My Green Heaven

Ever wanted to make your own green chili? Found it kind of hard and confusing? Don’t worry, just make mine:

Ingredients:
8 mild hatch chiles (preferably Hatch-brand canned, already roasted, peeled, stemmed and de-seeded)
3 hot hatch chiles (roasted, peeled, stemmed and de-seeded. need some? call me! i’ve got 26 pounds!)
1 pound ground pork (or 1 pound pork squares for stew, chopped into smaller peices)
3/4 medium white onion
5 small to medium tomatillos
5 cloves garlic (unpeeled)
2 cups chicken broth
1/8 tsp ground comino (cumin)
1/2 tsp ground oregano (preferably mexican)
salt to taste
black pepper to taste
sugar (if chili is too hot)
lime juice (again, to soften the edges of the spiciness)

The pork:
In deciding which type of pork to use, take into account the following:

1. How quickly do you want this made?
2. Is the pork flavor going to make an awful lot of difference?

I feel the pork for stew creates more flavorful fat in the pan (don’t cringe.. it makes a difference!), and looks nicer, but takes longer to cook. Ground pork is easy and quick.

In a large dutch oven, cazuela, or other large pot, brown the pork (don’t drain the fat). Use salt and pepper to taste. Sautéeing some of the onion in with the pork is nice here as well. Keep in pot and remove from heat.

The Chili:
(Most of this can be done while the pork is cooking)

Roasting the garlic: On a small, ungreased skillet or griddle set over a medium heat, lay the unpeeled garlic cloves and let them brown and soften. You’ll see their flesh turn into a buttery-yellow under the translucent skin (about 15 minutes). Turn occasionally until soft. Peel and place in a blender or food processor.

Roasting the tomatillos: While the garlic is roasting, peel the husks from the tomatillos and rinse to reduce the stickiness of the skin. Place the tomatillos on a baking pan under a hot broiler for about 6 minutes each side (top & bottom). The skin will turn black and they will also fold in on themselves a bit. When they’re done roasting, set them out to cool, collecting any juices. When cool, the skin should be easily peeled off, and everything inside should be place inside the blender, along with any collected juices.

Roasting the chiles: As I’ve never satisfactorily roasted my own poblanos, hatches or New Mexico chiles, I suggest using canned mild chiles and professionally roasted hot ones. The former can be purchased at just about every grocery store and I suggest Hatch brand hatch chiles in the large can. Any small-can type chiles (Ortega, etc) tend to be too small and salty. The latter can be purchased at a road-side chile stand in most of the southwest/west during chile harvest season, during late August, early September. I recommend buying 1/4 to half a bushel, having them roast them, then freezing the whole lot for use during the whole year. Place all 11 chiles into the blender.

Roughly chop the onion, with some of it smaller if you’re going to sautee it with the pork. Add the onion to the blender.

Add 1 cup chicken broth to blender, along with comino, oregano, salt and pepper.

Purée the chili in the blender until smooth and thick. If the blender/processor isn’t moving very well due to the amount of items in it, try doing half a batch at a time, or adding more chicken stock to smoothen it out.

Once the pork has been cooked, warm it up again (not removing any fat) to a medium-high heat. Once you start to hear it sizzle a bit, pour the chili from the blender into the pot with the pork.

Bring the chili to a boil, and then reduce the heat to medium to allow simmering. You’ll start to see the color darken and mature after about 10-15 minutes and there should be a visble reduction in the amount of water. At this point, add up to 1 more cup of stock/broth to your liking.

Add salt, black pepper to taste. If the chili is too hot at this point, add a pinch of sugar (be careful, too much will weaken it past the point of being decent!). If you’re still not sure about the heat, add some lime juice, just a few shakes from the plastic lime thing, in order to soften the edges without losing flavor and bite.

Depending on the thickness you decide to make, this chili can work well as either a topping for a burrito (thinnest), topping + filling for a burrito (medium thickness), or just eat it right out of the bowl (thickest).

You’ll notice a lack of tomatoes involved.. if you see a chili that claims to be green and it has tomatoes, beware! Tomatoes are RED, tomatillos are GREEN. Use tomatillos and you’ll get more if an authentic green chili. If you must use tomoatoes, 1 medium plum tomato will work in place of the 5 tomatillos.

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