Taste Of Oklahoma: Chef Jonathon Stranger's El Coyote Brings Southwestern Cuisine To Oklahoma City

Bringing tastes and flavors from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to the Oklahoma City metro, El Coyote prides itself on good food, at an affordable price.

With the kitchen opening at 11 a.m. every day of the week, and with menu favorites such as chile relleno and the green chile hamburger, Oklahomans are learning to love a little bit of spice.

El Coyote head chef Jonathon Stranger said he knew what to do with the restaurant space when he first saw it years ago.

"We opened El Coyote in October of 2022, and the idea for this space actually started in early 2019," Stranger said. "So when I walked in here, there's a bar in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that it was like, it just screamed."

Stranger, an Oklahoma City native, often travels with his wife to Santa Fe to see family, and they fell in love with the idea of bringing southwestern cuisine to Oklahoma City due to the lack of availability in the state.

"We spend a lot of time in Santa Fe, but we can only get it there," Stranger said. "As many people traveling to Mexico and how close it is, there weren't a lot of options here. I figured let's do it."

Stranger has other food ventures in Oklahoma City, such as Osteria and Bar Cicchetti, and makes frequent appearances on the Food Network, appearing on Guy's Grocery Games, Chopped, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, and BBQ Brawl.

Despite his notoriety, Stranger said El Coyote is all about homestyle New Mexican cuisine.

"Everything is based on the Hatch chili, whether it's dried and red or fresh and green," Stranger said. "So pretty much all of our dishes, it's a limited menu, it all focuses around the Hatch chili."

One of Stranger's best-selling items: enchiladas.

"What's different about enchiladas in northern New Mexico, as opposed to like Tex-Mex-type food, is they're not rolled, they're stacked," Stranger said. "Instead of yellow corn tortillas, it's blue corn. So blue corn is one of the defining things of northern New Mexico. They use blue corn as opposed to yellow corn."

According to Stranger, everything about El Coyote, from the food to the decor, is authentic.

"Everything you see in this restaurant is pretty much from New Mexico," Stranger said. "I did multiple trips going back and forth to my favorite places and getting stuff."

Stranger said he is committed to making guest's experience feel authentic.

"We wanted you to feel like you were there," Stranger said. "We had to find a guy that could do stucco, which was surprisingly difficult, to have the fireplaces inside and outside and all over the place."

However, Stranger said he is equally committed to adding to Oklahoma City's food scene, not just being a power player.

"Whenever we do something in Oklahoma City, we want to add an option, not just be another," Stranger said. "With this, it's similar enough to what people know, but it's different."