Red and Green Chile aka Christmas Chile Enchiladas

Traditional New Mexico red chile enchiladas made from scratch with a rich, slow-simmered sauce and tender chicken. This cherished family recipe honors generations of chile-making tradition—serve them with a fried egg on top for the ultimate experience.

This recipe for traditional red chile enchiladas—or Christmas style, if you're adding green chile too—comes courtesy of one of our valued customers. We'd like to extend a big thank you to William and Stacy Layman for allowing us to post it online.

This is the kind of recipe that's been passed down through generations, with each family adding their own little touches. Some folks swear by a bit of dark chocolate and honey in the sauce for depth and richness. Others keep it simple and let the red chile shine on its own. Either way, you're building something truly special here.

The process starts with cooking a whole chicken in boiling water with celery, onion, and bay leaf until the leg falls off when grabbed. Remove the chicken, let it cool, and take the meat off the bones. Strain the liquid and retain it—you'll use that flavorful broth for your sauce. Toss the rest. Once you have your protein prepared, you can move on to the sauce itself.

The red chile sauce is where the magic happens. You're building layers of flavor: sautéed onion and garlic, toasted spices like cumin, coriander, and oregano, and of course, plenty of ground red chile. The sauce simmers low and slow for an hour or two, deepening in color and flavor until it's rich, velvety, and absolutely irresistible.

Our family has been growing Hatch chile in the fertile soils of the Hatch Valley for five generations, and this is exactly the kind of recipe that honors that tradition. Whether you're using our ground red chile or our fresh red chile, you're getting the authentic flavor that only comes from chiles grown in New Mexico's unique climate and soil.

Once your sauce is ready, you assemble the enchiladas: lightly fry your corn tortillas, roll them around tender chicken and green chile (if you're going Christmas style), cover them in that gorgeous red sauce, top with cheese, and bake until bubbly and golden.

Serve them with sour cream, salsa, chopped onion, or—and this is a game-changer—an over-easy fried egg on top. The runny yolk mixes with the red chile sauce and creates something absolutely divine.

These enchiladas take a little time and care, but they're worth every single minute. Make a big batch, invite people over, and watch them disappear.