If you are looking for roasted chile this year, you’ve come to the right place! Hatch chile roasting is an incredibly important part of New Mexican culture. This delicacy has spread to surrounding states and even further as New Mexico’s delicious food touches the hearts of more and more people. If you are here, you have probably asked where to get roasted Hatch chile this year. Read on to find out!

Where to get roasted green chile in Albuquerque?

We roast chile at 2010 Eubank Blvd NE Albuquerque, NM 87112. When it comes to roasted Hatch green chile in Albuquerque, the original is always worth checking out. We’ve been roasting chile since 1977, before anyone else in the city. Most other roasters were just kids or not born born yet back then. We open every day from 9-5 during the months of August, September, and October, the whole chile season. Check out our new post for 2024! In 2024, we will be roasting chile every day from Friday August 2nd, 2024! Farmers Chile Market is Albuquerque’s Original Chile Roaster, and 2024 marks our 47th chile season roasting in Albuquerque.

Every chile season, New Mexicans always consider where to get their Hatch chile roasted. Many people here prefer chile from other areas, such as Lemitar, San Antonio, or Chimayo. In the early season, we always start our green chile roasting with Hatch chile. Simply put, it is ready faster. As the plants get older however, the chile they produce becomes smaller and doesn’t roast as well. In this case, it is best to let the chile turn red and mature. The red chile pods they turn into make a delicious sauce, and is one answer to our state question, “Red or Green?”

Because the Hatch season is earlier, we change over to our farmers farther north later in the season in order to get the best quality chile available at the time. If the month is August, our green chile is almost certainly Hatch green chile. If it is around September or later, our green chile will likely be from Snake Ranch or another farm in the Socorro Valley area. There are many places here growing fantastic New Mexico chile.

Regardless of whether you are looking for Hatch chile, Lemitar chile, or somewhere else, we are confident that our chile quality is just as good, if not better. Our farmers use seeds bred primarily for flavor rather than yield per acre as a lot of “Hatch chile farms” use. If you want good quality roasted green or red chile, you can be sure to get it here. We pride ourselves on being a great chile roaster in Albuquerque.

If you are asking yourself where to get chile roasting near me in 2023, You can find your solution in the Northeast Heights at 2010 Eubank Blvd NE. We will also have plenty of red chile ristras, other chile products, and local produce available.

Hatch Chile Season 2023

Although it is still somewhat early to tell, the snow and rain we have been seeing over the winter is definitely a good sign. Although there are other factors than just water involved in growing and harvesting green and red New Mexico chile, water availability has been something which has been limiting the amount of farms able to grow. When we get a good snowpack, this means water will be less of a troubling issue. Hopefully winters like these become normal, as water concerns have become somewhat severe in recent years.

For more information on the stages of the chile season from August to October, be sure to read our post about the Hatch Chile Season.

Is there a green chile shortage?

Regardless of the bleak picture many media outlets love to paint, green and red New Mexico chile will always be available, even if the price rises due to various reasons, such as labor, water, fertilizer, or even age of farmers. Green chile production in Hatch, and most other areas of New Mexico is becoming smaller and smaller, but it will still be available. We at Farmers Chile Market are committed to finding good chile, no matter what happens in the future. You can believe that we will always support local farmers and try to keep the great chile tradition of New Mexico alive.

What Varieties of Chile we Roast

We roast many different varieties of Hatch chile, including but not limited to Numex 6-4, Big Jim, Sandia, Miss Junie, Barker, and even the xxx-hot Lumbre chile. More than just that, we often also carry red chile once it is ready too. In terms of heat levels, this means we sell and roast chile which is very mild, all the way up to xxx-hot. We have even had people special order fresh ghost peppers to roast alongside with other chile. If we roast it, you can be sure it is local New Mexican chile, though we also have a wide range of other chile peppers as well!

Other types of chilies we sell

If you are looking for the hottest of the hot, we try to carry a wide assortment of both fresh and dried superhot chili peppers during the chile season. We typically always have plenty of Carolina Reapers, Ghost Peppers, 7 Pots, Scotch Bonnets and even Aji Charapita, the world’s most expensive chili pepper! We also carry a good assortment of chile from Mexico, such as Ancho, Chipotle, Guajillo, and more. In the future, I will prepare different recipes using these peppers. I love to cook and write, but often I become quite busy managing my chile roasting operation, and that must come first. Because of this, it may take me a year or two to come up with these recipes using various chile peppers. For now, here is a recipe overview for a New Mexican classic, stacked red chile enchiladas. Check out our Recipes Section for more ideas, as I’ve updated it a lot since this original post!

Looking Forward to the 2023 NM chile season

The chile season is always different, but the same. During the months of August, September, and October, I work every day of the week, trying to not only provide the best customer service I can, but also find the best chile at the best time. The season changes drastically from the early season, where only a small amount of green chile varieties available. Two weeks later, we have plenty of extra hot and xxx hot chile, with more and more mature reddish chiles showing up in the burlap sacks. Once September comes, red chile comes right after. Once red chile is available, red chile ristras show up days later, as they are a great way for farming families to make more money. It is also a good way for older family members to make some money without having to break their backs in the fields. With red chile coming, it also means the season is approaching the finish line. The weather starts getting colder, and plants have less energy to keep making new green chile.

More and more farmers stop picking, and leave the red chile pods to dry on the plant, to be harvested once dry. These dried red chile pods are the base of one of the most important parts of New Mexican cuisine, the red chile sauce! Many of these Hatch chile pods are later further processed by some of the large chile processors in Hatch into red chile powder, which is a great spice with tons of uses!

Get chile at Farmers Chile Market

We hope to be your choice when you search for chile roasting near me 2023 this year. If you are living in Albuquerque, or just passing through for the Balloon Fiesta or something else, we would love to see you at 2010 Eubank Blvd Albuquerque, NM 87112 this chile season!

More info about New Mexico Chile

Check out our guide to roasting chile at home.

If you know anyone who will be roasting chile as a professional, our guide to roasting with a barrel roaster will be a great read for them.

Check here if you are curious about different varieties of chile.

Also, feel free to read through our blog if you want to learn other things about New Mexico Chile. I’m always trying to learn more about chile, both here and abroad, find out more about my story on the page About Me. We add new content regularly, such as our post about the Hatch Chile Festival, and will feature recipes along with other knowledge and opinions as the chile industry changes. It is a very different game than it used to be, with many new varieties available. We hope you enjoyed reading our blog, and hope to see you when you are looking for roasted green chile in 2023!