Red Chile Sauce

Happy Thanksgiving, all! I think the best part of Thanksgiving, well besides eating your weight in turkey, sides and pie, is that it's so different depending on where you celebrate.

While we all eat "the usual", "the usual" changes vastly region-to-region. Think about it for a second, dressing versus stuffing, giblet gravy versus packaged, lumpy potatoes versus smooth and with peas and onions? The Thanksgiving traditions in Pittsburg are going to be different from Thanksgiving in San Diego, is going to be different from Thanksgiving in New York City, and so on and so on. Yeah, I agree there's probably a turkey on most if not all tables and mashed potatoes in some form but the preparations and fixings all vary.

Well, a staple on every New Mexican's Thanksgiving table, and most definitely nowhere else in the country, is red chile sauce. If you are not a native New Mexican, you may be thinking to yourself, "red chile? What? Do they eat anything that isn't smothered in chile?" To answer your question, no, chile really does cover everything that enters our stomachs in some form or another. The sauce also serves a dual purpose: to replace gravy. I have never liked gravy. Call me Un-American or a traitor or whatever, I don't care. I don't like gravy and I am not ashamed to admit it. It grosses me out. Always have. Always will. Period. End-of-story.

Since Nate and I are hosting Thanksgiving this year, I get to subject people to my bizarre New Mexican traditions. This red chile sauce will cover my mashed potatoes, my turkey and who knows what else! So if you want to try something different on your Thanksgiving table this year, I urge you to give this red chile sauce a try! 

New Mexican Red Chile Sauce

1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp flour
1/4 C red chile powder
1 C water
Salt to taste

In a medium sized sauce pan over medium heat, saute garlic until it begins to release the wonderful cooking-garlic aroma. Blend in the flour using a wooden spoon and allow to cook for a minute until it becomes a light golden color.

Turn the heat down to medium-low and blend in the chile powder. I know what you're thinking: "Lindsey, I live in (insert town name here) and they don't just sell red chile powder here! Why are you trying to get me to make this stuff anyway?!" To which I answer you, ok, calm down first of all. Chile powder is actually easier to find than you would think! I was able to buy a huge bag of it at Aldi in Cary, North Carolina. If you don't have an Aldi near you, you could also order it online from my favorite chile purveyor: Chile Monster. 

Now, red chile burns easily so you really have to be careful and blend it in and toast it for only about a minute before adding in the water and salt. I prefer my chile sauce to be a little thicker in consistency so I only added about 3/4 C of my water but if you want yours to be a little thinner than feel free to add in the whole cup, or even less.

Happy Thanksgiving, readers from my family to yours!