Not Yo' Mama's Pork Green Chili

Pork Green Chili


One of my favorite things about living in Colorado is that I have access to fresh, fire roasted green chilis every Fall.  I usually buy about two bushels, have them roasted right there at the roadside stand and then freeze them for use all year long.  

Growing up in Louisiana I was mostly exposed to Tex-Mex food and it was only when I moved to the Denver area (almost 14 years ago!) that I learned of the incomparable deliciousness of authentic mexican food.  Green chili is one of my favorite things and as soon as I moved here I knew that I must make this stuff for myself because I could not get enough!  

This green chili is not yo’ mama’s green chili...........but it IS delicious!  It is a culmination of my tasting green chili made by various friends and mexican restaurants and making the basic recipe my own.  Through trial and error, I finally came up with a recipe that I absolutely love!  I like my green chili with a little thickness and, of course, I add a good helping of roasted green chilies to give it some heat and that scrumptious roasted green chili flavor.  

I always get hot green chilies from the roadside stand and sometimes I even get some dynamite (extra hot chilies) to mix in with the others just in case the chilies are not quite as hot as I like them. 

Ingredients

2.5 lbs pork stew meat cubed into small pieces 

(pork chops, pork roast or pork shoulder butt blade steaks work well also)

1 medium onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tbsp vegetable oil or olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tbsp flour

1 can stewed diced tomatoes

4 cups chicken broth

1 tsp ground cumin

10 roasted green chilies, diced

Flour or corn tortillas for dippin’ and soppin’ up that delicious stuff!

Shredded cheddar or mexican blend cheese for sprinkling on top

Preparation

Heat the oil in a large stew pot over medium heat and then add in the pork and chopped onions.  Salt and pepper the pork after adding it to the pot.....careful not to add too much salt!  We will add more salt if needed at the end when the green chili is done.  

Saute the pork and onions together until the pork is no longer pink and the onions are soft.  Add in the minced garlic towards the end of the cooking time and saute with the meat and onions about 2 minutes.

This is the part where we brown the flour.  That’s what is going to give us a little thickness to our green chili.  There is nothing quite as sad as watery green chili....sniff!  Push the meat and onions to one side of the pot, leaving some liquid on the other side of the pot.  You may want to add just a tsp of oil at this point in order to help brown the flour.  

Turn up the heat to medium high and add the flour to the non-pork side of the pot.  Stir the flour around in the juices and oil for about 2-3 minutes, just to give it some flavor and cook it a bit.  The flour doesn’t have to be browned.  

Now stir in the chicken broth, making sure to add the broth to the flour first and whisk it a bit with a whisk or fork to break up any lumps.  Add in the canned tomatoes (undrained) and add the green chilies and cumin.  Stir everything thoroughly to combine the ingredients.  

Bring everything to a boil, then cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 1 hour.  Sometimes I simmer the chili longer if it turns out to be thinner than I had wanted.  To thicken up the green chili at the end, remove the lid and simmer uncovered for about 20 mins.  

The longer you simmer it, the better it tastes!  Cheers!