That sounds wonderful! I want to visit New Mexico one of these days and take a good eating tour around. It was actually in Hungary when I was living there when a New Mexican woman introduced me to green chili, using the local hot green peppers shaped like Anaheims or New Mexico chiles. It was love at first bite. (With the food; she just ran in our circle of friends.) The closest I’ve gotten was a couple of places in Phoenix, but New Mexican food seems oddly underrepresented there. I would think the continuum of food culture would spill into Arizona, but it doesn’t seem to, or at least not as much as I think it would.
Look for white striations on the pepper. They’re supposed to be hotter.
Yeah I’ve heard that one too. I’ve not done a controlled experiment, but I can’t really say I’ve noticed a difference. The ones that have surprised me, from my recollection, have always just been straight green through and through. It’s like that — what is it — the shishito peppers where it’s like Russian roulette. A bag of them proclaims something like one of every ten is very hot, on average. Kinda like that with the jalapeños, though it tends to be more like one of every five or so batches I get are quite hot.
Seriously, you’re right about the underrepresentation. I think a lot of it is that without a dependable source of good chiles, it doesn’t adapt as well. And of course, the national dominance of Tex-Mex means it starts off with one arm tired behind it’s back. I reference a recent thread where a poster was blown away by a “Mexican” restaurant that didn’t serve queso as an example of what a lot of people have been trained to expect!
And we won’t get into the whole rolled vs. stacked enchilada option, or the relleno as a giant ball of deep-fried dough.
So, and back to @solost and my earlier post, New Mexican cuisine is almost always about the chile involved, first, last, and always. The joke you’ll hear (which is largely true!) is that in NM you’ll order a dish, and the first question the server will ask is “red or green?”. Because the dish is nearly completely different depending on that choice.
I’ve heard it as well, and found it mixed. I’ve a slighty better correlation with jalapenos having turned (partially or fully) red/gold tending to the sweet heat I want, but even that’s barely moving the odds. Thankfully (?) while Kroger jalapenos have doubled in cost since before Covid, that means they’re still generally 1.50-2.00 USD a pound, and so buying a half dozen or so at a time it’s cheap enough to take the crap-shoot!
Nor have I. The Spousal Unit no longer tolerates heat.
Got it simmering on the stove now for the next couple hours. I went with @pulykamell ‘s suggestion to not add fresh peppers this time- I did want to judge the flavor with the rehydrated dried peppers alone. So the only fresh vegetables I added are diced onions and garlic.
The sauce, once I puréed the peppers and steeping liquid, is a fantastic looking consistency and nice reddish brown color, and already tasted amazing. I thought I’d have to reduce it a lot to thicken it, but it’s so thick already I might have to add some beef stock to thin it out!
Yeah, I was well aware that “colorado” referred to the color, not the state. The only reason I capitalized it was that my spell checker insisted that it should be, and I suppose I’ve developed a habit of going along with what the spell checker recommends.
Well, the chili turned out freakin’ awesome. And I’m not saying that to brag on my cooking skills— I am a pretty good cook, but with this recipe I followed some pretty simple instructions. It was all about the chiles. It was a smoky, deep, and unique flavor profile. Wasn’t just me, my wife said wow too. Ever had a meal so good it improved your mood after you ate it, almost like a drug? That was this chili.
I absolutely know that feeling. Good food can make me positively euphoric. Congrats on the chile colorado! My New Mexican-Hungarian fusion turned out exactly as I had it in my head, so I’m a happy camper, as well.
Using the red hatch chili powder? Do tell.
I have a recipe elsewhere here on the dope for pörkölt, I believe, but I essentially just took the spicing of chili colorado or carne adovada (I accidentally called it “chili adovada” above as we’ve been talking about chili this whole thread) and applied it to a Hungarian pork pörkölt (usually it’s made with beef, but any meat can be used). I fried up about 1.5-2lbs of onions with a bit of salt in lard until starting to change color, added six minced garlic cloves, took it off the heat, added, I don’t know, three tablespoons of the Hatch New Mexican chili powder, one tablespoon paprika, about a tablespoon cumin, two teaspoons Mexican oregano, mixed it up, and let it mingle for about a minute or two under residual heat, until fragrant. Then I added the cubed pork shoulder/butt (I didn’t feel like browning it first, and in Hungarian pörkölt, you often do not brown the meat), mix it all up, add about a cup of liquid (I had some homemade stock from cooking up my dog some chicken quarters) and return to heat. Bring to boil, then drop to simmer and wait about three to four hours. At the end, i adjusted with plenty of salt to taste. Garnish with chopped cilantro and onion. Also had a squirt of lime.
Nothing complicated, but it turned out as I had hoped. That said, I’ve made so many Hungarian stews in my life that I wasn’t expecting it to turn out anything but well. I use the same approach for making my Tex-Mex quasi-bowl of red (I add a little tomato product to mine, not much but some purists may scoff), and that won me a first place in my first (and I’m guessing only) chili contest I’ve ever entered (a month ago at our parish, with 14 participants.)
Sounds good! I’ll have to try making something similar sometime.
Is that the recipe in the OP?
It occurs to me that goulash is just Hungarian chili.
I haven’t had goulash since the '90s. There was a little (24 chairs) place in Hollywood called Little Prague. It was hard to choose between the goulash and the half roast duck.
Oh man, I just had some of the leftover chili in a burrito for lunch. Even better the next day.
Yes, that’s the recipe I mainly followed, except I did include a couple extra ingredients from the Texas chili recipe that @WildaBeast posted right after my OP— a little allspice, and Asian fish sauce for an umami boost.
One thing about this chili I discovered— this may be a bit TMI, but I feel I should post it as a PSA to anyone who may be making this for the first time like me…
As previously discussed, the “Colorado” in the name “chili Colorado” comes not from the state but because ‘Colorado’ is Spanish for ‘red chili’ (and again, my iPad is capitalizing the C, not me, and I don’t feel like fighting the spellcheck).
Anyway…the deep brick-red color that the chiles impart is, let’s say, preserved through the entire digestive process. At least, in my case it was. So don’t be alarmed the next day, as I briefly was.
(pardon the snip).
I could use this to season a car tire and I’d be off to a good start. Of course, I exaggerate, but not by that much. 
I was also inspired by this thread to make chili colorado. I bought a fresh batch of dried guajillo chiles and also some chiles negros (a long, thin black chili which is mild and earthy). I used finely cubed-up chuck roast for the meat. When I really go to town on chili, I use a half-remembered recipe from America’s Test Kitchen that’s probably fifteen years old. Bacon fat, bitter chocolate, and nut butter were some of the unusual additions, as well as a bit of corn masa slurry to thicken the final mixture. Oh, and some beer, too.
Just finished a bowl of it, topped with grated Monterey jack cheese. I think it’s the best bowl o’ red I ever made, due mostly to that excellent batch of guajillo chiles tempered with chiles negros. There’s a huge batch, enough to freeze some for a dinner in about a month’s time.
Nice!
I tried to look up your specific ATK recipe online and I think I may have found it, but it’s behind a paywall 
With the addition of unsweetened chocolate, it almost sounds like it’s on the way to being mole sauce, which I also want to try making, now that I have the dried chiles.