Green Chile With Pork (NOT Green Chili Stew)
An excellent article about browning/searing pork from Serious Eats.
This is an outstanding recipe from Cook's Country.
Ingredients
- 3½ to 4 Lbs boneless pork butt roast trimmed and cut into 1½ inch pieces, trimmings reserved
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
- 1 cup water
- 1 ½ pounds tomatillos, husks and stems removed, rinsed well and dried
- 5 poblano chiles, stemmed, halved, and seeded
- 1 large onion cut into 8 wedges through root end
- 5 garlic cloves, unpeeled
- 1 jalapeno chile, stemmed and halved
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch ground cloves
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- ½ cup minced fresh cilantro plus extra for serving
- Lime wedges
Before you begin...
- Pork butt roast is often labeled Boston butt in the supermarket.
- There is a measurement to base your jalapeno usage: If the ones you have are shorter than 3 inches long, you may wish to use two.
- If fresh tomatillos are unavailable, substitute three 11-ounce cans of tomatillos drained, rinsed, and patted dry. Broil as directed.
Let's go!
Toss pork pieces with 1 tablespoon salt in a large bowl, cover, and refrigerate for 1 hour
Meanwhile, chop the pork trimmings you cut off just so they are coarse. Transfer the trimmings to a dutch oven. Add just enough water to cover the trimmings. Bring to simmer over high heat. Cook, adjusting heat to maintain a vigorous simmer, stirring occasionally until all the liquid evaporates and the trimmings begin to sizzle. For about 12 minutes, continue to cook, stirring frequently until dark fond forms on the bottom of the pot and trimmings have browned and crisped, about 6 minutes longer. Using a slotted spoon, discard trimmings. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat and set the crockpot aside.
Adjust an oven rack to lower-middle position and the second rack 6 inches from the broiler element and heat broiler.
Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and place tomatillos, poblanos, onion, garlic, and jalapeno in a large bowl and drizzle with oil, then toss with hands to make sure everything gets coated with oil.
Arrange chiles skin side up and broil until chile skins are blackened and vegetables begin to soften, about 10 to 13 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through broiling.
Transfer poblanos, jalapenos and garlic to a cutting board. Turn off the broiler and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Transfer tomatillos, onion, and any accumulated juices to a food processor.
When poblanos, jalapenos, and garlic are cool enough to handle, remove and discard skins. It's OK if some small bits of chile skin remain. Remove seeds from the jalapenos and reserve.
Add poblanos, jalapenos and garlic to the processor. Pulse until the mixture is roughly pureed, about 10 pulses, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. if spicier chili is desired, add the reserved jalapeno seeds and pulse about 3 more times.
Heat reserved fat in a dutch oven over medium heat until just shimmering. Add oregano, cumin, cinnamon, and cloves, and cook, stirring constantly until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatillo mixture, bay leaves, sugar, pepper, and remaining 1 teaspoon salt, scraping up any browned bits.
Stir in pork and bring to a simmer.
Cover and transfer to the oven and cook until pork is tender, about 1½ hours, stirring halfway through cooking.
Remove pot from oven and let sit covered for 10 minutes.
Discard bay leaves. Using a heatproof rubber spatula, scrape browned bits from the sides of the pot. Stir in any fat that has risen to the top of the chili. Stir in cilantro, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve, passing lime wedges and extra cilantro separately.
- Larger Recipe
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Ingredients
- 9 lb pork
- 3 cups water
- 5 lb tomatillos
- 15 poblano chiles
- 2 or 3 large onions
- 10 to 15 large garlic cloves, unpeeled
- 3 Tbs vegetable oil
- 1 Tbs Mexican oregano
- 1 Tbs cumin
- ½ Tsp cinnamon
- ¼ Tsp ground cloves
- 6 bay leaves
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 Tbs pepper
Still a work in progress, 12/17/2022