Every thread needs its dissenter, so I guess I'll volunteer. I have never understood the popularity Hatch chiles. I find the taste to be bland to the point of being grocery-store-generic. It's not unpleasant or off-putting in any way, it's simply that I find nothing special, nothing worthy about it. Flavor (or character) is lacking and it's a one-note taste. Now, perhaps I've had bad exemplars. Perhaps it's time to try some again. But this is an opinion based on more than one tasting and my experience, at those times when I think perhaps I'm being unfair and I decide to try it again, is always the same.
For more years than I can recall, I have bought my "go-to" chile from The Chile Shop in Santa Fe. I can't seem to find it anywhere else. I love it. It's called
Dixon Medium Hot and, although not particularly hot, it has a wonderful depth of flavor and is extremely well-balanced. (Dixon, for the curious, is a small town on the "low" road from Santa Fe to Taos.) I generally use it as a base--sometimes alone, but more often in combination with something like guajillo, ancho, or cascabel.
Dixon is "common" enough to be found fairly easily on the web, but most articles that refer to it do so in passing. It's not, as I said, an easy chile to find--at least under that name. I have seen one reference to the "fact" that it is another name for the Chimayo, but don't know that for a fact. My unreliable memory tells me that The Chile Shop once sold both Dixon and Chimayo, so I hesitate. There is also an
article on "The Wonders of New Mexico Chile" by a professor of agronomy at New Mexico State listing the two separately. However, if they are the same, that would account for the difficulty of finding it, for the Chimayo is produced in small quantities and it's almost all eaten locally.
I have posted on the Dixon chile
previously in a fascinating thread that began with a recipe from Antonius entitled "Comida en Colorado." My post there also linked to a
"Varieties Database" that includes both the Dixon and the Chimayo. For those interested in chiles in general, I recommend it.
And for those who persist in Hatchophilia, ¡buen provecho!
Gypsy Boy
"I am not a glutton--I am an explorer of food." (Erma Bombeck)