3 famed Denver green chile recipes (and 1 copycat version)
Denver Post
Green chile season is wrapping up, and if you’re like thousands of other Coloradans, you’ve sought out your favorite roasted-chile stand, grocery store or farmers market (or will be soon) in order to buy a bag, a bushel or a couple of bushels of either Pueblo or Hatch peppers.
Related: Denver’s green chile roadside roasters a cultural, culinary gift
For many, making green chile — the dish — at home is a spicy group activity, a family tradition or, if you freeze your chile, a modern way to buckle down for the cold weather ahead.
But if you’re new to the game, making green chile can be fraught with indecision over which direction to go. Do you want pork? What about tomatoes or tomatillos. Should you add masa or flour? Cumin or chile powder? Will tomato paste make the dish better or worse? Are you a fan of blending the chiles into a thick sauce or of keeping things simpler with a thinner soup?
To help you start things off, we’ve summarized three famous recipes below (along with a copycat version of a fourth) and provided links where you can find instructions and details.
Hosea Rosenberg’s Pork Green Chile Potato Stew
Hosea Rosenberg is known locally as the head chef and owner of Blackbelly, the Michelin-recommended restaurant and market he started in Boulder in 2014 and expanded to Denver in 2024. Nationally, he gained fame in 2009 as the winner of “Top Chef” season 5 when he cooked blackened redfish corn cake. But Rosenberg was raised in New Mexico, which is Colorado’s chief rival when it comes to green chile, so his recipe brings some street cred. It also, notably, includes fingerling potatoes. Spices include chile powder, cumin and fresh chopped oregano.
Dana “Loca” Rodriguez’s Pork Green Chile
Dana Rodriguez got her start in Denver working for local restaurant pioneers Jennifer Jasinski and Beth Gruitch before helping to start Work & Class in 2014. Over the next few years, the native of Chihuahua, Mexico, earned two James Beard nominations and opened several more restaurants, including Super Mega Bien, Cantina Loca and now Carne. She is also the executive chef at Casa Bonita. Her green chile recipe calls for pork shoulder, tomatillos and Hatch green chiles along with poblanos and jalapenos. Like Rosenberg, she uses cumin and oregano, but also adds coriander.
Sam’s No.3 Kickin’ Green Chili
Greek immigrant Sam Armatas opened a diner in Denver in 1927 at the intersection of 15th and Curtis streets, near where Sam’s No. 3 now stands, and like many local restaurateurs, he found success with a menu featuring both Greek and Mexican food. Eventually, he started Sam’s, which grew into three locations in Denver, Glendale and Aurora (that location has since closed). And for decades, one of Denver’s favorite versions of green chile could be found there — so much so that its Kickin’ Pork Green Chili was featured on Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” The recipe calls for Anaheim chiles along with canned chiles, mustard powder and oregano.
Chubby’s Green Chile (Copycat)
Perhaps no green chile in Denver has engendered more fans, more notoriety and more debate than the top-secret family recipe created by the late Stella Cordova, who took over what is now The Original Chubby’s Burger Drive-Inn on West 38th Avenue in 1967 and ran it until she died in 2009 at the age of 100. Local chile aficionado Anita Edge, who operated a website devoted to the stuff, tried several times to recreate it. Her second attempt has been lauded as a terrific recipe in its own right, and there are hints and tips in the comments as well. In addition to many of the ingredients above, it also calls for sage, cumin, chile powder and even Cholula. Does it replicate Chubby’s? That’s for you to decide.