wyo_rose

Green chili seems to mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

How do you like your green chili??? There seems to be 2 basic ways to cook it.

The first is like a stew: chunks of pork, green chilis, hot chilis, tomatoes, onions, maybe potatoes or hominy.

The next way is like a thick soup: chunks of pork and potatoes, some chilies but with a thick gravy-like broth.

What's your fav?

(and how to make the gravy-like broth?)

OLChemist

I like the watery kind. Now there is a centeral Mexican version you get in the resturaunts in my neighborhood that is like a thick green chile sauce with posole but little meat.

Mine's a 3-4 lbs of cubed pork butt, 1-1/2 lb roasted green chiles, a #10 can of hominy, 5-10 onions, lots of stock, a palm full of cumin (heaven only knows how much my palms hold), mexican oreagano, pepper, and salt. Thicken slightly with a masa or flour. Feeds the entire chemistry department or my cousin's family, LOL.

Joe's Dad

You're supposed to use a handful!"lol"

Cumin is the secret ingredient for everything.

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OLChemist

Yes! I have to buy the big bags they sell in Latin markets. Those little bottles from spice ailse are a joke, LOL.

Ever rub a steak with a mix cumin, salt, pepper, and powdered chipolte (sp) chile and grill? Yummm.

between2worlds

I learned how to make chili verde from a Ute ndn woman named Freddie (Alfreda). It is kind of time consuming but when I make it without the shortcuts it is just sooooooo good.

It's a 2 day process -

Day 1 - take a fresh ham (that's the cut of pork that's usually made into a ham but it hasn't been smoked yet - about 10 lbs of meat) and rub onto it's surface a mix made from:

2 T. paprika
8 T. salt
4 T. powdered garlic
6 crumbled bay leaves
4 T. cumin
2 T. black pepper

Take a metal skewer and poke holes all over it. Massage any remaining spice mix onto the meat. Put the pork in a roasting pan and surround with as many whole skinned onions as will fit (3-5 lbs). Cook at 300 deg covered until the meat is falling off the bone.

Drain the pan drippings into a bowl and put those in the fridge. Pick the meat off the bones. Put the bones in the fridge for tomorrow along with the roasted onions.

Some of the meat you can filch for pulled pork BBQ for dinner tonight!

While the pork is roasting, prepare the peppers:

Roast a dozen poblano peppers over an open flame until blackened. Put them in a plastic bag for at least 20 minutes to sweat. Slip the skins and SAVE the skins. Do the same with 2 sweet bell peppers.

Put 3 mulato peppers (a type of dried pepper) in a bowl and add water to cover, soaking overnight.

Day 2
The next morning - skim the fat from the pan drippings. Don't throw that away either.

Put the skimmed pan drippings in the biggest stock pot you have (mine is a 5 gallon one). Add the bones and water to fill the pot up. Drain any water from the soaking peppers into the pot too.

Take 3 habanero chilis, cut them lengthwise and put them in a cheesecloth bag. Put the pepper skins in the cheesecloth bag too. Put the bag in the pot.

Boil until about half the water is gone. Take the cheesecloth and the bones out.

Chop up the soaked dried peppers and saute them in the pork fat. When they smell -really- good (only way I know how to describe it - cooked but not burned), discard the fat, and put the sauteed reconstituted peppers into the broth. Chop up the roasted peppers and add those too. Mash up the roasted onions and add those in.

If you didn't cube the pork meat last night you'll need to cut it into bite size pieces. Add it once the pot is up to boiling again.

Take a quart of milk and warm it. Whisk in 1/2 C. masa harina. Stir this in to the boiling soup pot. Cook to desired thickness.

Salt to taste. Stir in 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro just before serving with tortillas or fry bread.

This makes about 2 gallons of chili verde.... adjust amounts as your kitchen will handle. Or just make a bunch and if everyone you know hasn't figured out you are making chili verde, you might even have some to put in the freezer!

Great with a big cup of champurrado on a cold clear high desert night!

wyo_rose

That sounds good. I think I'll try the creamy kind next time.

sookout sh'nob

My step-mom makes it that way. Way good stuff!

Pvt Butter

I love green chili stew. The hotter (spicey) the better with a lot of veggies and meat.

TwoCats

My version uses cubes of lamb with lots of potatoes, green beans and carrots. Yum!

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"If today I had a young mind to direct, to start on the journey of life, and I was faced with the duty of choosing between the natural way of my forefathers and that of the... present way of civilization, I would, for its welfare, unhesitatingly set that child's feet in the path of my forefathers. I would raise him to be an Indian!"-Luther Standing Bear, Lakota

between2worlds

Well - how about sharing? I'm always up for a new recipe for chili verde!