This pork green chili recipe was inspired from the famous Mexican style stew, Chili Verde. In New Mexico they use beautiful hatch chilis, that are grown only in that area. Since they can be hard to come by, we use five more common chili peppers for a healthy dose of spice! Together with the juicy fall apart pork shoulder, sautéed onions and tart tomatillos, this pork green chili dances all the way down your belly.
“I hope we have milk on hand”
-Frankie
WTF is Pork Green Chili?
Chili verde, or green chili, is believed to have originated from Mexican-American communities in the late 1800s, in southwest America. Today it is a staple in New Mexican cuisine.
The special dish is made with chunks of pork, simmered in a flavorful broth made from green chili peppers, garlic, onions, and spices. It’ll warm your bones without blowing your tastebuds out.
While this pork green chili isn’t a traditional New Mexican chili verde, it’s certainly inspired by it. Hatch chili’s are the star of most chili verde recipes, but living outside of New Mexico can make it hard to source them.
Them important thing is to roast fresh green chilis, whichever ones you prefer, and to use tender juicy pork and simmer everything low and slow until all the ingredients have had time to meld together. You’re gonna love this pork green chili recipe!
Best Peppers for Green Chili
When it comes to making chili, the type of chili pepper you choose can make a difference in flavor and HEAT. We like it hot, so we are using serrano, jalapeño, and habanero in addition to Anaheim and Poblano.
You can mix and match depending on what you like. Here are some popular chili peppers and a short description so you can feel free to substitute or add whichever ones you like when you make this pork green chili recipe.
Popular Peppers for Chili:
- Chipotle chili peppers – Smoky and slightly sweet with a moderate heat level.
- Guajillo chili peppers – Mild to medium heat with a slightly sweet and fruity flavor.
- Jalapeño chili peppers – Mild to medium heat with a slightly sweet, grassy flavor.
- Serrano chili peppers – Medium to hot heat with a slightly sweet and fruity flavor.
Chili Peppers of the Southwest:
- New Mexico Chili Peppers or Hatch Chili’s – Mild to medium heat with a slightly sweet, earthy, and smoky flavor. People go nuts for em, check out this Food & Wine article to learn more.
- Big Jim Chili Peppers – Mild to medium heat with a slightly sweet, slightly nutty flavor.
Widely Available Chili Peppers:
- Bell peppers – Mild, sweet flavor with no heat.
- Poblano peppers – Mild to medium heat with a slightly sweet, earthy flavor.
- Fresno peppers – Mild to medium heat with a slightly sweet, slightly acidic flavor.
- Anaheim Chili Peppers – Mild heat with a slightly sweet, slightly bitter flavor.
Note: It’s important to keep in mind that the heat level of chili peppers can vary greatly, depending on the time its harvested and how its cooked. It’s always a good idea to taste a small piece before adding a large amount to your dish to gauge the heat level.
PORK GREEN CHILI RECIPE – CHILI VERDE
Pork Green Chili Recipe Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need to make this pork green chili recipe.
- Pork: Ground Pork and Pork Shoulder. We like a meaty pork green chili.
- Peppers: You can mix and match depending on time of year and availability, but for the pork green chili recipe we use Anaheim, Poblano, Jalapeño, Serrano, and Habanero. Don’t worry, roasting them mellows them out.
- Tomatillos: About a pound. Remove the waxy outer leayer and quarter them. They bring a great really great tart flavor to the party.
- Garlic & Onion: Seems like no matter what we are cooking we just start with sautéing some good old onion and garlic. No different here.
- Chicken Stock: You could use water, but stock is so much more flavorful. We use our homemade turkey bone broth, but store bought chicken stock is fine.
- Spices: Coriander, cumin, Mexican oregano, salt, pepper, and some smoked paprika.
- Herbs: Fresh Cilantro in the chili and as a garnish.
- Cornstarch: Used to make the slurry, a thicken agent.
- Garnishes: Fresh chili’s, sour cream, and a little cheese.
Why & How to Roast your Chili’s
Roasting your chili peppers is a must. It’s super simple and it adds so much flavor. You don’t need one of those fancy fire spinners or even a grill to roast peppers. All you need is an oven.
Roasting peepers brings out the natural sweetness and deepens the flavor. It turns normal peppers into icons. It adds smoky depth and rich taste to pork green chili.
To roast peppers in the broiler simply spread them out onto a baking sheet and place them under the broiler. Let them char and blister, around 4-5 minters. Take em out and flip them and blister the other side, another 4-5 minutes.
Once out of the oven toss them into a ziplock bag, seal it, anklet them rest for 15-20 minutes. The heat from the freshly roasted peppers will steam them further, making it super easy to peel off the charred skin. Like clothes coming off after a long day at the office.
How to Make Pork Green Chili
Follow these step by step instructions to make this pork green chili recipe.
Step 1: Roast your Chili’s
Spread out all of the chilis on a baking sheet and place them under the broiler for 4-5 minutes. Take them out and flip them. Place them back under the broiler for an additonal 4-5 minutes.
The skin of the peppers should be charred and burnt. Transfer them to a an airtight plastic bag and let them steam for 20 minutes. Then peel the skin off, deseed them, and roughly chop. Set aside.
Step 2: Brown the Pork
Dice the pork shoulder into 1-2 inch cubes and season generously with salt and pepper.
In a dutch oven or large pot, over medium high heat, brown the ground pork. Transfer it to a bowl and place in the refrigerator.
Leave the grease in the dutch oven. If using lean pork and there isn’t much grease, add a couple tablespoons of olive oil.
Toss the pork shoulder cubes in the dutch oven and brown on all sides. 5-7 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl or dish and set aside.
Step 3: Sauté Veggies
Use the pork fat to sauté the onions and tomatillos. Season with salt, pepper, ground cumin, coriander, smoked paprika, and Mexican oregano.
Step 4: Combine & Simmer
Once the tomatillos have wilted add the pork shoulder cubes, chicken stock, roasted peppers, and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, stir, and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and let simmer for 1.5 hours, or until the pork chunks fall apart easily.
Step 5: Incorporate Cornstarch Slurry
In a small mixing bowl, combine 2 Tbsp of cornstarch and 4 Tbsp of cold water. Slowly stir the mixture into the dutch oven. Stir well to incorporate fully.
Add the ground turkey and cilantro, stir, and simmer for 20 minutes to half an hour.
Step 6: Garnish & Serve!
Use a ladle to transfer the chili to serving bowls. Garnish with thinly sliced jalapeños, sour cream, fresh cilantro, and grated pepper jack or cheddar cheese.
Enjoy!
What to Serve with Pork Green Chili?
We take this pork green chili to the face pretty quickly. No time for side dishes or amuse bouche when a pot of this green gold is brewing. But if you’re more civilized than us, and I hope you are, here are a couple ideas for things you could serve with this pork green chili.
- Cornbread: Com’on, it’s so obvious. The match made in heaven, chili and cornbread. Or try our Turkish Bread recipe! it’s super simple and a great way to soak up some chili.
- Rice: This pork green chili is almost like a curry, it would go great over a bed of jasmine rice.
- Salad: Technically you are serving something green, so I don’t know if we wanna bring more rabbit food into the equation, but a little side salad might pair nicely.
- Tortilla chips: Cowboy nachos baby. Tortilla chips offers great texture contrast to this pork green chili. Yeehaw!
- Dessert: Make sure to cool the mouth down and finish the night with some dessert. This Pumpkin Spice Panda Cotta is the perfect treat to chill everything out.
Those are just a few ideas, serve whatever your heart desires. Doesn’t matter really, the pork green chili is the showstopper.
Pork Green Chili Leftovers
Frankie and I love making a big batch of this stuff and freezing half of it for meals down the road. It reheats great and I like knowing I have some meals for Frankie tucked away for when I’m working on the road.
If you don’t have enough leftover pork green chili to freeze, just pop what you got into an airtight container and store it in the fridge for 4-5 days.
To reheat it, use the microwave or slowly bring it to heat in a pot over medium heat. Add a little water to the pot so it doesn’t dry out.
Roasted 5 Pepper & Pork Green Chili
Course: DinnerCuisine: Mexican, New Mexican, PNWDifficulty: Easy6
servings20
minutes3
hoursSpicy green chilies are juicy pork come together to make this delicious pork green chili.
Ingredients
2.5 lbs 2.5 Pork Shoulder or Butt – Diced into 1-2″ cubes
1 lb 1 Ground Pork
1 lb 1 Tomatillos – unwrapped & quartered
3 3 Poblano – roasted, deseeded, peeled, chopped
4 4 Anaheim – roasted, deseeded, peeled, chopped
3 3 Jalapeño – roasted, deseeded, peeled, chopped
2 2 Saranno – roasted, deseeded, peeled, chopped
2 2 Habanero – roasted, deseeded, peeled, chopped
4 cups 4 Chicken Stock
1 lrg 1 Onion – roughly chopped
6 6 Garlic Cloves – roughly chopped
2 tbsp 2 Mexican Oregano
1 tbsp 1 Ground Cumin
1 tbsp 1 Ground Corriander
1 tsp 1 Smoked Paprika
1/2 bunch 1/2 Fresh Cilantro – roughly chopped
2 tbsp 2 Cornstarch
2 cups 2 Water
4 tbsp 4 Cold Water
2 tbsp 2 Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
- Garnishes
Sour Cream
Pepper Jack or Cheddar Cheese
Fresh Cilantro
Jalapeno Slices
Directions
- In a dutch oven or large pot, over medium high heat, brown the ground pork. Transfer it to a bowl and place in the refrigerator. Then, in the same dutch oven, brown the pork shoulder cubes on all sides. 5-7 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl or dish and set aside.
- Use the pork fat left over to sauté the onions and tomatillos. Season with salt, pepper, ground cumin, coriander, smoked paprika, and Mexican oregano.
- Once the tomatillos have wilted add the pork shoulder cubes, chicken stock, roasted peppers, and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, stir, and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and let simmer for 1.5 hours, or until the pork chunks fall apart easily.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine 2 Tbsp of cornstarch and 4 Tbsp of cold water. Slowly stir the mixture into the dutch oven. Stir well to incorporate fully. Add the ground pork and cilantro, stir, and simmer for 20 minutes to half an hour.
- Use a ladle to transfer the chili to serving bowls. Garnish with thinly sliced jalapeños, sour cream, fresh cilantro, and grated pepper jack cheese. Enjoy!
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Pork Green Chili Recipe FAQ’s
Can I make this pork green chili recipe with chicken instead of pork?
Yes, you can make green chili with chicken instead of pork. The chicken won’t need long to cook, so add it back in towards the end of simmering your veggies.
Beef Shoulder or Butt could also be substituted for the pork.
Where does pork green chili come from?
Pork green chili, or Chili Verde has roots in Mexico and the American Southwest. Hatch chilies are primarily used in that region.
Is this pork green chili recipe spicy?
This one is! We use a lot of spicy peppers for this pork green chili. Roasting them definitely mellows them out a bit, but it’s still spicy. Feel free to omit the habanero or Serrano for a milder pork green chili.
Can I make this pork green chili recipe in a slow cooker?
Yup, making pork green chili in a slow cooker is a certainly an option. Just place all the ingredients in the slow cooker, set it on low heat, and let it cook for several hours. However, you should still brown the meat and sauté the veggies in a skillet.
Can I freeze pork green chili?
Yes, pork green chili can be frozen for later use. We usually make a big old batch intending to freeze some of it. To reheat, just add a little water or stock along with the frozen chili in a pot, and slowly bring up to heat.
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