Notes — Started as a modified version of the Tomatillo Chili Verde recipe. The peppers control a lot of the flavor of this. There are a shit-ton of different peppers you can use for this and different peppers will make this more smoky, spicy, or sweet. Green peppers are an unripe red peppers; so for all the peppers in the chile sauce, use ripe red versions because COLOR RADO. You’ll probably have to hit your local Mexican market to find some of this stuff. Freezes well.

Ingredients (Medium Red Sauce)

• 5 Chile De Rista (dried anaheim)
• 3 Chile Chipotle Meco (or 1/2 can of chipotle chilies, omit if you want less spicy chile)
• 3 Roasted Poblanos or 3 Passilla Peppers
• 6–8 cups water, enough to cover peppers.

Instructions (Red Sauce)

1. Combine all peppers in a stock pot, add water, and bring to a boil.
2. Once at a boil remove from heat then remove the peppers, save the water.
3. Remove the woody stems from all of the rehydrated peppers.
4. Add peppers to blender, then pour in enough of the reserved water to cover. Blend until a smooth sauce.

Ingredients (Chile)

• 6–8 lbs pork shoulder, cubed with fatty pieces separated and cubed as well.
• 8–12 cups pork stock, depending on how thick you want the soup
• 2 large yellow onion, diced
• 2 red bell peppers, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, diced
• 1/4 cup lard (or oil rendered from pork fat, if pork is fatty)
• 1 tbsp toasted, ground cumin
• 1 tbsp mild chili powder or paprika
• 1 tsp oregano
• salt to taste
• Radish, sliced
• Red Cabbage, sliced
• Lime
• Sour Cream

Instructions (Chile)

1. Take the fatty pieces and add them to a large stock pot. Cooking at medium-high heat, stir regularly to start rendering out lard from these fatty pieces. Fry until browned.
2. Remove the fried pork cracklins and enjoy those as a snack with some salt and lime. Drain off all but 1/4 of a cup of the rendered lard.
3. Fry the remaining diced pork in the lard, stirring regularly, until browned. This will release a lot of moisture initially but will cook down.
4. Remove the browned meat. Add diced onion and diced peppers onion to pot and saute until soft. This mix with help de-glaze the fried bits on the bottom of the pot.
5. Add in garlic and saute for 1 min.
6. Add in dried paprika, ground cumin, oregano and salt. Saute to release the aromatics for 1 minute.
7. Add in broth, chili sauce, and meat. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer.
8. Simmer all for about 1 hour, until meat is soft.
9. Salt to taste
10. Serve atop white rice, corn tortilla chips, or as soup-only. Top with radishes, red cabbage, sour cream, and a pinch of lime.