Green Chile from chili peppers has been around for at least 6000 years and today is considered to be the defining ingredient of New Mexican food. The heat of a Chile pepper comes from a substance called capsaicin, which is found in the membranes surrounding the seeds of the pepper and extending down the pod like "veins". Chile is rich in nutritional value, as well as being delicious!

In the past few years, green Chile has grown increasingly more common outside of New Mexico, and it is a popular ingredient in everything including burritos, cheeseburgers, within the state's borders. Many give credit to Blake’s Lotaburger for introducing the green Chile to the hamburger.[1] In the early years the owners at Blake’s noticed that people used to come in and order their hamburgers and then put their own green chilies on them. They said that they “finally caught on and decided to go with it”.

Blake’s special pack green chilies are only made only with New Mexican grown green chilies from the Hatch growing region. According to the BBC World News “The Worlds Best Green Chile” is grown in the Hatch growing area.


[1] "Albuquerque Journal Business Outlook May 8th 1994 page 4". Albuquerque Journal. 1994-05-08

Click here to link to the full article.

Click here to link to the New Mexico Tourism interactive map for the green chili cheeseburger trail.

Click here to see the letter from the New Mexico Tourism department.


[2] "Las Cruces Sun News December 8th 2009". 2009-12-09

[3] New Mexico Tourism Letter January 27, 2010.