At the Table

John Lewis’ Hatch Chile Dressing

By: Hannah Lee Leidy

The West Texas Way

With a supporting cast of bread, onions, celery, and spices, dressing (or stuffing in some quarters) is infinitely customizable. Coastal Southerners may fold in oysters; others, andouille or breakfast sausage. And when you hail from El Paso, Texas, like barbecue master John Lewis, your Thanksgiving dressing is studded with hatch chiles. The long green chile pepper that’s roasted and celebrated in New Mexico in early fall lends a welcome kick to the usual suspects. Growing up an hour’s drive from Hatch, New Mexico, where his great-grandparents owned a hatch chile farm, Lewis is a major champion of the pepper. “We put them in everything,” he says. At his namesake barbecue joint in Charleston, South Carolina, he purees them into a green barbecue sauce, and adds them to his wildly popular corn pudding. The mildly spicy chile plays well in this dressing with slightly sweet golden raisins and the crunch of pecans—an ideal side for smoked turkey.

Hatch Chile Sourdough Dressing

Hatch chiles bring a subtle kick to this dressing, which is baked in a skillet for extra crunch.

Date Published: 11.13.19
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About The Author

Hannah Lee Leidy

Hannah Lee Leidy is a food writer and editor based in the Carolinas. She is currently the digital content editor for Our State magazine, a position she came into following her time at The Local Palate. Her contributions have appeared in Condé Nast Traveler, Bon Appétit, Epicurious, Culture, and Eater. She’s spent time working in restaurants in both front and back of house positions, doing everything from burning gateaux to expediting to shaking a Manhattan (don’t worry, this only happened once). An avid curd nerd, her favorite beat is reporting on boutique cheese makers; she’ll sniff out every creamery near and far whenever traveling. When not parenting a Bernese mountain pup named Ava, you’ll find her running or working on her lamination technique.

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