What is Southwestern Food?

  Southwestern cuisine is food styled after the rustic cooking of the Southwestern United States. It comprises a fusion of recipes by Spanish colonial settlers, cowboys, Indigenous People of the Southwest, and Mexicans. 

  It is similar to Mexican cuisine but often involves larger cuts of meat that are often smoked or braised for hours.

  Southwestern cuisine is known for its dedication to the chile, most notably the Hatch chile, named for the city in New Mexico where they are grown.

A major part of Southwestern food is incorporating either red chile, green chile or both (mixing of both is referred to as "Christmas") in many dishes.