Pork Chile Verde

I love trying to cook, I emphasize “trying”. But, there is something wrong with me in that I find it nearly impossible to follow a recipe. I always feel like doing something different to it. I use the basic recipe of whatever I’m trying, but always have to add or subtract something…I don’t know why, but that’s how I am, and it probably contributes to why I have many more failures than successes when it comes to cooking. Oh well, I call it “experimenting”.

A little background might be in order: because I’m half Puerto Rican ancestry (the other half made up of German and Irish) – I have become interested in the cooking/food of Puerto Rico (or at least the Americanized versions that I have eaten from my family). My brother and I have been trying to cook PR food, and admittedly he has had MUCH MORE success with it. He also has been cooking it much more regularly than I have. He cooks at least one PR meal per week, whereas I try it every once in a while. I still haven’t been able to perfect simple yellow rice (although I’m very close!) Well, a traditional Christmas Eve meal is Pernil (roasted pork shoulder) – I figured out how to do this this past New Year’s Eve. It required marinating in vinegar, adobo (garlic, oregano spice blend), fresh garlic, and olive oil (what I call a pernil rub/paste) for about 2-3 days. After which, the refrigerator and surrounding area stunk to high heaven. I roasted it in a 375° oven for about 4.5 hours; I then bumped the oven up to 425° for the last 30 minutes or so. The result was an amazing pernil!

I found a recipe for Pork Chile Verde in the most recent Men’s Health magazine – and I decided I would like to try it. Although, as far as I know, it’s a traditional Mexican dish I’ve decided to try to give it a little Puerto Rican twist by prepping it like I would have for pernil.  The following is my attempt.

The ingredients (the bag is the marinating pork)

Pork Chile Verde, wannabe PR style:

• 1-2 tbsp olive oil

• 2 + lb boneless pork shoulder

• Pernil/Adobo marinating paste (I don’t measure, just mix until it makes a paste that covers all the meat)

• Yellow onion, diced
• 1-2 green bell pepper cut into chunks
• Jar of salsa verde (this is Mexican green salsa made with chile and tomatillos)
• 1 cup chicken stock
• Potatoes (optional)

I took a 2.5 lb boneless pork shoulder, cut it into ~2 inch chunks and marinated it in the pernil rub (vinegar, olive oil, adobo, and fresh garlic) for almost 2 days. I took the meat, in batches, and browned them in a skillet with about 1tbsp of olive oil. After each batch was browned, I transferred them to a crock pot.

I then sautéed some diced yellow onion and green peppers in the skillet I used for browning the meat. I added the jar of Salsa Verde (green salsa) and let this heat up. I transferred all of this to the crock pot. I then added the 1 cup of Chicken stock. I let this cook on the high setting of the crock pot for about 6 hours. In the last hour I put in a couple cut up potatoes (I used fingerling because I have never tried them before and found them in a big-@$$ Wal-Mart around here and wanted to see what they were like!) They are optional though, so use them if you like, if not, don’t.

onions and peppers

salsa verde added in (I used the Herdez brand)

everything into the crock pot (you'll notice I went to a larger pot from what I planned)

about 6 hours later and all done - looks good

I served it with yellow rice and pink beans (PR style). 

The Results: (DRUMROLL PLEASE!)

all plated up, looks pretty good in pictures...but?

Well, it was not a success...but, it was also not a failure, so it was a semi-success.  The problem I made (and I thought it might mess it up, but I wanted to try it - experimenting, see?) - was the marinating.  Marinating it in the paste made it WAY TOO salty.  Mixed with the rice (which, again came out sticky - not good either) cut the saltiness down a bit, but it was still too salty.  I also did not expect it to have the spiciness that it had - although, that wasn't a bad thing.  I just didn't realize that the salsa verde I put in had serrano peppers (I probably should have checked the ingredient list!).  The spicy aspect though was pleasant, and was similar to a dish I've had a Mexican restaurant nearby - guiso de puerco (I'm thinking this is essentially the same dish).  I will make this again, but next time I will not try to Puertoriqueño-nize it, I will go with the straight recipe.  And I think I'll try it with plain white rice next time, too!