Crockpot Roasted Hatch Chile Verde
Despite eating the roasted Hatch chiles every day for breakfast with eggs, this might be my favorite iteration of them yet. Tender, juicy pork in a chile verde sauce. Does it get much better? Chile verde is by far my favorite when it comes to any of the chile sauces. I can almost say with 99.99% certainty that I’m always going to pick a green salsa over a red. I’m just that way. The flavor that comes with the green is nearly always more flavor instead of heat. The chiles I used for this happened to have a fair amount of heat to them, but the time spent in the crockpot thankfully dulled the heat immensely. As expected when you’re using the crockpot, the house smells so good. For once I did this on a weekend afternoon, and cranked it up to high to try to get things done for dinner. Usually I go the low and slow route, but this worked like a dream. I paired it with some thick, fluffy flour tortillas and it made for delicious soft tacos. Like really delicious.
Ingredients
- 2lbs pork roast, cut into 1″ pieces and salted well [bring to room temperature if you have time!]
- 2lbs tomatilloes, peeled and rinsed
- 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and quartered
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
- 4 roasted Hatch chiles, peeled, deseeded, and diced
- 1/3 cup cilantro, loosely packed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
Preparation
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread the tomatilloes, onion, and garlic on the baking sheet and place in the oven for about 20 minutes. Flip the vegetables about half way through.
While the vegetables are roasting, bring a cast iron skillet to high medium-heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the tablespoon of butter to the pan. When its melted and sizzling, but before the butter starts to brown, add the pork in an even layer. Brown on all sides, which will take about four minutes on each side. You’ll likely have to do this in batches. Put the browned pieces into the crock pot. Drain any of the grease from the pan into the crockpot when you’re browning all of the meat.
When the vegetables are done roasting, place them in a blender or food processor with the roasted Hatch chiles. Blend until smooth. Resist the urge to add water. The tomatilloes will add more than enough liquid. Add a teaspoon of salt and the cilantro. Blend until smooth. Taste for more salt. Add the chile mixture to the crockpot and stir to coat all of the pieces in it. Cook on high for 4-5 hours. Shred the pork in the mixture and let it soak up sauce.
Serve with tortillas, queso fresco, additional cilantro, and avocado if you can find a ripe one that isn’t $5.