Green Chile With Pork

Submitted by HotRod Howie

"MY recipe for this heavenly food."

 

• Ready In: 3hrs 45mins
• Ingredients: 10
• Serves: 6-12

ingredients

• 3 lbs roasted green chili peppers
• 3 lbs pork
• 1 -2 onion
• 1 -2 teaspoon garlic
• 1 lb ground pork (or ground turkey)
• 1 -2 lb canned tomato
• salt
• chicken bouillon
• chopped jalapeno
• beer (optional, but not in MY house!) (optional)

directions

1. Los Lobos or Los Lonely Boys are good music choices for this dish. If people are asleep, wear your headphones!
2. Equal amounts green chiles and pork - say 3 pounds of each. I use whatever pork is on sale, but most often use country style ribs, cut into cubes. Cook the pork in a small amount of oil over high heat, stirring frequently, until the pork is very well done - sometimes it seems like you are about to burn it.
3. If you can't get fresh chiles locally (my favorite are Pueblo Hots, grown in Pueblo, Colorado - I think they taste better than Hatch NM grown chiles, which is saying a lot), canned roasted, chiles are OK - though fresh are much better. If using fresh roasted chiles, peel and seed the chiles. There is heat in the seeds, so you can control the heat somewhat by controlling the amount of seeds you leave in/take out.
4. Puree the chiles in a blender. Add to the pork that you've already cooked. Use a small amount of water (or beer) to rinse out the blender, and add this as well.
5. For every 3# of chile, chop and add a small onion - I usually use yellow.
6. Add approx 1 tsp of garlic (to taste).
7. You can also add 1 1/2# (or whatever is half the weight of the chiles and pork) of canned or fresh tomato. The tomato will cut down on the heat in the chile, and since it is usually cheaper than chiles, can extend the size of the recipe without changing the flavor of the finished product much. I also like to use diced canned tomatoes for their texture.
8. I usually add 1# or more of either ground pork or ground turkey at this point. It adds lots of flavor and also thickens the broth. If it gets to thick, you can control how thick or thin the broth is by adding water.
9. If the chiles that you started with aren't very hot, and you want to make the chile hotter, add canned or fresh jalapeno or fresno peppers. I TRY NOT TO USE CANNED UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. You can usually buy a small can of jalapenos with how hot they are marked on the can. Fresnos you usually have to buy fresh, and often have to 'look' for them. They are hotter than jalapenos, and have a different flavor as well, so use them with caution.
10. Simmer for about 3 hours. About 1 hour before you are ready to serve, I add "some" chicken bullion (be careful because it is salty) to boost the meat flavor of the finished product. You can also add cubed chicken breast or more cubed pork at this point. I often use both.
11. TIP! If you over-salt, add cubed potatoes to absorb the salt. If you do this, the potatoes add a different flair to the dish so you can leave them in or take them out! In some areas of the southwest, the cook ALWAYS has potatoes in their chile. If I use potatoes, I usually serve them separately.
12. If you want to thicken the gravy, bring the entire batch to a boil (be careful not to burn your creation) and add cornstarch just before serving.
13. Enjoy!
14. A lot of what I know about this, especially about chiles themselves, I learned from a guy who used to roast and sell chiles on West Colfax in Denver. He's who turned me on to Pueblo chiles in the first place! He has a website that is FULL of information about chile and southwest cooking in general. He even sells chiles on this website! Go there and look around! Lots of interesting recipes there, too. http://chilemasters.com/.