer and easier to shape).
Take a half cup of the honey sriracha sauce out and set aside.
For cocktail-sized meatballs, take a tablespoon and scoop out rounded spoonfuls and place on wax paper or a flexible cutting board. For big meal-sized meatballs, make each scoop about 2 tablespoons.
Put a bowl of cold water next to your work area and wet your hands as needed to keep the meatballs from sticking to them too much. Take each blob of meatball mixture and roll it with your hands into a ball.
Place the meatballs into the crockpot on top of the honey sriracha sauce. You will need to layer the meatballs - several layers for 3.5 quart crockpots. Pour the half cup of sauce that you set aside over the top of the meatballs.
Cook on low for 4-8 hours. After about 3 hours, separate the meatballs (some will be stuck together) and coat them with the sauce again. If your slow cooker runs hot, you may want to turn the meatballs after 2 hours or so.
About a half hour before serving, pour the sauce into a saucepan and cook down over medium heat to thicken. Then pour the sauce back over the meatballs in the slow cooker.
Serve at a buffet table in the slow cooker with plenty of toothpicks for spearing them. Or you could pile them onto a platter and spear each one with a toothpick before serving.
Chorizo Tomatillo Sauce is a spicy, tangy sauce with little chunks of chorizo – wonderful on eggs, burritos, enchiladas, nachos, all sorts of dishes.
I really love this sauce! In the photo, I served it over scrambled eggs. This was inspired by a sauce I had this past week at Freshies in Steamboat Springs. I ordered the Southwestern Benny (2 eggs benedict, one smothered in green chili and the other in red enchilada sauce) and there were 6 other sauces to choose from … and this was one. The chef would not give me the recipe, but I took some home to recreate the recipe. This isn’t an exact copy but it’s at least as good and is pretty close.
A lot of the spiciness comes from the chorizo. I chose to blend in most of the chorizo and just save a quarter cup to provide interesting lumps. When you blend it in, you don’t see it, but it flavors the sauce dramatically. You might choose to blend all the chorizo in or none of it … this will still be good with all the chorizo in the form of lumps in the sauce. Personally, I prefer some blended and some not.
You can also adjust the heat with the jalapeno. It is already medium-spicy without the jalapeno, and you can add more jalapeno to make it really hot. I’m planning to make a large batch to freeze in 16-oz containers. I’ll probably leave the jalapeno out and as I pull a container out to use I can add jalapeno to adjust to the desired heat at that time.
This recipe’s a real keeper, so I’ll be cooking with it a lot and experimenting further. I’ll be making enchiladas with it, smothering burritos, pouring it over nachos, and serving it along with just about any egg dish. Do you have ideas about how to use it? Share them!
A distinctive, flavorful sauce good on just about anything.
Author: Anita
Recipe type: Sauce
Serves: 5 cups
Ingredients
2 lb tomatillos
1 medium jalapeno
1 cup cilantro (including stems)
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp chicken bouilion
½ lb chorizo (I used King Soopers chorizo)
2 - 3 tbsp green chiles
2 tbsp honey
salt to taste
Instructions
Brown the chorizo in a large skillet, breaking it up as it cooks so you end up with chorizo crumbles. Set aside.
Remove the papery husks from the tomatillos and rinse with water.
Cut the tomatillos into quarters and cut the jalapeno into quarters lengthwise, removing the seeds and veins.
In a large dry skillet over medium heat, cook the tomatillos, garlic cloves, and jalapenos until tomatillos are soft and have black scorch spots on them. Garlic cloves and jalapenos will also have black scorch spots. This gives an added slightly smokey taste. (See notes for alternative ways to cook this.)
Set aside about ¼ cup of the browned chorizo, then dump all ingredients (including the rest of the chorizo) into a blender and blend till nearly smooth. Add water to get the desired consistency (probably about ½ cup)
Add salt to taste and the chorizo crumbles and stir in.
Serve hot or cold over eggs, chicken, burritos, enchiladas, nachos, whatever.
Notes
Other ways to cook the tomatillos, garlic, and jalapeno: - Place the quartered tomatillos, garlic and jalapeno in a baking dish and roast at 400 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes or until tomatillos are completely soft. - Or, you could cover them with water and simmer until soft. Retain the water to add in after blending to desired consistency. (The scorching on the stove is to add a bit of smokiness, but this sauce is so flavorful, I'm not sure this touch is really noticeable.)
Freezes well - will keep up to 6 months in a well-sealed container in the freezer.
Spicy Papaya Guacamole combines a spicy heat with sweet papaya, tangy lime and creamy avocado. It’s a wonderful complement to pulled pork street tacos or many other Southwestern dishes.
This is a sweet-tangy-hot but still smooth and creamy guacamole, great with chips or on a classic street taco. Simple, with just a few ingredients, this is a recipe to make again and again.
Broncos Deviled Eggs is a simple, yet very addictive deviled egg recipe … but with the added step of dying the eggs whites bright blue and bright orange. Amazing how well it works
An ideal appetizer for a Super Bowl party, and surprisingly easy to do. From a pure recipe standpoint, this is one of my favorites. It’s amazing how much the pecans add to these deviled eggs. Personally, I would double or triple the recipe for a party, depending on how many guests you have. You can also make these a day ahead of time. I made these and ended up having deviled eggs for lunch, dinner, and breakfast. They are addictive.
A warning: To get even coloring on the egg whites, you must start with them clean – after you remove the yolks, little bits of yolk tend to stick to the white. To fix this, put the whites in a bowl of water, put your hands in the water, and gently brush of the bits of yolk. Another gotcha – after you dye them, keep the orange and blue ones from touching each other. When an orange egg white comes into contact with a blue egg white, it gets blue spots; the spots will actually spread. My photo above is a bit splotchy because I made both of these mistakes. Otherwise, dying the whites works like a charm.
Slice the eggs in half lengthwise. Scoop the yolks out and into a bowl.
Blend the mustard, mayonnaise, salt, chiles, and pecans with the yolks till smooth.
Put the whites in a bowl of water and gently rub them with your hands to make sure all bits of yolk are washed off. Drain and rinse them to make sure yolk bits are gone.
Set up 2 separate glass or ceramic cups, one for blue and one for orange.
Make a blue mixture (water, vinegar, food coloring) and an orange mixture.
Separate the whites into 2 groups, then one at a time, put each white into the dye bath. Leave in for about 2 minutes. You can fish them out to check the color and put them back in if you want them darker.
When you finish dyeing each egg white, place it on a plate - have separate plates for orange and blue. For best results, don't let any eggs touch each other. See notes.
Scoop a rounded spoonful of the yolk mixture into each egg white and sprinkle with paprika.
Serve on a platter or deviled egg serving dish.
Notes
For prettiest results, make sure the egg whites are clean, with no bits of yolk. Dye each one separately. If you put multiple egg whites in the dye bath together, they will end up with light spots where they were touching. After the whites are dyed, if orange and blue whites touch each other, some of the dye will transfer and the orange whites will have blue spots.
Great food, pre-game & down-time entertainment, & festive decorations!
Awesome Food
For great food, download our Super Bowl Favorite Recipes eCookbook here.
And plan to set up a Taco Bar at the center of the food. Everyone loves creating their own custom tacos exactly the way they like them. See Taco Bar instructions here.
Great Drinks
Of course, you need a variety of everyone’s favorite beers. And wine, soft drinks, and your basics like water and coffee for after the game.
Bronco-tini from Heather Blake
Orange Crush-tini by Heather Blake
But how about some special Super Bowl cocktails? Heather Blake invented a couple Bronco-themed winners that you’ll find in our Super Bowl Favorite Recipes eCookbookand on Heather’s website, RockyMountainCooking.com Do these look amazing or what?
Pre-game Entertainment
How about some Super Bowl Trivia?
You can find a timed (7 minutes) Super Bowl Trivia game here. Take 2-3 laptops. Divide the guests into 2 or 3 teams. Put them in different rooms or at least at a distance from each other. Give them a countdown and the flag goes down. At the end of the 7 minutes, which team scored the highest?? Award them the game day ball … or maybe a beer for each team member!
Want a full battery of Super Bowl Trivia?
See the massive list of Super Bowl Records on Wikipedia. It’s enough to intimidate even the biggest die-hard Super Bowl expert. Got some opposing team fans at your party? It’s a great way to intimidate them!
Super Bowl Decorations
Personally, I like to keep it simple and not too expensive. But there’s still a lot you can do here!
Super Bowl napkins and plates are available at your nearby grocery store or Walmart.
A few easy, inexpensive decorations can make a big difference. Evite has designed a print-it-yourself football-themed “Concession Stand” sign. Each letter is printed on a separate sheet of paper or card stock and you just need about 15 feet of twine and tape to hang it.
