Notes — A favorite here. When you need pork, do this. Big morale booster. Freezes great and can be made in double batches easily. Complicated recipe because of the roasting so be ready to spend a few hours on this one. You can make pork stock but store-bought pork stock works really well too. (3000 kcal/recipe)
Ingredients
- 6–8 lbs pork shoulder
- 8–12 cups pork stock
- 1 jar (15oz-30oz) nopalitos, drained and chopped into one inch pieces
- 2 1/2 lbs tomatillos
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/8 cup oil (rendered from pork fat)
- 2 tsp toasted, ground cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 3 cups roasted green chili (hatch, serrano, anaheim or combination. Equates to about 2 lbs.)
- 1 can chipotle peppers, for heat
- 1/3 cup cilantro, for garnish
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Roast tomatilllos, garlic, and chilies in a stove at 400˚F or on a grill until the tomatillos are soft, the garlic is cooked through, and the chilies are blistering.
- Remove the paper from tomatillos and the skins and stems from the chilies.
- Process the tomatillos and garlic in a food processor until it is a uniform texture. Set in fridge to chill for now.
- Dice chilies and set aside in fridge to chill.
- Trim fat from pork shoulder and remove bone. Cut trimmed fat into half inch pieces and cook over medium heat in a very large stock pot until the fat has rendered out and the remaining chicharrones are browned and crispy. Stir regularly to ensure they do not burn.
- Chop the remaining pork into half or one inch pieces and store the lean meat in the fridge to keep cool.
- Once fat is rendered, remove chicharrones. Serve them with lime and salt.
- Saute the onion in the rendered fat until soft and browned.
- Add the cut pork to the rendered fat and onion. This will release a lot of moisture initially but cook it down until they start frying. Cook until browned. Season with salt to taste.
- Add in spices and cook for a minute or two until aromatic.
- Add in broth, chilies, and tomatillo mix. Bring to a boil, stirring regularly, then lower to a simmer.
- Simmer for one hour, until pork is softened.
- Salt to taste.
- Serve with any combination of sour cream, lime, tortillas, cilantro, radish, and chips.