Chile Colorado is a flavorful Mexican stew featuring tender pieces of beef simmered in a spicy red chile sauce served with rice and tortillas. It’s even better enjoyed as leftovers since the flavors really get a change to meld. This is one of my favorite childhood comfort foods, and it’s especially perfect on chilly evenings!
“This was amazing! My family enjoyed the authentic Mexican taste. The sauce was incredibly flavorful with the mix of different chiles without being too spicy. We had it with homemade Mexican rice, cojita cheese, radishes, limes, and cilantro.” – Lisa, So Much Food reader
Table of Contents
What Is Chile Colorado, You Ask?
Guess what? Chile colorado isn’t actually a chili at all! “Chile colorado” literally means “colored red” in Spanish and it gets its flavor and color from dried red chilies.
Authentic chile colorado is made with Mexican dried chile peppers, namely ancho peppers, guajillo peppers, and chiles de arbol. The dried chile peppers are the star and namesake of this dish and make a rich and flavorful sauce.
You can make this comforting Mexican stew with pork or beef, but in our house my dad almost always made it with cubed beef. The meat is simmered in the colorado sauce until tender and served with rice and warm tortillas on the side. This is such an easy recipe that requires just 30 minutes of hands-on prep, then your stove does the rest of the work for you!
A Few Ingredient Notes
You can find the full list of ingredients, quantities & method in the recipe card at the end of the page.
- Beef. Use beef shoulder or beef chuck. You want something with a bit of fat.
- Dried chilies. Most well-stocked grocery stores carry a variety of Mexican chilies. See my notes below on what types of chiles you should use and why.
- Flour. Coating the cubed beef in flour helps thicken the stew.
- Spices. In addition to the chilies, spices like cumin, coriander, bay leaf, and oregano give this Mexican beef stew a ton of flavor.
- Aromatics. White onion and garlic add flavor to the colorado sauce.
- Beef broth. You can also use chicken stock or water, but beef broth or stock has the most flavor.
The Types of Dried Chiles You Should Use
The richness of the colorado sauce comes from the types of dried chilies used. I use three different types for maximum flavor.
Guajillo chilies. Guajillo chilies are the dried version of the mirasol pepper and they’re widely used throughout Mexican cooking. They’re long and have a reddish hue. The flavor is balanced with a hint of spice, but mostly sweet and tangy.
Ancho chilies. Ancho chilies are dried poblano peppers and are very different from guajillo chilies. They look dark and wrinkly and have a rich and smokey flavor that balances the sweetness from the guajillos.
Chile de Arbol. Chile de Arbol means “tree chili” in Spanish. They’re small red chilies that pack a bit of heat. Chile de arbol give the chile colorado some heat to balance out the sweet and smokey.
Helpful Cooking Tools
How to Make Chile Colorado with Beef (+ Step by Step Photos)
- Toast and soak your chilies. It’s hard to know how long dried chilies have been sitting in a store, so toasting them in a dry pan really wakes up the flavor. Since they’re dried, soaking them in hot water is a must to make them blendable!
- Blend the sauce. I highly recommend using a high-powered blender here. A weaker blender won’t be able to fully blend the pieces of chile and you’ll end up with a bit of a chunky sauce.
- Sear the beef. This is such an important step! Getting a good, hard sear on the pieces of beef builds a base of flavor that we’ll continue to build upon throughout the recipe.
- Simmer until tender. The beef should be able to be easily shredded with a fork. Typically this takes about 2 hours, but could be a little more or less. I recommend starting to check the beef around 90 minutes and go from there.
- Serve warm. The best part is serving this beef Colorado piled high with fresh toppings like onion, cilantro, and fresh radishes. A squeeze of lime at the end adds a bit of acidity to cut through the fattiness of the beef. Always enjoy with warm tortillas on the side!
Want to make this recipe with pork? Go for it! Chile colorado also works great with pork shoulder. Follow the instructions as written, no need to make any other changes.
What to Serve with Chile Colorado
This Mexican beef stew is best served with rice for soaking up the extra sauce, plus fresh toppings like white onion, cilantro, radishes, and lime wedges.
- Rice. My favorite is either stovetop Mexican rice or arroz verde.
- Beans. If you’re serving a crowd, it’s never a bad idea to add a side of borracho beans, refried beans, or Instant Pot pinto beans, too!
- Appetizers. I love serving this fresh corn salsa to offset the spicy colorado sauce, but white queso or homemade guacamole are also great.
And for the full dinner party experience, make a batch of passion fruit margaritas or coconut margaritas!
If you do give it a try, be sure to let me know! Leave a comment with a star rating below. Be sure to subscribe to my weekly newsletter and never miss a new recipe! You can also snap a photo & tag @JENNYGOYCOCHEA on Instagram. I LOVE hearing about & seeing your SMF creations!
More Easy Mexican Stews You’ll Love
This post contains affiliate links from which I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Affiliate links allow me to keep providing great recipes for free and I never recommend products that I don’t love and personally own.
Authentic Beef Chile Colorado Recipe
Ingredients
Chile Colorado
- 3 lbs beef chuck*
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil (like canola or vegetable oil)
- 1 yellow onion , chopped
- 3 garlic cloves
- 6 dried guajillo chilies , stems and seeds removed
- 4 dried ancho chilies , stems and seeds removed
- 3 dried chile de arbol , stems and seeds removed
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
- 2 1/2 cups beef broth
- 2 fresh bay leaves
For Serving
- corn tortillas , warmed
- diced white onion
- chopped cilantro
- radish slices
- Lime wedges
Instructions
- Prep the chiles. In a dry skillet, toast the dried chilies for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Once the chilies are fragrant, transfer them to a saucepan with the chopped onion and garlic cloves and cover with water. Bring to a simmer for 10 minutes, until the chilies are soft.
- Make the sauce. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the softened chilies, onion, and garlic to a blender with 1 cup of the soaking liquid. Add the cumin, coriander, oregano, and beef stock and blend on high until very smooth. Season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper.
- Sear the beef. Cut the beef into 2-inch cubes. Season the cubed beef with salt and pepper and then toss with the flour. Heat a dutch oven over medium-high heat and add the oil. Once the oil is hot, place beef in a single layer in the pot and brown on all sides. You may need to do this in several batches. After the beef is seared, remove the excess oil.
- Simmer until tender. Return all the beef to the pot and pour in just enough sauce to cover the beef. Any extra sauce can be frozen. Add the bay leaves to the pot and cover with a lid. Simmer on low for 2 hours, until the beef is very tender.
- Garnish and serve. Skim any oil from the top and serve with warm tortillas and any other desired toppings.
Slow Cooker Option
- Make the sauce. Follow the instructions to make the red chile sauce. You can make the sauce several days in advance and refrigerate or freeze it. Sear the beef. Season the cubed beef with salt and pepper and coat in flour. Sear in a heavy-bottomed skillet until browned on all sides. Set and forget! Combine the beef and sauce in the bowl of a slow cooker and add the bay leaves. Stir to make sure everything is combined and set on high for 4 hours, or low for 6-8 hours until the beef is very tender.
Storage Instructions
- Storage: Cool completely, then store airtight in the fridge for 5 days or in the freezer for 6 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge before reheating in a pot (you may need to add a little broth to loosen up the stew).
Rate & Review This Recipe
Absolutely very nice beef dish.I am form Sri Lanka.very similar this dish with my home food.I try this recipe with my family.we enjoy the Beef.
This was amazing! My family enjoyed the authentic Mexican taste. The sauce was incredibly flavorful with the mix of different chiles without being too spicy. We had it with homemade Mexican rice, cojita cheese, radishes, limes, and cilantro. I’ve put some sauce aside some to use in a batch of chili this week! Thank you for a wonderful dinner!
So happy you enjoyed it! Keeping some sauce for chili is GENIUS!
I don’t have beef currently, do you think this would be good with chicken?
No, I don’t unfortunately. And I wouldn’t cook chicken that long. You could use pork shoulder though!