Well, we’re officially in the thick of hatch chile season, everyones favorite chunk of the year where the chile has potential to show up in everything.
And nobody does a better job of including it in as much as possible as Sprouts Farmers Market, they’ve not only got the mild and hot options for the pepper in the produce dept. but they’ve incorporated it into fresh pork and chicken sausage at their butcher shop and have slipped it into all kinds of grocery products, from potato chips to guacamole. They’ve got it all covered.
So when they reached out to ask if I could incorporate some hatch chile into my own creation I obviously said yes, duh, it’s easy to add some hatch to a dish to give it that extra punch of flavor and I love Sprouts for their great selection of meats and produce.
This dish couldn’t be easier too, you just brown some sausage, cook some shredded zucchini, hatch chile, and fresh corn and then bake it all with a bunch of cheese and serve it with all the chips. It’s also perfect for parties because you can prep it the day before and pop it in the oven when everyone arrives.
Special shout out to Sprouts Farmers Market for sponsoring this post and helping keep this site/me moving/shaking/twisting.
CORN, ZUCCHINI, & HATCH CHILE SAUSAGE QUESO FUNDIDO
Serves 4
- 8 oz. fresh hatch chile pork sausage
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 ears of sweet white corn
- 1 medium zucchini
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced, plus more for garnish
- 1 mild hatch chile
- 1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 8 oz. shredded cheddar jack cheese
- things to scoop it all up, like tortilla chips, potato chips, and crackers
- Remove the 8 oz. sausage from the casing and brown in a large skillet over medium heat with the 1 tablespoon olive oil, breaking it up as needed to get crispy brown crumbles.
- While the sausage cooks prep the vegetables: Remove the corn from the cobs, shred the zucchini on the large hole side of a box grater, deseed and chop the hatch chile, and slice the green onion.
- Once the sausage has browned and gotten crispy, remove from the pan with a slotted spoon making sure to leave any drippings and additional oil behind.
- Add the prepped vegetables to the drippings and cook over medium heat with the kosher salt until the zucchini has softened and cooked down and the corn starts to get golden brown, this should take about 8-10 minutes.
- Once the vegetables have cooked set them aside with the cooked sasuage to cool for about 15-20 minutes (too hot and it will start to melt the cheese unevenly before it makes it to the oven.
- Preheat your oven to 400ºF while everything cools.
- Once the vegetables have cooled add it to a large bowl with the sausage and 8 oz. cheese and mix until combined. Taste a small bite for salt and add more if needed.
- Put the mixture into a ramekin or oven safe bowl, making sure to pile it higher than the sides (it will melt down quite a bit and you don’t want the bowl to look empty) and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the queso fundido is melty and bubbly.
- Garnish with the remaining green onions and serve immediately while the cheese is still melted.
