5 Ingredients or Fewer

Palisade Peach and Hatch Chile Jam

by:
September  5, 2013
2.5
2 Ratings
Palisade Peach and Hatch Chile Jam
  • Makes 3 8-oz jars (or 3 cups of jam)
Author Notes

Palisade peaches, from Colorado's western slope, and Hatch chiles, a green chile from northern New Mexico, pair so well together it can't be a coincidence that their seasons run parallel to each other. Great as a glaze for grilled chicken, on top of some goat cheese, or eaten directly from the jar...this jam packs the best local crops into one tasty condiment! —gabsimonelouise

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 3 large peaches
  • 3 medium green chiles (as hot or mild as you like)
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 medium lemon
Directions
  1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cut X-shapes in the bottom of each peach, and throw them in the boiling water along with the three chiles. Boil for 1 minute, drain into a colander, and immediately rinse with cold water. Remove the peaches from the colander and peel away the skins at the X. So easy, right?!
  2. Cut open the chiles and remove the seeds and stringy interior. Coarsely chop the peaches and chiles into medium dice. Put into a medium saucepan and heat over medium-high heat until the peaches are quite soft and the juices release, about 10 minutes. Mash the mixture with a potato masher to break up the peaches, then stir in the sugar.
  3. Keep a close watch on the jam, stirring frequently and skimming off any foam that rises to the top. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan so the fruit on the bottom doesn't burn. The mixture should be bubbling vigorously the entire time.
  4. If it looks like your jam isn't cooking down and getting thicker after about 20 minutes, add more sugar and possibly turn up the heat! However, after 20 minutes usually the jam is quite thick and you should test it for doneness. Here's what I do: dollop a teaspoonful of jam onto a plate, stick it in the freezer for one minute to let it cool, then run your finger through the middle of the dollop. If your finger leaves a clean streak and the two sides don't run back together, your jam is done! Squeeze the lemon into the jam and stir.
  5. At this point you may process the jam in cans if you are into that. Otherwise, the jam will keep in the fridge for about a month. Make a mini batch if you don't think you can handle all that jam in a month!
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4 Reviews

Alyson C.
Alyson C. August 14, 2021
I just roasted and took skin off of fresh Hatch chilies. Wondering if I can use them the same here? Perhaps would make the jam consistency even better?
Thoughts?
 
Jessika H.
Jessika H. February 19, 2020
I live in New Mexico, so we always have green chillies in our deep freeze. This afternoon I wanted to do something with the peaches I had sliced, blanched, and froze late this summer and green chillies. I ended up finding this jam recipe and then improvised. I cooked four cups of sliced peaches with sugar, lemon and five chillies until a sauce formed. I scooped this deliciously spicy sweet mixture over hot corn bread as a side to brined pork loin. It was a hit! Thanks Food 52...I think I'll try the jam with the other four cups of peaches.




 
gabsimonelouise
gabsimonelouise August 26, 2018
Oh bummer! It definitely won't yield 6 cups, since most of the juice cooks out of the peaches. Depending on how juicy your peaches are, it could cook down to even less. Potato mashing won't get all the chunks out, it's true, but I like chunks. To keep it from caramelizing, try cooking it less next time and scraping the bottom of the pot with a spoon; if it's sticking, know that it's starting to caramelize and give all the contents of a pot a good stir. This jam is a lot of trial and error, and depends all on the flavor, sugar, and liquid content of your fresh produce. I have found what I like in flavor, and you'll have to experiment to adjust to your tastes! Don't let this particular jam discourage you from jam-making if this isn't something you attempt often, it is a more unusual flavor with the chilies and all :)
 
Kristi F.
Kristi F. August 26, 2018
This came out so incredibly wrong, I don't even know where to start. I've never had something come out this badly before. I have no clue what went wrong....

The only thing I "changed" was doubling the recipe -- but I kept all the proportions the same. 6 peaches, 6 chiles, 1.5c sugar, 1/2 lemon juice.

So, it should theoretically have yielded nearly 6 cups. I didn't even get the full 3 cups the original recipe promised!

The sugar must have caramelized or something too, because the whole thing turned almost black by the end.

Plus, the mashing with a potato masher was not nearly good enough. The consistency of this no where near resembles jam. It's lumpy with peaches still. And I mashed my heart out....

And to top it all off, it doesn't even taste very good.

Either I did something horribly wrong (but I've quadruple checked every step of the recipe, so I don't think so), or this is just the worst "recipe" ever written.