Coloradans are typically a pretty laid-back bunch. But if you want to spark a spirited debate, ask one where to find the city’s best green chile.
For those of us weaned on green chile, it’s a hotly contested question.
First off, there’s the spelling: chile or chili? Can the two be used interchangeably, or is there a difference? Popular consensus maintains that chile with an “e” refers to a sauce made from chiles, while chili with an “i” points to the meaty brick red stew typically cooked with beef, tomatoes, onions and spices. That said, you’ll see it spelled both ways — sometimes even on the same menu.
Next up: New Mexico or Colorado green chile? This is where people get really fired up.
New Mexico green chile favors roasted Hatch green chiles, a smoky chile harvested in the Hatch Valley of New Mexico. Coloradans are partial to Pueblo chiles, which are typically hotter and bolder in flavor. New Mexico green chile incorporates little more than chopped Hatch chiles, water, garlic, salt and a bit of flour or masa for thickening; potatoes sometimes make an appearance, too. Colorado green chile is most often spotted with pork and occasionally stewed with tomatoes and tomatillos.
Predictably, there’s a deep divide along state lines as to which green chile reigns supreme. In fact, people are so passionate about it that both New Mexico and Colorado recently created specialty license plates featuring their state chiles: Hatch chiles for New Mexico and, of course, Pueblo chiles for Colorado.
Since this is The Mile High City, we’re obviously partial to Colorado-style green chile. But, honestly, we’re happy to inhale the transportive elixir no matter how it’s served.
15 PLACES TO TRY GREEN CHILE IN DENVER
LA LOMA
Long before taco trucks, taquerias and swanky taco temples, there was La Loma, a hallelujah of Colorado-style green chile, gigantic margaritas, nachos and fajitas. Since its inception in the 1970s, the restaurant has occupied three different locations, including its current residence in the heart of downtown Denver. But the green chile, a longstanding family recipe that’s earthy, thick and slightly sweet, has remained (thankfully) unchanged. It's also fairly mild, making it a great beginner chile! Smother it on burritos, flautas or the delicious mini chile rellenos — hot, crisp-crusted and pouched with gooey cheese.
THE CHERRY CRICKET
The spicy Pueblo-style pork green chile at this beloved burger joint (now with two locations: the original in Cherry Creek and the new Ballpark restaurant downtown) is one for the books. We recommend ordering it on their classic 1/2-pound Cricket burger, along with melted white cheddar cheese. Need convincing? Chef Aarón Sánchez — host of the Cooking Channel’s "Taco Trip" and a judge on the Food Network's "Chopped" and Fox's "MasterChef" — says a burger topped with green chile at this Mile High haunt is the best you'll ever eat.
SAM’S NO. 3 DINER AND BAR
The menu at Sam’s No. 3 is enormous, but one choice is easy: whatever you order, ask for it smothered in their famous green chile. The downtown diner through 60 gallons of the stuff every day, and they’ve been open for more than 90 years, so you do the math. Early birds can get their green chile fix on omelets and skillets, while the lunch crowd can order it atop a burger or the giant platter of Macho Nachos. It's so popular that the Food Network published the recipe online (with the diner's permission, of course), so intrepid amateur chefs can try to recreate it at home! The Tex-Mex Chili is another favorite: half red beef chili and half pork green chile.
EL TACO DE MEXICO
"For truly amazing flavors, El Taco de Mexico is a must," wrote "Bizarre Foods" host Andrew Zimmern, who visited the iconic Art District on Santa Fe taco joint during a stopover in The Mile High City nearly a decade ago. The revered restaurant recently received a 2020 America’s Classic Award from the James Beard Foundation. Locals, chefs and in-the-know out-of-towners line up morning, noon and night for the voluptuous chile relleno burrito smothered with a mind-blowingly good chile verde aromatic with garlic, tomatillos, spices and pork fat. Make no mistake: It’s a dive with a yellow Formica counter and tattered booths, but it’s also the best place in town to subscribe to Denver’s unofficial green chile club.
SANTIAGO’S
With multiple locations scattered across the city, you’re never too far from a Santiago’s. And that’s a good thing, because this local Mexican chain is a fan favorite, especially when it comes to its Colorado-style green chile. Available in mild, hot and half and half (medium), Santiago’s savory sauce is punched with green chiles and jalapeno peppers, tomatoes and pork. The green chile-blanketed breakfast burritos have generated a cult following (the lines are proof of their popularity), but the tamales, chile rellenos and enchiladas all benefit from a thump of the joint’s time-honored green sauce.
NORTH COUNTY
Channeling the Baja region of California, North County, a jovial spot in Lowry, turns out memorable south-of-the-border staples, but its green chile, a simmered stew of roasted Hatch green chiles, garlic, tender pork and masa, which acts as a thickener, is absolutely terrific. Smother it on fries, nachos or the mammoth California burrito, or swish a flour tortilla through a large bowl of the chile-laced verde.
UNO MAS TAQUERIA Y CANTINA
The union of tacos, tortas and pupusas absorb the menu at Uno Mas Taqueria Y Cantina, a duo of festive taquerias with outposts in Platt Park and Alamo Placita. Owner Patrick Mangold-White subscribes to a garden-to-plate/farm-to-table philosophy, unearthing seasonal produce from his own gardens, greenhouse and farmland and sourcing his chicken, pork and beef from Colorado farmers. The pork belly tacos, rubbed with coffee and ancho chiles, will dare you to order another, while the green chile, spotted with pork, roasted Serrano peppers, tart tomatillos, garlic and tomatoes, composes a tasty bowl that’s equally delicious cascading over a chicken burrito. A litany of craft beers and a collection of more than 70 tequilas provides requisite lubrication.
BREAKFAST QUEEN
The Breakfast Queen is an unlikely triumph, in part because of its location on a stretch of South Broadway. It occupies the space of the former Englewood Theater — the city’s first moving picture cinema — and still channels the diners of yesteryear, a time warp that resonates with everyone from hungover hipsters to suits and bartenders with bold names. They come for plump pancakes and massive breakfast skillets, housemade chile rellenos, huge salads and sandwiches fit for sumo wrestlers. And they come for the excellent green chile, a semi-thick concoction of pork, green chiles, fire-roasted jalapenos, cumin, garlic and tomatoes.
TACOS JALISCO
In the 30 or so years it’s been open, Tacos Jalisco has positioned itself as one of the most essential restaurants in Berkeley, a casual hangout for local families, a place where couples can sip cerveza or margaritas and share a sizzling molcajete heaped with various grilled meats, chiles and molten Mexican cheese, a joint that’s renowned for its collection of housemade salsas, which seesaw from mild to incendiary. It’s also one of the northside restaurants most likely to be in your green chile rotation. Punctuated with tender chunks of pork, spiced with cumin and vibrantly flavored with vegetal green chiles from New Mexico, it’s a semi-thick, crave-worthy preparation that slowly flares, its burn strengthening as it tiptoes into your belly.
El TEJADO
El Tejado, a low-pressure joint with a hazy view of the cars whizzing down South Broadway and a menu stamped with jumbo-size margaritas and dishes representative of the United States of Mexican food, is emblematic of Denver’s mad crush on green chile. Punctuated with pork, forcefully flavored with spices and seething with chiles (especially the hot version), it’s the kind of intoxicating green chile that you want to inhale. And it’s splashed on just about everything, including the two-fisted, tortilla-wrapped Mexican burger.
HOJA
Bright white walls strewn with cactus paddles and shelves propped with potted foliage and cookbooks intersect with a modern vibe at this daytime cookery in Platt Park that focuses on vegetable-leaning plates, most of which have a Mexican spin. The exhibition kitchen at HOJA turns out quesadillas enveloping jackfruit chorizo and shaved vegetables, pozole studded with pork and a duo of delicious egg-stuffed burritos cloaked in a bracing sauce laced with tomatoes, garlic, cumin, oregano and poblano, guajillo and Hatch green chiles. Cool down with a glass of the housemade Cafe de Olla, a Mexican almond milk latte made with coffee, cinnamon, star anise and piloncillo, which is often referred to as Mexican brown sugar.
MARQUEZ FOOD
If you’re wandering around downtown Denver and hit a human traffic jam at the corner of 17th and Blake Streets, it’s likely because of Marquez Food, a taco and burrito cart that’s become downtown’s culinary symbol of Mexican street food. The cash-only operation churns out softened tacos garnished with cilantro, onion, lime wedges and a splash of green salsa, as well as breakfast burritos swelled with eggs, chorizo, ham and potatoes among other things. At some point during the ordering process, you start to realize that you can’t forgo the green chile, a fearsome sauce pungent with charred and blistered peppers, garlic, onions and scraps of pork. Find an outdoor table or sit on the curb and don’t succumb to guilt if you want seconds. You’re in good company.
D’CORAZON
Winner of Westword’s award for best green chile in 2018, D’Corazon’s entry is a true Colorado classic: thick, orange and medium-spicy. You can get pretty much anything on the menu at this downtown dive smothered in the pork green chile, or go veggie with the (almost) equally delicious meat-free version.
BREWERY BAR II
Located in the Art District on Santa Fe neighborhood, Brewery Bar’s tagline is “Some Like It Hot,” and they aren’t kidding! You can order the Mexican restaurant’s pork green chile mild or mouth-searingly hot. Get it slathered on any of the combos and wash it all down with a 24-ounce “tiny” beer. What happened to Brewery Bar I, you might wonder? The original was founded in 1954 in the Tivoli Brewing Company, and the restaurant still keeps the brewery's beer on tap in tribute. There's also a Brewery Bar III in nearby Lone Tree.
TAMALES BY LA CASITA
Bright green and peppery with notes of garlic and tender pieces of pork, the green chile at Tamales by La Casita is the perfect pool for — what else? — a duo of fresh, handmade tamales. But you don't have to stop at one or two: order a half-dozen or a dozen tamales (choose from red chile and pork or green chile with cheese, or get a mix of both) to take home with you, along with a pint of green chile to smother the whole lot. There's also an outpost at Gate C in Denver International Airport. Have tamale, will travel!