Here in New Mexico, green chiles are a staple. Their deep, dark, and smoky aroma, when roasting over an open flame, is unlike any other you’ve experienced.

On the farm, they’re just about the most successful crop we’ve had so far. In the past, there have been problems with blossom end rot, but this season the farmer decided to give the peppers another chance. To his surprise (and much to our delight), the Joe E. Parker variety we planted took off in full swing.

In order to preserve the recent bounty of these slightly hot chiles, roasting is the way to go because they can be frozen immediately afterwards. The red ones are usually dried and ground into chile powder, but we particularly enjoy the full smoky flavor that roasting produces. Since we don’t have a grill, we turned to our gas stove as a makeshift roaster, and it worked like a charm.

1. Turn gas stove to medium-high or high. You want a fairly large flame to ensure the quickest roasting time and sufficient blackening. Lower temperatures will require more gas and time to roast the peppers.

2. Place the peppers on the burners, making sure they are close to the flame. You can use tongs, but we experimented with using chopsticks as skewers.

3. Leave the peppers over the flame, constantly monitoring them and listening for cracking noises. These noises simply tell you the skin is cracking and that the peppers are roasting. This is a good sign.

4. Rotate each pepper once the skin has blackened in a certain area. You should rotate the peppers so that the entire surface is black and crispy. Don’t worry about that pitch black color. The flesh underneath will be perfectly fine.

5. Remove peppers from the heat once they are totally blackened and plunge them immediately into an ice water bath. The ice water will stop the cooking process and facilitate the removal of the peppers’ skins.

If you want to freeze the chiles for later use, this is the time to do it. Seal them in a bag and pick up where you left off in these steps whenever you’re ready to use them.

6. Rub the peppers between your fingers, or scrape off the skin with your hands to remove the charred skin. You may want to do this under running water to make sure all the skin is washed away. Once all the skin is off, remove peppers from water and place on cutting board.

7. Cut the tops off each pepper and slice down one side, exposing the inner seed cavity. Scrape off the white membrane and seeds and discard.

8. Add them to the dish of your choice. They taste great in stews, soups, stir-fry, and even in your sandwich, adding a deep flavor and dimension to any dish. We’ll also be posting more recipes that refer to this technique as a starting point, so grab a glass of milk (if you’re really sensitive to chile heat) and fire up your grill or stove!