This post contains affiliate links.

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

You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOKTWITTERINSTAGRAM and PINTEREST for more great recipes!

5 from 382 votes

Shredded Pork with Red Chili Sauce

Author: Lauren Allen
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.
Prep: 30 minutes
Cook: 8 hours
Total: 8 hours 30 minutes
Servings: 20

Email This Recipe!

Enter your email and we'll send it directly to you!

By entering your phone number you consent to receive marketing text messages (e.g. meal plans) from TBFS at the number provided, including messages sent by autodialer. Consent is not a condition of purchase. Msg & data rates may apply. Msg frequency varies. Unsubscribe at any time by replying STOP or clicking the unsubscribe link. Reply HELP for help. Privacy Policy.

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: 57kcal, Carbohydrates: 1g, Protein: 7g, Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 21mg, Sodium: 168mg, Potassium: 145mg, Vitamin A: 80IU, Vitamin C: 0.7mg, Calcium: 8mg, Iron: 0.4mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Text me new recipe ideas!

Simple, tasty ideas sent once a week. No spam.

Text Signup
HAVE YOU TRIED THIS RECIPE?!

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

Related Posts

Share Recipe

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.

5 from 382 votes (345 ratings without comment)
Subscribe
Notify of

136 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Cynthia Sineni
1 year ago

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

Jennifer Monroe
3 years ago

5 stars
I’ve made this a half dozen times and EVERY TIME it’s perfect. Everyone loves it. Zero changes or modifications. Thank you!

Cheryl
3 years ago

5 stars
I made this recipe and it’s so good I’m making it again. I used this as filling for tamales and it was perfect.

Janet Savidge
4 years ago

5 stars
gonna make this tomorrow, Mexican rice, refried beans

Bert Carrasco
4 years ago

Tried this recipe and it’s a keeper, easy to follow. I like my tamales spicy, used dried New Mexico pods.Tamales were delicious! Also like to use large cookie scoop for the masa, makes them the same size. Thanks!👍

Fay
4 years ago

5 stars
This recipe was delicious! Family has ready requested it again. Definitely kid approved.

Christina
4 years ago

5 stars
Thank you for this wonderful recipe! I have made these tamales two years in a row now and they never disappoint. They are delicious and fun to make.

Noreen Sears
4 years ago

How would I make it spicier ?

Jennifer R
4 years ago

I literally cannot get enough of this pork. I’ve used it for
tamales and it’s the best filling I’ve ever tasted! The sauce is so good I want to lick my plate. No joke. I’ve made just the sauce for other dishes. It’s so good it can stand on its own in many different ways – it’s warm and comforting without being spicy. Thank you for such an amazing recipe. Thanks to you I finally (at the age of 49) felt confident enough to try my hand at tamales. They were amazing!!!

Elsa
4 years ago

How many tamales in this recipe?

Eric
5 years ago

5 stars
Great recipe and instructions. I found rolling out the masa between two sheets of parchment paper then cutting rectangles to help me make consistent masa to filling ratios and reduced the time needed when scaling this up. Also, individually wrapping and freezing works great.