Not yet named food entry: Green Chili Stew (Austin)

In Austin, there is a great restaurant that is its own small chain, Chuy’s.  To comment on their food and restaurant philosophy, I need to phrase it in the company’s own words, “if you’ve seen one Chuy’s, you’ve seen one Chuy’s.”  I’ve seen only one Chuy’s, the first one on Barton Spring Road in Austin.  It’s been love at first order. 

I was led to this Chuy’s by the “big as yo’ face” burrito 5 years this upcoming February when my travel companion wanted to show off a Tex-Mex burrito since I champion a Mission-style burrito as the world’s best. (Still I religiously go to El Farolito at 2779 Mission Street whenever I visit San Francisco).  The line was long in the restaurant – about a 45 minute wait – and we were starving from driving up from San Antonio.  We perused the menu to come up with our order: two burritos and some chips and salsa.

I thought about it.  If the burrito was truly as big as yo’ face, that was going to be a lot of burrito for two of us, even if we were grown men.  I talked us down from the ledge, but my friend saw the green chili stew and thought that it might be worth a shot.  It was February in Texas, so not too warm, and stew sounded good.  How bad could chicken and hot peppers in a stew be?

Before we found out, we waited at the bar for our order.  The place is like a 50’s diner with ADD.  Painted in kitschy aqua, pink and teal, I noticed all the character in this restaurant.  In the main bar, there is a jungle of wooden fish in a combination of primary and tropic colors hanging from the ceiling.  Dotted throughout are pieces of Elvis paraphernalia; over the cashier’s podium, there is the galley of t-shirts for sale. 

What caught attention was the wall of pictures as you entered – people posing in their Chuy’s shirts in front of landmarks from the four corners of the globe.  I remember Chuy’s at the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympics, in front of the Pyramids in Egypt, with the Sydney Opera House, at the Grand Canyon, and more. Obliviously there is some reason for the cult of Chuy’s.

Our order was ready and since it took longer than the hostess had thought, they threw in some hot appetizer.  Making sure we had all the utensils and napkins we needed, we hurried back to the hotel to eat.  We snacked on the chips en route, and set up a place to eat in our room.  We dove into the burrito, and it was ok.  It wasn’t bad at all, but it didn’t wow me.  Again, Mission-style burritos are the gold standard.  The appetizer was fine.  We were ready to say that Chuy’s wasn’t a bad choice but it’s just Tex-Mex, we tried the green chili stew.

Remember, “how bad could chicken and hot peppers in a stew be?” The stew was far from bad; it was incredible.  The chicken was tender and moist.  The carrots and potatoes were cooked to the point of easily giving way when bitten and releasing a sweet flavor or a good starchy sensation.  The broth of the stew was fragrant with sharp garlic and onion, verdant cilantro and the happy stinging heat of peppers.  We fought over the stew. Simply, it was that good. 

While it was the lure of burritos that brought me to Chuy’s, it’s the green chili stew that brings me back. The green chili stew with its famous hatch peppers, only grown in Hatch, NM, made me jump feet first into the cult of Chuy’s. Not all of the Chuy’s have this green chili stew, I understand that the San Antonio ones don’t make it. 

The Cult of Chuy's - Wearing a Chuy's T-shirt in a desert hookah lounge in Dubai, UAE

My friend and I searched the internet for a recipe since we were profoundly in awe of it. Through the years, we have worked on our recipes separately to come up with the right alchemy to recreate the stew that we tried that February.  We swap our notes and I am pleased to say that we have a great recipe (that’s not for sharing, sorry!) 

I’ve been back over the years, and I believe that the recipe has changed since my first experience.  I think that it’s a matter of who’s making it at the restaurant, personal touches that made more recent stews differ from that first one.  Touches like grilling chicken and adding it to the stew immediately before serving versus slow cooking the chicken in the stew from the beginning.  Though the stew is different than I first remember it, it is still my happy comfort food for when I’m in Austin.

Chuy's Restaurant is located at 1728 Barton Springs Road, Austin, TX.