Last week, we dug out a trusty old favorite for dinner, back from the early days of the blog: the croque monsieur. If you’re not familiar, it’s a hot ham & cheese sandwich topped with a cheesy cream sauce. It’s a total fork & knife sandwich.
And it’s faaaabulous.
While there are exactly zero things wrong with the classic, I wanted to put a seasonal spin on the croque monsieur with hatch chiles. A hatch chile croque monsieur.
We simmered chopped peppers to make a hatch-infused cream sauce and replaced the stinky gruyere with unstinky Monterrey Jack cheese. And then we added more chiles to the sandwich. After a short stint in the oven, our hot ham & cheese sandwich now had plenty of chile flavor and just a hint of warmth from the mild-to-medium peppers.
And it was time to grab a fork.
Hatch Chile Croque Monsieur
The classic French sandwich gets a makeover for hatch chile season.
Ingredients
- For the hatch chile cream sauce:
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp flour
- 2 hatch chiles, roasted, seeded, and chopped (directions here)
- 3/4 cup milk (I use 2%)
- Salt
- Pepper
- 1/4 cup grated Monterrey Jack
- For the sandwiches
- 6-8 slices of bread
- Deli sliced ham
- 3-4 slices of cheese
- 1/4 cup chopped roasted hatch chiles
- 1/4 cup grated Monterrey Jack
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Over medium-low heat melt the butter and add the garlic. Stir until butter begins to bubble.
- Stir in flour and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Stream in milk and whisk until smooth and then add the chiles.
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 3-4 minutes, until thickened. Add Monterrey jack and whisk until melted. Remove from heat and add salt & pepper to taste.
- Lightly toasted slices of bread directly on the oven racks for ~2 minutes (just enough to make them a little more sturdy, not brown).
- Place a rack over a baking sheet.
- To build the sandwiches, lay half the slices of bread on the rack and top each with sliced ham.
- Spoon hatch cream sauce over the ham.
- Top with sliced cheese, remaining chiles, and the other slices of bread.
- Spoon the remaining cream sauce over the tops of the sandwich, cover with the remaining grated cheese.
- Bake in the oven for 5 minutes and then switch the broiler on for 1-2 minutes, until cheese is bubbly and browning.
- Serve with a knife and fork
Notes
Yields: 3-4 servings, depending on bread size
Estimated time: 20 minutes