This authentic pork chile verde recipe will rival any you find in a Mexican restaurant! Tender pieces of pork slow cooked with a fantastic homemade green chile sauce (salsa verde). Serve this delicious stew alongside warm tortillas, rice and beans.
Start with trimming your pork of fat and cutting it into 1” pieces. Season with salt and pepper, and sear it in a very hot pan until browned on all sides. Set aside.
Brown the onion. Add garlic, spices, pork and chicken broth to the pot. Cover with lid and simmer everything for 2-4 hours. Slow cooking the pork makes it extra tender and delicious.
I prefer cooking everything in a cast iron pan because I think it preserves the flavor better, from sautéing everything in the same pan. But, you could place the browned pork, onions, spices, chicken broth into your slow cooker and cook on low for several hours, if you’d like.
While the pork cooks, make the salsa verde. This is my favorite part. This sauce is SO incredible. I love all of the fresh ingredients that blend together to make such bold flavor.
Wash the peppers and tomatillos, and slice them all in half. Remove the stems and seeds from the peppers. If you like things spicier, you could leave one of the jalapeños with seeds in it.
Place all of the peppers, face down, on a baking sheet and broil them. This was a tip I learned in Mexico for creating that great “roasted pepper” flavor.
When the peppers are browned on the top, remove them from the oven and tie them in a plastic bag. This allows them to steam, which softens their outer layer of skin. After they steam you should be able to easily peel off the very outer layer of skin, and discard it.
Broil the tomatillos in the same way. You can peel the skin off after, or just leave it (I usually leave the skin on the tomatillos. It purees easily in the blender).
Add the tomatillos and both types of peppers to the blender, along with fresh cilantro. Blend until no large chunks remain.
Add the sauce to the pot with the pork, and cook everything together for another 30-45 minutes. This allows the delicious flavors from the sauce to blend and simmer into the tender pork.
Now give yourself a huge pat on the back for making such an incredible, flavorful Mexican stew, right in your own kitchen.
I like to serve chile verde with warm flour tortillas, a side of beans and authentic Mexican rice. WOW…sooo good. Hope you all enjoy it as much as me!
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Recipe
Chile Verde Pork
Video
Ingredients
- 3 pounds pork loin or pork shoulder , trimmed of fat and cut into 1’’ pieces
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 2 Tablespoons oil (vegetable or canola oil)
- 1 large yellow onion , chopped
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- 1/2 Tablespoon ground cumin
- 1/2 Tablespoon dried oregano leaves
- 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 4 fresh poblano chiles , seeded and sliced in half
- 2 fresh jalapeño peppers , seeded and sliced in half (*see note)
- 1.5 pounds fresh tomatillos , husks removed
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro , coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Season pork pieces on all sides with salt and pepper.
- Heat a large stock pot over high heat. Add oil. Once hot, sear the pork pieces until browned on all sides.
- Remove the pork from the pot. Add a little additional oil to pan, if needed.
- Add onion and saute until tender. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
- Stir in the cumin and oregano. Return pork to the pot and add the chicken broth.
- Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 2-4 hours.
- Meanwhile, make the sauce.
- Place rack on second to top level of oven and turn the oven to high broil.
- Lightly spray a jelly roll pan with cooking oil. Wash the poblano peppers, jalapeños and tomatillos.
- Slice the tomatillo and both types of peppers in half, and remove stems. Seed the peppers and remove the white veins inside if if you do not want the chile verde to be very spicy. (See my note below about spice level). Do not seed the tomatillos.
- Place the poblano peppers, jalapeño and tomatillos on baking sheets cut side down. Broil for about 7-10 minutes or until browned.
- Immediately place peppers in a plastic bag and tie the bag. Allow them to steam for 5 minutes, and then peel off their outer layer of skin. (It should come off easily)
- Add the peppers, tomatillos and cilantro to a blender and puree.
- Add mixture to the pot with the pork and cook everything together for an additional 30 to 45 minutes.
- Serve with tortillas, and a side of Mexican rice and beans.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?
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I’ve been using this recipe as a base for a number of years now.
Prior to that, I had no idea what to do with those funny looking peppers I’d see at the Mexican grocery store.
Looked quite odd to me with those leafy wrappers surrounding them. I just ordered it at the restaurant.
I first made a recipe that used everything from cans. I mean everything, all the peppers etc. except the meat of course.
But after making it, I looked at the sodium content on the cans. Holy Cow.
So much salt! So I searched for ‘low salt chile verde’, and to this day when I need to find this recipe at the store etc.
I just google that and it pops right up! That other recipe gave me palpitations and I could barely sleep, my heart was pounding!
So then, I started using this recipe.
The first time I roasted peppers, when I could barely breath in the house, and learned quickly to open all the windows.
Now I use the Weber BBQ outside and put all the tomatillo’s in one of those one of those grill baskets and cook them whole. Do not cut them in half even in the oven, just turn them once.
Since you don’t need to peel them, it makes short work of giving them all a nice char at once in the grill basket.
With the passilla/pablano’s and jalapeno’s I put them on the grill whole, get them black on all sides, put them in a metal bowl and cover. I make the salsa first and then do the meat since the whole process of making the salsa in a large batch takes well over an hour. The skins nearly fall off after sitting for 10 minutes or so but a paring knive comes in handy to help it along, running the whole roasted peppers under cold water in the sink while removing the skin.
Once the skins are off , slice them open one side and turn them inside out, removing the veins and seeds, and pulling the stems off. Viola!
I like to cook about 6lbs of meat at a time, and freeze leftovers because it really is a lot of work!
But it pays off with a large batch of Chile Verde that tastes just like a $15 plate at a restaurant for just couple bucks!
Lastly I liked the basic recipe but felt it needed something.
I add 1/8-1/4 teaspoon of ground clove. Smells devine!
A bit of cinnamon, ground coriander and cocoa powder and
some bay leaf. How much depends on the servings, and it’s so convenient the way the website lets you customize the contents by servings in the “print recipe”.
Well back to work! Got the salsa made, the onions chopped, and the garlic ready.
Now I have to cut up the butt roasts and brown them and simmer!
I think this is a great basic recipe. Since I like a little more “power” to my flavor, I don’t measure the cumin and oregano, I just add as much as I like. Also, I have tried roasting my own peppers and tomatillos, but they never peel right for me. So I use canned on both counts. Lazy, yes, but damn if it ain’t tasty!
Awesome Cook! I made it. Thank you. Barbara