Chili Verde

I don’t know exactly how, but I was talking to my friends about stuff I hadn’t ever really got the hang of cooking properly. The thing that came up was authentic Mexican style chilis. It takes a great deal of skill to make this sort of thing correctly and they use techniques not completely familiar to American cooks. So I made sure to find as authentic a recipe as I could.

The result, definitely the best chili, if not the best chili, period and stop, I’ve ever made. It’s so good and tasty and has so much authentic spicy, meaty, and deep flavor. This makes a lot too so great for freezing or holding over in fridge. And it only gets better over time.

Ingredients

5 cups diced onion
1/2 cup chopped garlic
1/3 cup chopped serrano peppers
1/3 cup chopped jalapeno peppers
5 pounds cubed pork shoulder
1 quart chicken broth
15 to 20 Anaheim peppers
12 to 15 tomatillos
3 tablespoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup corn flour

Preheat oven to 350.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add some cooking oil, I use canola. add the onion, garlic, serrano, and jalapeno peppers and cook until soft. Set aside.

Next add the pork shoulder in a large heavy bottomed pot , over medium heat and sear until well browned on all sides. Make sure this is a nice big pot otherwise you’ll run out of room. If you don’t have a large skillet do pork in smaller batches. Deglaze with the chicken broth, add the onions and pepper mix. Turn heat to low, cover and let it simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the Anaheim peppers on a sheet pan. Peel the outer paper skins off the tomatillos and put them on the pan too. Coat with the tomatillos and peppers with olive oil. Place the pan into preheated oven and roast until the peppers are nicely charred and the tomatillos are soft, about 20 minutes. Don’t undercook them because it will make peeling them harder.

Remove the pan from the oven and place the peppers in a plastic bag, seal and let them steam for 5 minutes. Peel the peppers as best you can, it’ll be hot and you can easily burn your fingers if you aren’t careful. Puree them with the tomatillos in a food processor until smooth. Add the puree to the pork mixture, stir, and then let simmer on low heat.

Combine the garlic powder, black pepper, ground cumin, Mexican oregano, ground coriander, and salt in a small bowl, then add to pork mixture and stir well.

In a small saute pan, mix 1/2 cup olive oil with the corn flour, stirring over low heat for 2 minutes to make a masa roux. Stir the roux into the pork mixture. Let the chili mixture simmer for approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours on medium-low heat, or until pork is nice and tender.

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