In New Mexico, the state vegetable is the chile pepper, where they’re layered atop beef for an iconic dish: the Green Chile Cheeseburger. Sometimes topping the Scoville chart, and sometimes mildly spicy, these burgers are defined by a relish of mixed chiles and a handsome dose of melted cheese. Bobby’s recipe has poblano, Hatch and serrano chiles with honey and red wine vinegar to balance. Pickled red onions add tang, and a Monterey Jack-Parmesan queso sauce brings it home with creamy rich flavor.
| Level: | Intermediate |
| Total: | 5 hr 5 min |
| Prep: | 35 min |
| Inactive: | 4 hr |
| Cook: | 30 min |
| Yield: | 4 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole milk
- 12 ounces Chihuahua or Monterey jack cheese, coarsely grated
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 medium poblano chile, roasted, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced
- 2 Hatch chiles, roasted, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced
- 1 serrano chile, roasted, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 1/2 cups red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 medium red onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 4 hamburger buns, split and lightly toasted
- 12 blue or yellow corn tortilla chips, coarsely crushed
Instructions
- Burgers:
- For the queso sauce:
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Add the milk, increase the heat to high and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the cheese until melted; add the Parmesan and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Keep warm.
- For the relish:
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl and season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- For the pickled red onions:
- Bring vinegar, water, sugar and salt to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from the heat and let cool for 10 minutes. Put the onions in a medium bowl, pour the vinegar over, cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 48 hours before serving.
- For the burgers:
- Heat a griddle or large saute pan over high heat. Add the oil and let it heat until it begins to shimmer.
- Shape the ground beef with your hands into 4 round patties about 1 1/2 inches thick and season each burger on both sides with salt and pepper, to taste. Cook the burgers until golden brown on both sides and cooked to medium, about 8 minutes.
- Put the burgers on the buns and top each with a few tablespoons of the queso sauce, relish, onions and chips.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 4 servings |
| Calories | 1205 |
| Total Fat | 81 g |
| Saturated Fat | 35 g |
| Carbohydrates | 52 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Sugar | 20 g |
| Protein | 62 g |
| Cholesterol | 217 mg |
| Sodium | 1378 mg |
Reviews
This is awful. It’s NOT a green chili cheeseburger. A real one is a cheeseburger with Hatch Green Chili on it. Everything else is a fake.
Love the relish! We do this with some Boars Head 3 Pepper Cheese or Monterey Jack Cheese with jalapeños instead of the Queso Recipe. I also don’t do the pickled onions. But the relish!! Yum!! On some nice rolls. So good!
This is the burger that lost the Throwdown. Where’s the recipe for the winner?
I have made this recipe a number of times and I have to say, the first time I made it, I thought it was delicious. But the times after that, it just didn’t come together for me. The cheese sauce is really the problem – the relish and onions are delicious. I’ll keep messing with it, but for the amount of cheese that goes into that sauce, I think you’d be better off just putting a thick slice of cheese on the burgers while they finish cooking…
I’d rather have the MUCH better recipe from the Buckhorn (the guy that BEAT) Bobby Flay! This recipe is ridiculous and takes FIVE HOURS???
Amazing!!! I will use the green Chile salsa all summer long as an alternative to tomato salsa. This will go strait into the cookbook.
Packed with tons of flavor. Everyone loved it!
Fabulous!
I thought this was good but not sure I would make again. I think there was way too much onion for this recipe and the cheese sauce was a little bland. I also thought there was too much vinegar in the recipe. The chili salsa was good but I have a better recipe. I also thought the burger itself was bland and we cooked ours on the grill.
The Bomb.