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Prep time
2 hours
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Cook time
2 hours
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Serves
6-8
Author Notes
A plethora of peppers come into season every autumn, but for me, the most exciting is the Hatch green chile. It’s a versatile chile that can come in many different levels of heat (it’s the choose your own adventure chile), and I can’t think of a better meal that features them than green chile stew. It’s hearty, comforting, and reminds me of all the times my dad made it for me as a child, complete with lots of stringy melted cheese on top, not unlike French onion soup.
For this recipe, I not only pack it with a ton of Hatch green chiles, but I also include a variety of others that come into season: serranos, jalapeños, and poblanos are also in their peak, and they lend their own lovely flavors and natural sweetness to the stew. Another fun deviation you’ll see in this recipe includes a trick I learned from my love of making Indian curries: the pork is not only coated in a ton of spices, but also marinated in sour cream (instead of yogurt) since they both possess the same enzyme that breaks down proteins. The result is perfectly tender and meaty moments perfumed by the spices creating textural and flavorful variation in the dish, which can be in danger of being entirely homogenous. —Jon Brian Kinney
Ingredients
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2 pounds
pork shoulder, cut into bite sized cubes
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2 tablespoons
salt
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1 tablespoon
ground cumin
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1/2 tablespoon
ground coriander
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1 teaspoon
ground black pepper
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2 tbs
sour cream
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1 pound
mild hatch green chiles
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2
poblano chiles
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3
serrano chiles
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2
jalapeños
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1
onion, skin removed, quartered
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4
tomatillos, skins removed, halved
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1/4 cup
white vinegar
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6-8
cloves of garlic, skins removed
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1 tablespoon
Mexican oregano
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8-10
leaves of fresh epazote (optional)
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1/4 cup
canola oil
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2
bay leaves
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4 cups
water or broth
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1 pound
waxy potatoes
Directions
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In a bowl, mix together the cubed pork, salt, cumin, coriander, pepper, and sour cream until all surfaces of the pork are covered. Set aside and let the pork marinate in the fridge for at least an hour (I like to do overnight). Keep in mind that when you cook the pork, you’ll want it to be at room temperature before you sear it off.
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To make the stew base, turn on the broiler in your oven and place the green chilis, poblanos, serranos, jalapeños, onion, tomatillos, and garlic all on a large and lightly oiled sheet tray. Make sure that a rack in your oven is right underneath the heat element, and put the sheet tray in the oven. Broil for about 15 minutes, or until the majority of the skin on all of the larger chilis becomes charred and starts to peel, then remove the sheet tray from the oven and flip all the chilis over, then put it back in the oven to broil for 15 more minutes, charring the other side of the chilis. Remove the pan from the oven and put all of the greens, poblanos, serranos, and jalapeños into a large plastic bag using a pair of tongs, and seal it to have them “sweat” and cool down for about half an hour. Set aside the onion, tomatillos, and garlic for later when the chilis are ready.
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Once the chilis have cooled down enough so that you can touch then without burning yourself, remove them from the bag and slip all of them out of their skins by running your fingers underneath any of the tears made by the charring process. Some of them will come right off, some of them will require a bit more tedious peeling. Be patient. After the skins are removed, open all of the chilis gently and de-seed them. You don’t need to get every seed; just get most of them. Discard all the peeled skins and seeds, then put all of the chili flesh into a blender along with the onions, tomatillos, garlic, white vinegar, Mexican oregano, and epazote if you have it. Blend until completely smooth, then set aside.
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Bring a dutch oven to medium high heat, then add the 1/4 cup of oil. Once it starts to shimmer, add half the marinated pork and sear it off until most of its surfaces are golden brown, then remove from the pan. Repeat this step with the other half of the pork. Add the chili puree to the dutch oven along with the 4 cups of water or broth (I like to slosh some of it around in the blender to make sure that every last scrap of the chili puree ends up in the stew) and all the seared pork. Turn the stove up to high to bring your stew to a bubble, then immediately turn it down to low heat and add the bay leaves. Cover the stew with a lid and let it simmer for about an hour. Bring the heat up to medium low and add the cubed potatoes to the stew and have them cook for about 20 minutes or until they are tender. Add salt to taste. Serve with chopped cilantro, lime wedges, sour cream, and lots of shredded Oaxacan or Monterrey Jack cheese.
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