
The Fresh Chile Company
The Big Book of Hatch Chile: 180 Great Recipes Featuring the World's Favorite Chile Pepper
The Big Book of Hatch Chile by Kelley Cleary Coffeen is a print cookbook containing more than 180 recipes built around New Mexico Hatch chile peppers, ranging from chile-laced margaritas and green chile cheeseburger variations to appetizers, soups, stews, Mexican classics, and desserts. It is used as a kitchen reference for home cooks, combining recipes with background material on Hatch chile history, family farms and restaurants in the Hatch valley, chile varieties and their flavor characteristics and nutritional value, and the differences between dried and fresh chile. The book also includes guidance on buying, roasting, and storing Hatch chile, and is sold as a single title at $29.95 USD.
- Category
- Media > Books > Print Books
- GTIN
978-0-8263-6543-9- MPN
fcc-big-book-hatch-chile
Specifications
The Big Book of Hatch Chile features over 180 easy-to-use recipes showcasing Hatch chile peppers, along with the history, lore, and practical guidance for cooking with this famed New Mexico chile.
More than 180 detailed recipes; includes a variety of courses from appetizers to desserts; features Hatch chile history and lore; profiles family farms and restaurants; provides practical tips for buying, roasting, and storing Hatch chile.
- Age Group
- adult
- Condition
- new
- Weight
- 2.5 lb
- Category
- Media > Books > Print Books
Additional Attributes
- 180 recipes
- by Kelley Cleary Coffeen
- includes Hatch chile lore and history
- profiles family farms and restaurants
- tips for buying, roasting, and storing Hatch chile
- featured in Cowboy Kent Rollins' cooking video
- easy-to-use recipes
- weeknight time-savers
- Saturday-night showstoppers
- includes recipes for appetizers, desserts, soups, stews, and Mexican classics
Product Insights
This book is a deep, single-author reference from the University of New Mexico Press, written by an NMSU professor and Chile Ambassador who created all 180-plus recipes and nearly all the photos, roughly 80% more than a comparable Hatch cookbook. It frames Hatch chiles through their terroir—Rio Grande soil at 4,000 feet, hot days and cool nights—and their 1,000–8,000 Scoville heat range, tracing the lineage back to Fabián García's 1913 New Mexico 9 and anchoring recipes in cultural rituals like the red-or-green state question and the Hatch Chile Festival. It covers cultivars from mild Big Jim to extra-hot Lumbre, fresh versus dried swaps, roasting and freezing for year-round use, and a wide recipe range including cheeseburger variations, cocktails, desserts, and pantry condiments, with heat calibration for each. Author's diabetes-friendly recipe work and the terroir-driven flavor reducing salt and fat add practical depth. Tradeoffs: it's out of stock, a trade paperback that won't lie flat, has no canning chapters, and is built around the August–September harvest, though storage guidance extends its utility.
Verified claims
- Author credentials
- Author is NMSU professor, New Mexico Chile Ambassador, five-time Mexican cookbook author, and 30-year chile-country resident.
- Edition type
- A single-author reference published by University of New Mexico Press, not a crowd-sourced community cookbook.
- Recipe development
- Author, with 11 years of weekly regional TV experience, created every recipe and nearly all photos.
- Terroir
- Hatch chiles grow in Rio Grande soil at 4,000 feet, where hot days and cool nights concentrate a 1,000–8,000 SHU heat range.
- Heritage
- Hatch chiles descend from Fabián García's 1913 New Mexico 9, bred at NMSU.
- Heat range
- Hatch chiles run 1,000-8,000 Scoville units, roughly jalapeño heat.
- Cultivars
- Hatch cultivars run from mild Big Jim to extra-hot Lumbre.
- Heat variables
- Ripeness and dried vs fresh form shift Hatch's heat and flavor.
- Sourcing
- Book lists sources for Hatch; 2012 law guards the New Mexican label.
- Recipe breadth
- More than 180 recipes, roughly 80% larger than Melissa's 100-recipe Hatch book
- Regional framing
- UNM Press publishes it as a regional archive of Hatch history, terroir, and farming
- Practical guidance
- Covers dried-versus-fresh swaps, cultivar heat, and roast-and-freeze storage; no canning chapters
- Sweet recipes
- Sweet recipes span desserts, drinks, and condiments — from bananas flambé to Hatch hot honey
- Heat level
- At 1,000–8,000 Scoville units, the chile in these desserts is warming, not hot
- Drink range
- Drinks span lemonade, caramel shake, dirty martini, Bloody Mary, and Lemon Drop Martini — for families and cocktail builders.
- Ingredient formats
- Drink recipes use fresh green chile, dried red chile, and jarred Hatch brine, salt, and puree.
- Recipe authority
- Author created every recipe and took all but a few photos; she hosted a weekly cooking segment for 11 years.
- Storage guidance
- Covers roasting, freezing, and dried-for-fresh swaps so pantry recipes run past the Aug-Sep harvest.
- Heat calibration
- Cultivars span mild Big Jim to extra-hot Lumbre, 1,000–8,000 Scoville.
- Author credibility
- Author is an NMSU professor, an 11-year TV cooking host, and a state Chile Ambassador; UNM Press.
- Cheeseburger variations
- Several takes on the classic green chile cheeseburger.
- Heat flexibility
- Hatch cultivars Big Jim, Sandia, and Lumbre let cooks tune burger heat from mild to extra-hot.
- Author authority
- Written by an NMSU professor and 30-year chile-country resident who created every recipe and took nearly all the photos.
- Seasonality
- Built around the August–September harvest, with roast-and-freeze guidance for year-round use.
- Chile varieties
- Details named Hatch cultivars — Big Jim mild-to-medium, Sandia hotter, Lumbre extra-hot — across a 1,000–8,000 SHU range.
- University press
- University of New Mexico Press, a top-third AUP house, published this as a regional cultural record.
- Varieties and heat
- Profiles Hatch varieties from mild Big Jim to extra-hot Lumbre, with heat guidance for ordering
- Fresh vs dried handling
- Explains fresh vs dried Hatch differences and how to swap them in recipes
- Recipe prep forms
- Recipes specify chile form: roasted-peeled-seeded green or dried red powder
- Diabetes-friendly testing
- Author developed diabetes-friendly recipes for Harvard's Joslin Center and NMSU, for rural New Mexico.
- Flavor source
- Hatch chiles' terroir-driven flavor reduces the need for salt and fat in recipes.
- Counter usability
- Won't lie flat on the counter without being held open
Product record
- Title
- The Big Book Of Hatch Chile: 180 Great Recipes Featuring The World's Favorite Chile Pepper
- Brand
- The Fresh Chile Company
- Price
- $29.95 USD
- Availability
- Out of stock
- Rating
- 0 stars, 0 reviews, scale 5
Buying Guide
1 comparison · 8 sourcesUses
Cook Hatch chile dishes, from appetizers to desserts
Use this cookbook to put Hatch chile to work in your home cooking — author Kelley Cleary Coffeen describes its focus as showing how the pepper can flavor and elevate all different types of food. Its more than 180 recipes span appetizers, soups and stews, entrées, breakfast, burgers, and desserts, including chile-laced margaritas, several takes on the classic green chile cheeseburger, chile pecan brittle, and condiments like Hatch hot honey and red chile BBQ sauce. It also includes tips for buying, roasting, and storing Hatch chile, plus the differences between fresh and dried.[2,3,6]
Make Hatch chile cocktails and other drinks
The book's Cocktails and Beverages chapter offers plenty of Hatch chile drinkables, including a Bloody Mary made with Hatch red chile salt and puree, a Chile Dirty Martini with Hatch green chile brine, and Chile Lemonitas, a lemonade made with roasted hot Hatch green chile. For a New Year's Eve party, author Kelley Cleary Coffeen recommends her Chile Lemon Drop Martini, which she calls elegant, smooth, and festive. She describes it as a good way to show that chile doesn't have to be just with margaritas and beer.[2]
Exploring the history and culture of Hatch chile
Beyond its recipes, the book serves up Hatch chile lore and history in every chapter. It explores the history and evolution of Hatch chile and its flavor characteristics, and profiles the family farms, restaurants, and people who make chile central to the identity of the Hatch valley and New Mexico. You'll also find details on chile varieties, their flavor and nutritional value, and other chile resources.[3]
Enjoyable browsing for chile lovers
The Big Book of Hatch Chile features full-color, full-page photos of finished dishes. One reviewer describes it as a chile lover's delight to page through one recipe at a time.[6]
A gift for chile-loving cooks
The author promotes the cookbook as a perfect holiday gift. It can be a seasonal present for cooks who enjoy Hatch chile recipes.[5]
Product comparison
Compared within this brand.
This product The Big Book Of Hatch Chile: 180 Great Recipes Featuring The World's Favorite Chile Pepper The Fresh Chile Company freshchileco.com | ||
|---|---|---|
| The Big Book Of Hatch Chile: 180 Great Recipes Featuring The World's Favorite Chile Pepper: Choose this if you want a Hatch chile–focused cookbook with over 180 recipes spanning appetizers, soups and stews, entrées, breakfast, burgers, desserts, and cocktails, including several takes on the green chile cheeseburger. It also teaches how to select, roast, store, and cook with Hatch chiles, and every chapter weaves in Hatch chile lore, history, and farm profiles. A reviewer describes it as a chile lover's delight to page through thanks to full-page color photos of finished dishes.[2,3,4,6] | Hatch Chile Recipe Cookbook - 2022: Choose this if you want a physical cookbook that pairs with The Fresh Chile Company's Hatch chile sauces and salsas, with plenty of recipe ideas for using those products. The 2022 edition features recipe winners from the brand's Fresh Chile Cookin' Facebook group, giving it a community-cookbook feel that reviews suggest makes it a thoughtful gift for Hatch chile enthusiasts. Note that one buyer reported most recipes were ones they already had, so it may largely duplicate common Hatch chile recipes if you already own a sizable collection.[1] | Hatch Chile Recipe Cookbook - 2021: Choose this if you want a first Hatch chile and Mexican cookbook built from recipes shared by the Fresh Chile customer community, with easy-to-follow instructions that reviewers say suit weeknight cooking and cooks new to Hatch chiles. The author's page copy promises new and exciting Hatch Chile recipes, and one reviewer with family from New Mexico recognized familiar flavors; note that one buyer found the book smaller than expected, though that buyer still liked the recipes inside.[7,8] |
Image Analysis
1 images- 01

Product
Front cover of a cookbook showing a close-up stacked cheeseburger with roasted green chiles; large vertical title text overlays the right side and small author and subtitle text appear at top and bottom.
- Cover image subjectClose-up photograph of a stacked cheeseburger occupying the left two-thirds of the cover, showing bun, lettuce, cheese, two beef patties and roasted green chiles between layers.
1 region
x 0.02 · y 0.12 · w 0.60 · h 0.74 (high) - Top author text“KELLEY CLEARY COFFEEN”
1 region
x 0.28 · y 0.02 · w 0.44 · h 0.10 (high) - Main title lines“THE”
1 region
x 0.52 · y 0.18 · w 0.10 · h 0.10 (high) - Main title lines 2“BIG BOOK”
1 region
x 0.62 · y 0.20 · w 0.30 · h 0.14 (high) - Main title lines 3“OF”
1 region
x 0.52 · y 0.34 · w 0.10 · h 0.10 (high) - Main title lines 4“HATCH”
1 region
x 0.60 · y 0.34 · w 0.30 · h 0.16 (high) - Main title lines 5“CHILE”
1 region
x 0.60 · y 0.50 · w 0.30 · h 0.20 (high) - Subtitle text“180 GREAT RECIPES FEATURING THE WORLD'S FAVORITE CHILE PEPPER”
1 region
x 0.48 · y 0.78 · w 0.46 · h 0.12 (high) - Bun textureTop bun visible at upper left with glossy toasted brown surface and light flour dusting.
1 region
x 0.02 · y 0.12 · w 0.44 · h 0.20 (high) - Roasted green chilesLayer of chopped roasted green chiles with visible red pepper bits sitting atop the upper patty and under the bun.
1 region
x 0.18 · y 0.28 · w 0.30 · h 0.12 (high) - Cheese and pattiesTwo beef patties separated by melted yellow cheese; cheese also visible at the lower patty edge with sesame-like speckles on surface.
1 region
x 0.08 · y 0.36 · w 0.48 · h 0.36 (high) - Bottom bun and lettuceBottom bun visible with green leaf lettuce peeking above it at the lower left of the stack.
1 region
x 0.03 · y 0.66 · w 0.50 · h 0.20 (high)
Other
Shallow depth-of-field background with blurred tableware and glassware to the right; soft studio lighting and mild reflections on the bun and glass.
- Background elementsBlurred out-of-focus glassware and a plate visible to the right of the burger, creating bokeh highlights.
1 region
x 0.70 · y 0.02 · w 0.28 · h 0.60 (high) - Shot compositionTight crop with burger centered left and title text overlaying the right; cover fills the frame with even margins.
- Lighting and reflectionsSoft diffuse lighting producing highlights on the glossy bun and subtle reflections on background glass.
Colors
toasted brown· top bun#BB5C34dark seared brown· beef patties#3C2A2Dcheddar yellow· cheeseolive green· roasted chilesbright orange· title text - orange words#E54A24jet black· title text - black wordspure white· title text - white words- Cover image subjectClose-up photograph of a stacked cheeseburger occupying the left two-thirds of the cover, showing bun, lettuce, cheese, two beef patties and roasted green chiles between layers.
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Documents & Data
Customer Reviews
So fresh, so authentic. that’s what it is. So much flavor in a spoonful.
Provenance
- Merchant Link
- https://freshchileco.com/products/the-big-book-of-hatch-chile-180-great-recipes-featuring-the-worlds-favorite-chile-pepper
- Platform
- shopify
- Updated