I usually make the dish using pork. I dice up a picnic roast or pork butt roast (it's really pork shoulder, don't ask me why they call it butt!). Recently I made it with chicken and it turned out wonderful. If you are using chicken, I suggest boiling a whole chicken with some onion, carrot, celery, parsley and peppercorns and then pulling the meat from the chicken. Now you've made the chicken stock for the recipe and you don't need to brown the chicken, just add it after sauteing the onion and spices.
I think either way, this is a fabulous recipe and worth the effort.
Vickie's Chile Verde
Serves 6
Ingredients:
8 fresh Anaheim green chiles
8 fresh Pasilla dark green chiles
1 lb. fresh Tomatillos
1 large white onion
4 garlic cloves
2 lb. lean pork, cut into large dice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
salt and pepper
1 12-oz. bottle of Mexican beer
1-2 Cups Chicken Stock
1 lime
Method:
Roast, peel and de-seed the chiles. Cut them into small dice. If you have never done this, please, look online and read up on how to do it right. You really want to get rid of all the skin off the chiles and blackening them is the best way.
Preheat your oven to 375F. Remove the husks from the tomatillos and rinse them well. Put them on a baking sheet. Cut the onion into quarters and put them on the baking sheet as well. Roast the tomatillos and onions until the tomatillos have brown spots and are soft (20-30 minutes).
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| Roated onion, tomatillos, garlic & zucchini - did them all in the oven for this batch. |
While the tomatillos are roasting, smash the garlic cloves. Heat a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Salt and pepper the diced pork. Brown the pork a few handfuls at a time. Don't crowd the pan, you want the pork to get some nice brown carmelization. Set asside the cooked pork.
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| Browning the cubed and seasoned pork in small batches to get some good carmelization going. |
Pulverize the tomatillos in a blender until smooth. Dice the now softened onion. Saute the onion in the pot, add the garlic, cumin, oregano and a little salt and pepper. Now add back the pork and stir well. Pour in the tomatillo mix. Stir again. Add the beer and enough chicken stock to just cover the meat. Bring to a boil and then lower heat. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the roasted green chiles, mix well. Add the lime juice and mix again. Taste. Adjust for salt.
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| The final stew. This batch had multicolored chiles and added zuccini. |
Variations:
- Add a minced serrano to make it more spicy.
- Add some corn (cut from the cob and fried up a bit OR a small can).
- Add a can of hominy.
- Tortillas hot off the griddle
- Corn tortilla chips
- Mexican Crema or sour cream
- Chopped fresh cilantro
- Sliced Green Onions
- Xenepek (google it!)
3 comments:
Thanks for the recipe you have shared here! I could picture this out as a very mouth-watering recipe you got!
So I followed your suggestion and Googled "Xenepek", but all that popped up was your recipe in many different guises, all attributed to you. Is it a Vixen original?
Xenepek is a Mayan word meaning Dog's Nose this salsa is so spicy that it will make your nose run.
My husband and I encountered it on vacation on the Mayan Riviera of Mexico about 15 years ago. We always ask for the spiciest salsa they have. Most restaurants in that area had a fresh green salsa that was WICKED. We asked one of them the recipe and he said, Habanero chiles, cilantro, onion and lime. We have made it with Habenero or Scotch Bonnets, but usually that makes it so wicked that no one can really eat it. With Serranos it's just spicy enough to respect but still be useful.
I don't think my recipe is the only one to be found. I have seen several versions. Recently we've changed our recipe and now only use: Serranos chopped fine with a bit of minced white onion and cilantro with juice of lime. That's it.
Enjoy!
":^)
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