SOPA DE AMOR
Before I tasted Sopa de Amor, I existed in a state of unknowing innocence. Although the menu at Sazón, in Santa Fe, offers no description, the name—“soup of love”—promises something special.
“Don’t stir it, and don’t taste the individual parts,” instructs chef Fernando Olea. “Take everything in at once.”
I slide my spoon through a delicate dollop of white foam and into a vibrant green puree. The first taste is a revelation—hot and cold, spicy and sweet. A silky burn peppers across my tongue, tinged with—is that chocolate? In soup? The mixture expands and changes as it melds in my mouth, a flavor gestalt so surprising that my eyes pop. I take a deep breath before plunging in for a second bite. I feel, in a word, reborn.
“Now you are tasting the Sopa de Amor,” says Olea, who earned a James Beard Award for Best Chef Southwest in 2022. He opened Sazón in 2015, crafting an upscale menu of traditional and contemporary Mexican cuisine. But his signature soup was born 20 years ago at the now closed Epazote. The dish blends roasted poblano peppers with cream, layering in the delicate sweetness of blue crab from the Gulf of Mexico, brightness of tarragon and basil, and spice of cinnamon. It gets topped with amaretto cold foam dusted with Mexican chocolate. The temperature balance is so essential that if Olea sees a bowl sitting on a table for too long, he’ll replace it.
In 2024, Yelp ranked Sazón’s Sopa de Amor as New Mexico’s best soup, based on hundreds of five-star reviews. Olea is proud that the dish represents the state without relying on red or green chile, flavors so popular they often overshadow New Mexico’s broader cuisine. “It’s the most unique soup in New Mexico,” he says. “You can try to describe it, but you won’t understand until you taste it.”
The dance between flavors is so provocative that diners often react viscerally to their first taste. Some erupt in giddy laughter. Others, according to Olea, cry. “The soup didn’t have a name at first,” Olea says. “But people say it is better than making love, so I decided to call it Sopa de Amor.”
He calls the recipe a blessing from a higher source, only taking responsibility for understanding how flavors work together. “This dish comes from the energy of the world.” —Jennifer Levin
📍 221 Shelby St., Santa Fe; 505-983-8604
MUSSELS POSOLE
The toasted bread wedges atop Coyote Cafe’s mussels posole are not going to cut it. No chance. A spoon will be required for the red-hued broth studded with cream-colored hominy. As one of the first dishes executive chef Dakota Weiss introduced to the legendary Santa Fe restaurant’s menu when she returned to New Mexico from Los Angeles in 2021, the popular appetizer leans into the playful spirit chef Mark Miller established at Coyote Cafe more than 35 years ago. “I wanted to up the ante on the fish and shellfish here,” says Weiss, who created a version of the dish at Estrella in Los Angeles while missing Santa Fe. “That’s what I’m most passionate about.” A quart of Prince Edward Island mussels (when she can get them) swim in an elegant blend of white wine, garlic, tomatoes, chipotle peppers, cilantro, oregano, hominy, and a healthy amount of butter. “All the great flavor notes of posole, they just seem to go harmoniously with the mussels,” Weiss says of the twist on the traditional New Mexico dish. “It just makes sense when it’s all in your mouth.” While the hefty portion of mussels always satisfies, Weiss often gets requests for more bread—and more broth. “It’s always about the sauce,” she says. —Steve Gleydura
📍132 W. Water St., Santa Fe; 505-983-1615
MEXICAN CHURROS
Eduardo Rodriguez remembers his first bite of a crunchy churro the same way Marcel Proust recalled his madeleine, as a taste tied to childhood memories. The James Beard Award–nominated chef was 10 when the intoxicating scent of sticks of fried dough, rolled in sugar and cinnamon, wafted toward him from the neighborhood plaza in Zacatecas, the north-central Mexican state where he grew up.
“The first bite I thought: Oh, this is so good,” Rodriguez says. “I love cinnamon.” He was hooked—whether they were his mother’s churros, spiced with licoricey star anise, or the crispy treats sold at local festivals. “Churros remind me of the fair and of nice memories from when I was a kid. It’s comfort food.”
In Mexico, the iconic street food is typically served warm in small paper bags, often with hot chocolate for dipping. At Zacatlán, Rodriguez’s Santa Fe restaurant known for its fusion of Mexican and Southwestern flavors, churros reach new and ethereal heights.
The Mexican churros with cajeta quemada (“burnt caramel”) and mixed-berry compote is edible artistry—cinnamon-dusted thick sticks stacked beside a cup of gooey caramel, ever so slightly burnt for extra depth. The colorful compote adds a burst of tart brightness.
Rodriguez sometimes improvises ingredients—for instance, occasionally infusing the cajeta quemada with a liquor. “In Mexico, depending on the area, it’s traditional to put rum in cajeta,” he says. Other times, he’ll serve the dessert with house-made Mexican vanilla ice cream. No matter how he innovates, he always starts with the basic recipe passed down from his mother, who now lives in Santa Fe.
“She loves my churros and that she can taste the spices in the dough. I feel that she’s my biggest judge.” —Lynn Cline
📍 317 Aztec St., Santa Fe; 505-780-5174
CARIBBEAN GOAT STEW
Dining at Santa Fe’s Jambo Café is a journey of discovery. Chef and owner Ahmed Obo’s Caribbean-African eatery welcomes diners into a world of bold spices and flavors unlike anything else in the City Different.
The café’s signature Caribbean goat stew even wowed Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives host Guy Fieri in a February 2023 episode. “That goat is so tender and so rich, if that’s the only dish you sold, I’d come back every week,” the Flavortown Kitchen chef raved.
Slow-cooked until the meat is fall-apart tender, the savory red stew features succulent goat, carrots, potatoes, and a spectacular masala inspired by Obo’s childhood on Lamu, an island off the coast of Kenya. “The spices are chosen for a robust, slightly smoky flavor that’s also comforting,” says Jambo spokesperson Lyric Kali, who is careful not to disclose the blend’s components.
Goat meat has long been part of New Mexico’s culinary traditions—often roasted at matanzas or braised in chile. But Jambo’s stew stands apart for its distinct, layered flavors. “A diner can have goat birria down the street, then stop in at Jambo for our stew, enjoying its complexity, while exploring a protein that is atypical in modern food service,” Kali says. —Patrick Lee
📍 2010 Cerrillos Rd., Santa Fe; 505-473-1269
CHICKEN MOLE ENCHILADAS
Chef Fernando Ruiz cooks the foods he grew up with. “We’re not New Mexican,” he says of Escondido. “We’re Mexican Mexican.” Opened in 2024, the Santa Fe restaurant’s chicken mole enchiladas are inspired by Ruiz’s mother and grandmother’s recipe. “My mole negro is a little darker, more complex,” says Ruiz, who’s won three Food Network competition shows. His gluten-free, vegan mole contains 22 ingredients. “We roast the guajillo chiles and pasilla chiles,” he says, and sweetness comes from Mexican chocolate and golden raisins. The smooth sauce is ladled over two corn tortillas wrapped around pulled chicken braised in achiote paste and orange and pineapple juices. Queso fresco, chipotle crema, and toasted sesame seeds complete the dish. “Everything’s toasted,” Ruiz says. —JL
📍 1101 Paseo Corazón, Santa Fe; 505-316-4718
NEESHJIZHII
At AshKii’s Navajo Grill in Farmington, Bernice and Dexter Benally offer a rare culinary experience for those unfamiliar with the Diné reservation—and a taste of home for others. Their menu features Navajo favorites, like a roast mutton sandwich and Navajo taco, but the neeshjizhii (steamed corn stew) stands out as one of the more traditional dishes. Its ingredients trace back some 500 years to the first Spanish sheep acquired by the Diné, and even further to creation, when man and woman emerged from ears of white and yellow corn.
The dish’s Navajo white corn kernels are steamed underground in mud ovens, giving them a unique texture and sweet, earthy taste. For the stew, roasted mutton, sourced from Blue Mountain Meats in Utah, is boiled for hours with the neeshjizhii from local Navajo farms. The ingredients are simple, but the brothlike stew is rich in nutrition, similar to bone broth, and perfect garnished with a little chile and soaked up with frybread or a tortilla.
“That’s the fun part,” says Deanston Benally, the owners’ son, whose baby pictures cover the walls. “You can eat it with whatever you want. Add blue corn mush, dunk your bread in it, or get the roasted meat and make a little sandwich with it. There’s no wrong way.” —Ungelbah Dávila
📍 123 W. Broadway, Farmington; 505-326-3804
CORN-HUSK TROUT
Housed in a century-old adobe chapel, the Love Apple exudes rustic romance—glowing candlelight, whitewashed walls, and a deep reverence for locally sourced ingredients. Among the seasonal delights on its ever-changing menu, one dish remains constant: the corn-husk-wrapped trout, a preparation as rooted in place as the building itself.
“The trout has been on our menu since we opened 16 years ago,” says owner Jennifer Hart. “It’s the most popular and most-often reviewed dish on the menu.” When an attempt was made to remove it, locals revolted. “We never took it off again,” she says.
Although wild-caught New Mexico trout is off-limits for restaurants, the Love Apple brings in fresh Idaho trout to honor our favorite regional fish. The fillet is rubbed with salt, kissed with lime butter, and carefully wrapped in corn husks before being grilled over an open flame to impart an earthy sweetness. Finished in the oven, the fish emerges tender, delicately flaky, and infused with the scent of fire and field.
A rich chipotle cream sauce, blending smoky peppers with fresh cilantro and cream, drapes the trout, while crispy quinoa fritters, laced with carrots, shallots, and toasted piñon, add texture and depth. This dish isn’t just a menu staple, it’s a reflection of New Mexico’s culinary heart and modern craftsmanship. —Candolin Cook
📍 803 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos; 575-751-0050
CAMPFIRE AT THE CROSSROADS
Gather round the stand-up bar in Los Cerrillos, y’all, there’s a story behind Black Bird Saloon’s Campfire at the Crossroads.
“To figure out your direction, you always got to come to some sort of crossroad,” explains chef and co-owner Kelly Torres, of the sausage plate that includes a mix of rustic game meats. After that, “you know which way you’re going.” Like a signpost to the old mining town restaurant’s Wild West aesthetic and menu of genuine, simple dishes, the sausages taste as if they were plucked from a campfire. “They might have been eaten and shared along the trail, at a crossroads, on a pioneer’s journey,” Torres says.
The centerpiece is a bratwurst-size link made from a rabbit and rattlesnake blend that’s lean but eats juicy with a hint of sweetness. “Guests are wowed by it,” adds Kelly’s husband and co-owner, Patrick Torres. “They can’t believe that it’s rattlesnake.”
The plate also features four mini links of bison and elk. “They come off the grill firm and very smoky,” Kelly says, with “a little heat, a little spice.” She finishes the dish with a few cornichons, a dollop of Dijon mustard, and a smear of house-made blueberry mustard.
The dish is all about heritage, Patrick says. “It’s different, a little exotic, but at the same time, it’s very fitting because those are all animals [that live in New Mexico],” he says. “It’s what people would have eaten back in the day when they were harvesting or hunting their own food in New Mexico.” —PL
📍 28 Main St., Los Cerrillos; 505-438-1821
BLUE CORN FRYBREAD BURGER
With his Native American–fusion blue corn frybread burger, chef Ray Naranjo (Santa Clara Pueblo/Odawa) has indigenized America’s unofficial national food. “We are an iconic New Mexico food experience that you can’t get in a lot of places,” Naranjo says of his Manko food truck. “Blue corn and frybread make our burger Tewa.”
As a mobile restaurant, Manko takes Tewa-American plates to hungry customers all over central and northern New Mexico. But catching his weekly appearance at Santa Clara Pueblo feels like visiting a famous chef in their home kitchen.
When I arrive one day, after crossing the tree-lined Río Grande in Española and meandering through the pueblo’s tan, dusty roads, a woman waiting on an order tells me that her family drives all the way from Los Alamos to curb their Manko cravings.
Seated at a picnic bench, bathed in golden afternoon light and with warmth radiating from nearby adobe homes, the vibes remind me of a Pueblo Feast Day—food for the soul in a place where your spirit can breathe. Placed before me is the ultimate melding of my favorite Americana, Pueblo, and Native foods: A perfectly caramelized and juicy smashburger, topped with a generous amount of chopped green chile, cheese, onions, tomatoes, and lettuce. All of this sits atop a round of frybread, made thick and hearty by incorporating blue corn into the usual all-purpose-flour-based batter.
“Everything is sort of modern American, so that’s the fusion piece,” Naranjo says. “We’re not going all the way traditional [Native American]. We’re sort of finding a happy middle ground.” —UD
📍 Check social media for hours and locations at nmmag.us/manko
HONEY LAVENDER ICE CREAM
Since the 1980s, Vanilla Moose’s bright yellow-and-white roadside ice cream stand has been an Aztec staple. As a kid, I remember going there after church for a neon green, minty grasshopper sundae. But since Ryan and Nicole Lane took over in 2016, they’ve transformed the humble shop into a foodie destination, featuring artisanal small-batch ice cream made with locally sourced ingredients, house-made waffle cones, and all-natural syrups.
“My passion has always been hard-scoop ice cream,” Nicole says. “It took five years to serve artisanal ice cream at Vanilla Moose, but that was always the plan.”
For the taste-of-New Mexico honey lavender, Nicole drew inspiration from a San Juan County business program that promotes local agriculture. After touring a farm near Navajo Dam that grows culinary lavender, she began experimenting, balancing the floral notes with honey from a Farmington beekeeper. After five rounds of trial and error, the result was a smooth, delicately sweet scoop that screams New Mexico.
“At first, people weren’t sure about it,” she admits. But free samples were the key. “Once they tasted it, they were hooked.” —Lanee Lee
📍 1721 W. Aztec Blvd., Aztec; 505-334-6712
CARNE ADOVADA TURNOVER
Mary & Tito’s Cafe
There’s no shortage of stellar carne adovada in New Mexico, but no one makes it quite like Mary & Tito’s Cafe. The family-run Albuquerque institution since 1963—and a 2010 James Beard Classics Award winner—is the only place in the state (and possibly the world) where you’ll find the carne adovada turnover, a deep-fried, golden-crisp pocket stuffed with their signature slow-braised pork.
“My father made this up,” says Antoinette Knight, daughter of original owners Mary Ann and Tito Gonzales. “He loved Italian food and calzones, so when he opened the restaurant, he thought, Why not?” Instead of the usual stuffed sopaipilla, he rolled out flour tortilla dough, filled it with rich red chile carne adovada, then crimped the edges before tossing it into the fryer. The result? A handheld, flaky yet pillowy turnover bursting with deep smoky-sweet flavors.
The magic is in the meat. “We bake the pork for four hours—fresh daily,” the second-generation owner explains. The slow cook allows the pork to absorb every bit of the house-made red chile, which leans on the earthy, slightly sweet notes of sun-dried pods.
“You can’t get this at any other restaurant,” Knight says proudly. After one bite, you’ll understand why that’s a perk of being a Burqueño. —LL
📍 2711 Fourth St. NW, Albuquerque; 505-344-6266
SMOKED HALF CHICKEN
At Mesa Provisions in Albuquerque, chef Steve Riley’s menu may shift with the seasons, but the signature smoked half chicken is a staple. A 2024 James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef Southwest, Riley draws on his farm-to-table background to give a New Mexico classic—chicken, beans, and tortillas—a gourmet glow-up.
Brined, smoked, and glazed in red chile honey, the half chicken arrives with an aroma that calls out to the most primal bits of the foodie brain. Slicing into its candied skin reveals juicy, tender meat infused with the perfect balance of sweet and heat. Each bite pairs beautifully with silky pepita crema, made with green chile and cilantro, and a crisp, seasonal slaw of either cabbage or watermelon radish.
Then there are the tortillas. Instead of traditional shortening, Riley uses duck fat to give them an extra fluffy texture—perfect for scooping up the pinto beans or crafting luscious bite-size tacos. The result is a dish that transforms humble ingredients into a rich, deeply satisfying dining experience. —UD
📍 3120 Central Ave. SE, Albuquerque; 505-494-5264
GREEN CHILE CROISSANT
Braving the notorious line at the James Beard Award–nominated Burque Bakehouse is a small price to pay for its inspired takes on classic pastries. “Savory, handheld, easy-to-travel-with breakfast items are one of my favorite things about New Mexico,” says owner and head baker Sarah Ciccotello. So after perfecting the Bakehouse butter croissant, a green chile version was next on her list.
Ciccotello starts the three-day process of this delicacy by using Lemitar Farm’s produce for the dough’s green-chile-infused butter. She then folds even more chiles and Tucumcari jack cheese inside the rolled pastry, producing flaky wonders that are topped with house-made green chile jam and finished with a sprinkle of green chile flakes.
“We’re all about flavor first,” says Ciccotello, who notes that the versatile pastry is great alone or as a breakfast sandwich. “If you order something green chile, we want to punch you with those flavors right away.”
A local favorite since opening in 2020, the Albuquerque bakery sells out fast, so Ciccotello recommends arriving by 10 a.m. for the best selection. —Sarah Mock
📍 640 Broadway Blvd. SE, Albuquerque; 505-234-6294
PECAN RAMEN
By the time Oni owner David Gaspar de Alba finishes listing each component of his pecan ramen, I’m almost ready for a second bowl: New Mexico red chile; Lovington pecans; Albuquerque lacinato kale, napa cabbage, watermelon radish, leeks, and garlic; braised tofu; noodles; seaweed; shitakes; sesame seeds; ginger; a 45-minute sous vide egg; and house-made togarashi (made with local Yatsufusa peppers), furikake, and chili oil. “There’s deceptively a lot to it,” he says, adding that the vegetarian dish can be made vegan, gluten-free, or topped with a hefty bison bone marrow. “It’s a real umami bomb.”
Indeed, the rich ramen’s complex flavors and textures, quality ingredients, and meticulous execution have made it a standout at the downtown Albuquerque restaurant, which started as a pop-up before becoming a brick-and-mortar in 2020. But what really sets the dish apart is its creamy, toasty dashi (stock), made with CLC Pecans. “The farmer delivers them each week,” Gaspar de Alba says. “Then we toast and blend them into a milk, which becomes the base that we infuse with kombu and mushrooms.”
A dearth of Asian food in Gaspar de Alba’s native El Paso prompted him to study Japanese cuisine and work for a sushi-centric restaurant in Portland, Oregon, where he encountered hazelnut dashi. “Hazelnuts are prevalent in the Pacific Northwest. That inspired me to use what we have here,” Gaspar de Alba says. “Pecans are also full of micronutrients and protein. I’d like to make a piñon version at some point—if I could afford it!” —CC
📍 600 Central Ave. SW, Suite 100, Albuquerque; 505-503-6722
ĐÂU HŨ BÁNH MÌ
Coda Bakery’s Đâu Hũ Bánh Mì doesn’t begin with the just-baked baguette, the tangy pickled vegetables, or the flavorful mayo. It starts with soybeans that are soaked, blended, steamed, cultured, and pressed into fresh tofu every day.
“My dad made the steamer we use,” says Uyen Nguyen, Coda’s owner and culinary mastermind. “It’s converted from an old water boiler.” Nguyen, who took over Coda in 2007, has been learning and tweaking recipes in her family’s kitchens for years. “I just make things how I like them,” she says, which has been enough to make Coda a semifinalist for this year’s James Beard Outstanding Bakery Award. “That’s how the Đâu Hũ Bánh Mì recipe came about.”
Once the tofu is set, it is sliced and flash fried. The result is so light and creamy that even celebrity chef Guy Fieri has raved about its cloudlike texture. It’s then tucked into Coda’s crisp and airy French baguette with pickled carrots and daikon radish, cucumber, and cilantro, all carefully cut and expertly paired with a traditional Vietnamese mayo.
“Every bite you take, you get a little bit of everything,” Nguyen says. “But the tofu is so good by itself, it doesn’t need much else.” —SM
📍 201 San Pedro Dr. SE, Suite B1, Albuquerque; 505-232-0085
THREE SISTERS TACO
Before being stuffed into a fire-kissed corn tortilla, the key ingredients in the Skillet’s Three Sisters Taco—squash, black beans, and corn—are sautéed and reduced together to meld their flavors. “The crunchy squash contrasts with the soft beans, while the corn’s sweetness balances their earthiness,” says chef Isaac Sandoval, who grew up making tortillas at his father’s legendary restaurant, Charlie’s Bakery and Café, in the original Las Vegas.
In 2014, he launched a food truck to shake up the local dining scene, where, he says, “going out to eat always meant enchiladas smothered in chile.” Three years later, the Skillet had gone brick-and-mortar with an eclectic menu ranging from orange chicken burritos to the Bikini Bottom seafood and veggie bowl.
“Some old-timers were skeptical at first, but the Three Sisters Taco offered a familiar entry point to the rest of the menu,” Sandoval says. Inspired by the Indigenous farming practice of interplanting corn, beans, and squash, the vegetarian dish is “our traditional cuisine,” he says, adding that in one Native folktale, a mischievous coyote stirs up trouble among the sisters. “The coyote is a trickster,” Sandoval says. “So he’s the chopped green chile in my Three Sisters Taco.” —JL
📍 623 12th St., Las Vegas; 505-563-0477
HALONA CHICKEN
If you’re thinking about destination fried chicken, you might not suspect Zuni Pueblo to be the locus for the golden, crusty, tender, and juicy bird of your American dreams. But Halona Plaza’s chicken is often one of the first stops for Zunis living off-rez, according to CEO Loren Thomas, who’s unsure of the recipe’s origin. A delicacy that once caused an Atlanta resident to call Thomas and beg him to freeze-dry and overnight an order, the famed fried chicken was born in the late 1980s. That’s when Halona Plaza, a complex that includes a convenience store and the Inn at Halona, decided to open Chimk’yasi:tas’a. Mostly called Halona Plaza Restaurant these days, the snack bar and dining room first took the Zuni name for Thomas’s grandmother Gertrude Vander Wagen, whose family of missionaries bought the place in 1910.
“The fried chicken just overwhelmed the rest of the menu,” Thomas says. “It was an immediate hit.” Nearly 30 years later, the menu focuses on crispy pieces, tenders, and wings alongside some burgers and sandwiches. But Thomas emphasizes that the reputation of Halona Chicken is equally staked on an accompanying portion of red chile, which begins with a base of New Mexico red and includes other secret spices. “The combination of the two together is just magical,” he says. —Molly Boyle
📍 1 Shalako Dr., Zuni; 505-782-4547
DINOSAUR BEEF RIBS
Mad Jack’s Mountaintop Barbecue
The “dinosaur” ribs at Mad Jack’s Mountaintop Barbecue in Cloudcroft do look like they could have come from a present-day Tyrannosaurus. Each rib—one of three to a rack cut from Angus beef—can weigh up to two pounds. “They’re huge, and the meat is rich and tender,” says proprietor and pitmaster James “Jack” Jackson. “We’re picky about our beef.”
Mad Jack’s is just as particular about the process. After applying a two-salt-one-pepper rub, a two-man team cooks the mammoth racks in a firepit for nine hours. “Maintaining the fire at a certain level is a bit of an art itself,” Jackson explains. “The moment the ribs are pulled off the fire is critical.”
The ribs turn out succulent and beautifully charred, ready to be devoured by eager patrons who wait up to three hours. Jackson amiably chats up each customer at the order counter. “I love people, and I like trying to be the best,” he declares. “I have a sense of pride in taking a big chunk of meat and turning it into something that people really enjoy.” —Debra Levy Martinelli
📍 105 James Canyon Highway, Cloudcroft; 575-682-7577
GREEN CHILE GORDITA
Gorditas from Saenz have been part of Las Cruces food culture for nearly 30 years, when the Guerra family started serving these perfectly fried, golden pockets stuffed with ground beef, lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes at festivals and events. Today, the menu is longer at their walk-up window, but the gorditas made by Albert Guerra and his mother, Virginia Guerra, are identical. “We try to keep it as old school as we can,” Albert says.
Using techniques passed down from his grandmother, Albert mixes the perfect amount of Maseca masa flour, salt, and water—and a special ingredient or two—until the dough feels not too dry and not too sticky. From there, Virginia takes over, hand-shaping the shells and loading tray after tray in preparation for the daily rush. Albert’s preferred green chile gordita doesn’t need much enhancement beyond the fried-to-order shell. “I just put extra salsa on there,” he says. “That’s my favorite one right there.” —Leah Romero
📍 1700 N. Solano Dr., Las Cruces; 575-527-4212
CHILE RELLENO
Chef Josefina “Josie” Garcilazo is a perfectionist, which explains why the chile rellenos at Chope’s Bar and Cafe in La Mesa are quite possibly the best in southern New Mexico. Plump chile peppers are carefully stuffed with cheddar cheese, dipped in a delicate batter, and fried to airy goodness. Smothered in red chile, green chile, or chile con queso, the house specialty is testament to tradition and technique.
Garcilazo learned how to cook from her mother-in-law, Cristina Garcilazo, who worked alongside Guadalupe Benavides, the matriarch of the restaurant and wife of José “Chope” Benavides. “We grew up there, always in the kitchen,” says Michael Martinez, the son of one of the three Benavides sisters who share ownership of the historic restaurant and bar. “Those flavors have been around since my grandma.”
The relleno process starts with choosing the right green chile. The larger Big Jim peppers require too much cheese stuffed inside, so Chope’s uses the Sandia variety, which are roughly half the size. The chiles are flat-roasted to keep the skin intact, and then stored away for the next day—or even the winter. Garcilazo then coats the chile in flour and dips it in egg whites, which keeps the fried rellenos impossibly light and fluffy, rather than crunchy or oily, as you might find at other restaurants.
Garcilazo has preserved the flavors of Chope’s kitchen for more than 40 years, but production has grown since the early days under Lupe Benavides. “When I was a young kid, they would make maybe 50 rellenos a day,” Martinez recalls of the restaurant that started in 1915. “Now they’re making close to 800 a week.” Where once a small frying pan sufficed for the whole kitchen, today there is a station dedicated just to frying rellenos.
Martinez says he doesn’t know what he’ll do when Garcilazo decides to finally retire. But let’s hope it’s not anytime soon. —LR
📍 16145 NM 28, La Mesa; 575-233-3420