Put it on a burger!

You, my friend, have a little piece of New Mexico heaven ready to turn your average afternoon bbq into an out-of-this-world treat.

Here's what you do:

Get a couple of paper sacks. The kind that you use to take a sack lunch in works best, but a paper grocery sack will work in a pinch.

Preheat your oven to it's lowest possible setting (150 to 200 Fahrenheit will work, the lower the better).

Get a set of tongs, and a source of flame or open heat (this can be a gas range with the grate thingy removed, a gas bbq with the grill plate taken off, or a charcoal bbq with the grill off).

Grasp a chile in the tongs, and put it up to the flame, and slowly burn the shit out of it. I'm not kidding. You wanna make it crispy critters, turn that skin black. Rotate to burn evenly, and then quickly throw it in the paper sack.

Fold up the sack and throw it in the oven. Repeat with a a handful of chiles, and let them sit there for 10 to 15 minutes. (I usually measure this part in terms of beverages. Let them sit for 1 beverage, be it 1 glass of wine, 1 beer or 1 cocktail. The point is, let it sit in the warm oven for a lil bit. This causes steam to build up inside the paper sack, and separate the charred skin from the yummy flesh).

Next, remove the chiles from the sacks in the oven, and fillet them. Cut them straight down the middle, discarding the seeds and innards, and then slice open so they lie flat like little fillets. Then, take a knife and scrape off the blackened charred exterior of the chile fillets, revealing that roasted oily chile goodness. This is where a good flexible fisherman's fillet knife really comes in handy, if you've got one, use it.

Put the chile fillets on a burger, and you've got a tasty southwest treat.

If you don't have a fillet knife, you can use a paring knife. But a good sharp fisherman's fillet knife works best in my experience; call me and I'll bring mine over and do it for you if you let me eat one of these little New Mexico beauties.