When winter rolls around, you can never have enough stew and soup recipes on hand. You'll want to add this hearty Southwestern-influenced stew to your chile/chili repertoire. Loaded with vegetables, shredded pork and chile verde, it's sure to warm you up any frosty evening.
This chile verde stew is a variation of a recipe I found at Epicurious.com, and my family has been enjoying it for several years.
A central ingredient to the recipe is chile verde or green chile sauce, which can be purchased frozen or bottled. However, considering my Colorado locale, I like to purchase Poblano chiles in season, roasted or raw, at the farmers' market, and make my own chile verde, which can then be frozen. If you want to try your hand at making it from scratch, check out this Chile Verde Sauce post. A very convenient method for freezing home-made chile verde is to freeze it in ice cubes. The frozen chile cubes can then be placed in a gallon freezer bag and weeks later, an appropriate number can be removed from the bag and placed in your simmering stew or soup.
Serves: 10-12 (I make a big batch because this is very good as a leftover).
Preparation Time: 3 hours, including simmering time.
1 lb boneless pork roast (or cubed stew pork)
2 quarts water, divided
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp celery seed
2 Tbsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
1/4-1/2 cup chile verde, store bought or from scratch (5-6 chile ice cubes, if frozen ahead)
3 tsp chicken bouillon
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
6 carrots, peeled and sliced
5 medium red potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
If you have never made pulled pork for use in recipes, let me assure you, it's a pretty simple process. Place the pork roast in a large pot. Add 1-2 cups of water. Cover with lid. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer 20-30 minutes, turning pork and adding more water, if needed. Remove from heat. Leave in pot and let sit for about 30 until cool enough to handle. Do not discard the broth. Place roast on a plate or cutting board. Use two forks to shred the pork, holding the roast in place with a fork in your less dominant hand and pulling shreds from the edge of the roast with a fork in your dominant hand.
Place the shredded pork, chopped onions and garlic back in the same pot with the broth.
Crush the celery seed, using a mortar and pestle.
Add remaining water, spices, bouillon, chile verde and tomato sauce to pot. Here you can see the chile verde cubes before they melt into the stew.
Simmer about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. About 45 minutes before serving, add sliced carrots. Bring to a boil and simmer. Wait 15 minutes, then add potatoes. Bring to a boil again, then simmer.
We enjoy chile verde stew with home-made sour cream, which is not as hard to make as you might think, if you plan a few days ahead. But you can just as easily use commercial sour cream. Don't forget the tortillas or cornbread!
Chile verde stew is a natural with beer but a dry, intense red wine will also stand up to this flavorful dish. I served it with Petalos del Bierzo from Spain, and the pairing was very nice.
Per-serving Nutritional Profile (without Sour Cream and Tortilla)
Calories, 160
Fat, 1.5 g
Saturated Fat, 0 g
Cholesterol, 30 mg
Carbs, 25 g
Dietary Fiber, 4 g
Protein, 13 g
Sodium, 360 mg
Vitamin A, 140% Daily Value
Vitamin C, 60% Daily Value
Calcium, 4% Daily Value
Iron, 10% Daily Value
