This May be the Best Place for Roasted Chile in all of Colorado
It's that time of the year in Colorado. My favorite time of the year. The air starts to get crisp and fills with the unmistakable aroma of green chiles roasting in drums. Roasted green chiles are a staple in my home and every year we stock up on hundreds of roasted chiles to pack the freezer.
There has been a long-standing rivalry between Colorado and New Mexico when it comes to the superiority of green chile. Depending on how you were raised and your palate, you may be loyal to one state's chiles over the other. That's totally fine. For me, I prefer chiles from Hatch, New Mexico. While I may not have had chiles from Pueblo in some time, I like their flavor, but I always stick with what I know.
Most chile roasting stands in Colorado offer both varieties, ranging from mild to hot, and even some burn your face off variates such as dynamite. This year, I decided to try a new place to stock up on my fresh roasted green chiles and I was not disappointed.
The Best Green Chile Roasting Stand in Colorado
Take a trip down I-25 to Thornton, get off on the 84th Avenue exit, and go west. In a few short blocks, you will start to smell the aroma of roasting chiles on a busy day. Your nose will lead you straight to the Gonzales Chile Stand.
The intoxicating smell will have your mouth watering and you haven't even had a bite of the good stuff yet. Veronica and Alonzo are roasting up what could arguably be the best green chile in the Denver metro area if not all of Colorado.
The Gonzales Chile Stand in Thornton offers chiles from both New Mexico and Colorado in all different levels of spice, roasted to perfection. This past weekend, we went down to pay the Gonzales Chile Stand a visit and picked up a large bag of medium Hatch green chiles.
We paid for our big bag of charred green goodness and headed back home to Northern Colorado. For the best results, you are supposed to let the chiles steam in the plastic bag for three to four hours. We did just that. After a long trip to the Denver Metro area, I figured that would be a great time to take a nap while the chiles steamed off the charred skins.
After the nap and the steaming process, we got to bagging up the chiles into freezer bags. When I tell you that these were some of the meatiest, biggest, and most flavourful green chiles I have ever had, I am not exaggerating at all. When it was all said and done, there were more than 230 chiles that were processed and bagged, ready to freeze and eat all year long.
So if you are ready to get a great haul of roasted green chiles, you should consider heading down to the Gonzales Chile Stand at 321 West 84th Avenue in Thornton. You will certainly be happy you did.
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