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This pork with Red Chili Sauce is my favorite filling for tamales, burritos, tacos and more. It's made with a pork roast, spices, and a homemade red chili sauce.

While living in Mexico with my husband as a young married couple, I had that opportunity to learn to make some authentic Mexican dishes including Mexican rice, Pork Chile Verde, and homemade tamales! I have a seriously love for GOOD Mexican food!

Shredded pork with red chili sauce in a slow cooker.

My experiences with the people, food, and culture of Puebla, Mexico instilled in me a deep love of all things Mexican and you'll notice that the Mexican cuisine on my site gets more love and attention than all of the other types of cuisine!

Don't miss my full tutorial and step by step tips for how to use this pork and make homemade tamales!

For the Pork:

  • Add pork, onion, bay leaf, garlic, oregano, cumin and salt and pepper to slow cooker.  Cover the pork with water and cook on LOW for 8 hours or overnight.
  • Drain the pork broth into a container and shred the cooked pork.

Pork roast in a slow cooker with spices, onion and a bay leaf.

For the Mexican red chili sauce:

  • Use rubber gloves to remove the stems and seeds from the dried chiles while rinsing them under cold water. Place chiles in a saucepan with 2 cups of reserved broth. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, then remove from heat.

A bag of California dried chilies next to a saucepan with the chilies soaking in water.

  • Transfer the chiles and broth to a blender. Add oregano, cumin, chili powder, onion powder, garlic and blend until smooth. Set aside.
  • In the same saucepan you used to cook the chiles, add oil and cook over medium heat. Add flour and salt and stir for 1 minute. Strain the chili sauce from the blender and add it to the saucepan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.

A blender with red chiles and spices, and then the blended red chili sauce added to a saucepan.

  • Add red chili sauce to the meat, and stir to combine.

Red chili sauce poured over shredded pork in a slow cooker.

Serve with:

  • Homemade Tamales
  • Inside a burrito
  • As a taco
  • On a salad

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Recipe

Shredded pork with red chili sauce in a slow cooker.
Prep 30 minutes
Cook 8 hours
Total 8 hours 30 minutes
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Ingredients
  

For the pork:

For the Red Chili Sauce:

Instructions
 

For the pork:

  • Add pork, onion, bay leaf, garlic, oregano, cumin and salt and pepper to slow cooker.  Cover the pork with water and cook on LOW for 8 hours or overnight.
  • Drain the pork, reserving the broth. Shred the meat.

For the Red Chili Sauce:

  • Remove the stems and seeds from the dried chiles while rinsing them under cold water. Place chiles in a saucepan with 2 cups of broth from the cooked pork. Simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes, then remove from heat. 
  • Transfer the chiles and broth to a blender. Add oregano, cumin, chili powder, onion powder, garlic and blend until smooth. Set aside.
  • In the same saucepan you used to cook the chiles, add oil and cook over medium heat. Add flour and salt and stir for 1 minute.
  • Strain the chili sauce from the blender and add it to the saucepan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes, then add the sauce to the shredded pork.

Nutrition

Calories: 57kcalCarbohydrates: 1gProtein: 7gFat: 2gCholesterol: 21mgSodium: 168mgPotassium: 145mgVitamin A: 80IUVitamin C: 0.7mgCalcium: 8mgIron: 0.4mg
HAVE YOU TRIED THIS RECIPE?!

RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.

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About The Author

Lauren Allen

Welcome! I’m Lauren, a mom of four and lover of good food. Here you’ll find easy recipes and weeknight meal ideas made with real ingredients, with step-by-step photos and videos.

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5 from 382 votes (345 ratings without comment)
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Cynthia Sineni
1 year ago

5 stars
The pork turned out delicious. An excellent filling for tamales.

Nancy Arter
1 day ago

5 stars
Really excellent recipe! I used in tamales and they were the best I’ve made!

AmIKai
1 day ago

5 stars
This was an incredible recipe! I couldn’t find the California peppers so I used Anjole Chilis and it worked out beautifully. Portion is smaller so next time I plan to double it! My family loved it and I can see why Lauren uses it for everything!

Lauren
1 day ago

How many tamales can I make with 3lbs of meat? Would I need to also double the tamale recipe you have?

Admin
Stacy Popham
10 hours ago
Reply to  Lauren

So with 3 lbs of pork, you’ll have roughly double the filling from the recipe (which uses 1.5 lbs). That’s enough for about 48 tamales, so yes, you’d want to double the tamale dough recipe too.

Nette
10 days ago

Do we need the entire broth for the sauce or cam we toss what we don’t need?

Admin
Rachel Aldridge
9 days ago
Reply to  Nette

You don’t need to use all of it. Just add enough broth to get the sauce to the consistency you like, then discard the rest.

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