Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Chili Verde Pork Roast Loins

When you're craving chili verde, but don't want to wait for a table at El Compadre, why not make your own at home. Please note, the preparation and cooking time is slightly longer than the wait you'll experience at El Compadre on a weekend night. If you want to eat around 7pm, you'd better start this dish by 11am. Here is my take on chili verde pork roast loins.... SLO-Cooked in my favorite dutch oven.

You'll need two pork roast loins, about 2 pounds each - I got mine from Costco in a 4-pack (freeze the other two); 2 medium onions, a shallot (because that's what I had left over from another recipe and I wanted to use it), several cloves of garlic, one 7 ounce can of chili verde sauce/salsa (in a can or jar - the brand of verde sauce that I like to use is "Herdez Salsa Verde" in a can) and a 7 ounce can of whole green chili peppers (if you have the chopped ones, that will work just fine, I just happened to have a can of whole chili peppers in my pantry, so that's what I used). Also, you'll need to make a rub for the roasts. I used about 1/2 tablespoon each of coriander, cumin, cumin seed, ground cayenne pepper, salt, pepper and granulated garlic.

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees.

Wash and pat dry your pig, set on a plate.
Mix the dry seasonings in a small bowl, and place next to the pig chunks. Rub the pork loins on all sides with the seasoning mix.













Chop the onion, shallot and garlic.
(I chopped the green chili peppers, too)

Set your dutch oven over medim heat, add olive oil, and saute the onions, shallot and garlic
until they are a light brown

Now add the can of chili verde salsa and the chopped green chilies (canned or hand chopped, depending on what's in your pantry). Stir thoroughly and remove from the burner (I presume you're using a gas stove top).



Lovingly nestle the season-crusted loins into your dutch oven, resting on top of the salsa onion mix, cover and put in your preheated oven. Set the timer for 20 minutes, and when it beeps at you, reduce the heat to 225.






Now ignore your dish, as hard as
that may be, for 7 hours. Run some errands, read a book, go meet friends for a cocktail.




Remove from the oven, and take a pretty picture - then let it rest with the lid off for 10 to 15 minutes.


Using a fork, gently tear the pork loin apart and mix with the delicious goodness of the chili verde sauce its been cooking in.

Warm flour tortillas in your convection oven (or your real oven if you are not so environmentally conscientious) - spread on a layer of shredded lettuce, then scoop on the chili verde goodness, roll and enjoy..... YUMMY.





If you have leftovers (and if you don't, then you are eating too much, PIGGY, PIGGY, PIGGY) freeze or refrigerate, depending on when you will finish it off. Next week, I'll post what you can do with the leftovers.

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