So I mentioned a couple of months ago that my wife and I vacationed in the Colorado Rockies last summer. This was our first road trip in my wife’s new Camry Hybrid.
We decided to take the Camry instead of the van, first since it was just the two of us, and second, if you can get all the way across Nebraska without having to stop for gas, this is always a good thing. (We would also find out later how beneficial they can be for mountain driving.)
Our first Colorado meal was just across the border in Sterling at a Colorado chain Mexican restaurant called Santiago’s.
Unfortunately, I had drained the battery on my phone using Trip Advisor for the last 6000 miles of Nebraska trying to find somewhere to eat. As a result, I do not have a picture to share of one of Santiago’s signature items, the Stuffed Sopapilla.
If you’ve been to a Mexican restaurant, you’ve seen sopapillas, usually in a dessert setting. They’re dough folded over and fried, coated in cinnamon and drizzled with honey. They are frequently served with ice cream.
This is a different animal though. It’s shaped roughly the same, but about twice the size. Then they stuff it with any two items from the burrito menu (except steak). I had chicken and rice with carnitas in mine. Then they smother it in their signature green chile, and THEN they deluxe it (yes, they use “deluxe” as a verb) with cheese, lettuce and tomato. I had been working up a hungry from driving literally all day, and it was still all I could eat. For only $6.75.
Let me go back a minute to that signature green chile. The official name at Santiago’s is “Authentic Green Chile Sauce with Pork,” but if you just say Colorado Green Chile, everybody knows what you’re talking about. Whenever I’m away from home, I always like to try regional specialties. On this trip, it was the green chile.
Green Chile is to Colorado as the horseshoe is to Springfield. Just about every restaurant has it in one form or another, sometimes as a soup you can order a bowl of, sometimes as a condiment. Of course, each establishment has its own recipe, but here are the basics:
- Simmer two bone-in pork chops in a stockpot for 2-3 hours. Then remove what’s left of the chops.
- Add the following:
- 26 ounces roasted chopped green chiles (This region favors chiles from the Hatch Valley in New Mexico)
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 5 ounces tomato puree
- 2 tablespoons bacon grease
- 2 teaspoons salt
- Simmer for 2 hours.
- If you want it thicker, blend in some cornstarch.
(For cooking your bacon!)
A word of caution. If you’re not from Colorado, your digestive system isn’t used to this. It seems harmless at first, but later . . . well let’s just say if you’re not traveling alone, you might want to take one for the team and sleep on the couch that night. Your spouse will thank you.