Blanchard Family Starts Chile Relleno Business In Oklahoma

Blanchard is home to a company with a special Oklahoma flavor.

Betty Wood and her husband Clif started Matador Processors 38 years ago. The reason, Clif knew he could make a mean chile relleno.

"We would go to the restaurants and I like a good chile relleno and what we received was not what we considered a good chile relleno, so my husband being a gourmet chef, he said well let's just make one," Betty said.

So they did, in a friend's kitchen. They approached local restaurants with their peppers and began taking orders. They started in three restaurants, but word got out and orders quickly grew.

"Sold 120 restaurants in Oklahoma," Betty said.

As the demand for the peppers grew, so did Matador's need for a bigger facility. They now work out of their own facility they call the "Pepper Plant."

"We started next door in two rooms," said Betty. "I built this building; we're in now in 88. So we've grown from there."

Clif died a few short years before the pepper plant opened, but that didn't stop Betty from making her husband's dream a reality.

"Since I have no children, it was the only thing I had to do was play with the company," Betty said.

Now Matador's peppers are distributed across the country by some pretty big names in the food industry.

"Cisco, US food, and Ben E. Keith. 38 years and all three of those are our present customers and they buy every week," Betty said.

Though now a nationwide success, Betty says Matador is more than just a company that makes one mean chile relleno.