Chile Verde

Fall has hit; a cool and rainy day is the perfect day for a nice bowl of green pork chile.  My recipe comes from Karen Ray at the Food Network; it was an award winner and I've found it to be my favorite. My absolute chile is the Sunset Magazine El Cid chili; but that is a red, beef-based chile as opposed to this nice green Mexican dish.

One thing to know before diving into this recipe is that there is a lot of prep time required. It took me about 1 hours and 15 minutes to get things chopped, diced, cubed, etc.

I laid out all the ingredients:

That will all need to be chopped! Preparing the poblano chiles is probably the most intensive work; we want to get the tough outer skin off. The first step is to roast them; I put them on the gas burners turned on high and turn them a few times

After they get nice and charred I cover them up to let them steam a bit

Ah, the skins are all nice and puckered.

Now we rinse them under cold running water to get the tough outer skin off. Be careful here; if you have sensitive hands be sure to wear gloves. These are mild chiles but still can affect your skin. As I peel them under the water the smell and Capsaicin  rises and I got choked up. My hands felt a mild sting for a couple of hours. Here they are after rinsing to remove the skin.

Next we open them up, remove the stems and seeds and flatten them out preparatory to chopping them.

While I cube the pork and chop the onion and chiles I have the tomatillos , green enchilada sauce, salsa verde, and spice mix simmering on the stove. 

Here we are ready to start building the stew. Onion, pork, chiles, and garlic. Notice I still have a couple of green peppers in the background. I'll finely mince these later; they don't go into the stew for another 2 hours.

I sauté the pork and onion in batches. About 30 seconds before tossing into the chile pot I add garlic just to get it fragrant. You can see the chile pot in the background.

After all the pork, onion, and garlic have been added, in go the chiles.

After 2 hours of simmering I add a cup of the green peppers, adjust the seasoning and simmer for another 45 minutes. Here it is toward the end, it's nice and reduced and the flavors are all melded.

Dinner time! Top with a dollop of sour cream. Serve with tortillas and beer. Salad optional!

Yum! I rate my recipes on a 1-5 star basis; this is one of the few with 5 stars. Perfect for a rainy October afternoon.