Make Slow Cooker Chile Verde for dinner tonight! It has tender pork cooked in a spicy green chile tomatillo sauce. Excellent with tortillas or just over rice.
Green chile recipes are made perfect in the slow cooker. We also make, Salsa Verde Chicken, Green Chile Pork Loin and Green Chile Cheesy Chicken.
Can pork verde be made in the slow cooker?
Yes, and it is one of the best things you can make in it too! The low and slow cooking time creates very tender pork chunks, and the flavor of the green chile sauce only gets better the longer it is cooked.
Recipe Ingredients
- Pork shoulder – Use cubed pork shoulder (often called pork butt).
- All-purpose flour – This is used to coat the pork cubes; it will thicken the sauce.
- Cooking oil – For browning the meat.
- Peppers – Poblano peppers, Anaheim peppers, and jalapeno peppers.
- Other vegetables – White onion, garlic, tomatillos, and cilantro.
- Seasonings – Salt, pepper, cumin, and oregano.
- Chicken broth – This thins the sauce. I choose not to use water, for that can dilute the flavor of the sauce. You can use chicken stock if that is what you have on hand.
Step-by-Step Directions
Step One – Start by roasting peppers, garlic, tomatillos, and onion in the oven under the broiler on a baking sheet.
Step Two – Cook until they are roasted and tender and slightly charred. Next add the cubed pork to a ziplock bag and add the flour. Shake. Add oil to a pan set to medium high heat on the stovetop. Brown the pork, then add to the slow cooker.
Step Three – Add the roasted chile peppers, onion, garlic cloves, tomatillos, and cilantro to a blender (or can use a food processor), and that makes a green salsa. Pour that chile verde sauce over the pork. I also add seasonings and a touch of chicken broth. Below is what the chile verde looks like before cooking.
Step Four – I cook this chile verde for 9 hours low. After 9 hours, the pork is very tender, and the sauce has simmered to beautiful perfection. If you have excess fat or grease on top, soak it up with a paper towel.
How to serve:
- Tacos – Make classic pork chile verde tacos by putting the filling on warmed corn tortillas.
- Burritos – Wrap the green chili pork in flour tortillas along with rice and beans.
- Nachos – Great for nachos. Spread out chips on a sheet pan. Spoon over the pork and sauce, top with cheese, then broil until the cheese is bubbly.
- Toppings – Great as is or topped with cheese, sour cream, diced onion, chopped cilantro, avocado, and a squeeze of lime.
Recipe FAQs
Yes! I would say on a scale of 1 to 10 that this chile verde recipe is an 8 in heat. It has a perfect kick to it. To tone down the spiciness, I suggest serving with rice, cheese, and sour cream.
You can use green bell pepper in place of most of the peppers. The jalapenos and poblanos are the hottest.
Suppose you are short on time, use two 16-ounce jars of salsa verde instead of the fresh vegetables. It will do in a pinch if you are craving chile verde.
You can add sliced carrots and quartered gold potatoes to this recipe at the beginning of the cooking time for a beautiful and flavorful green chile stew.
Chile verde in the slow cooker is very flexible. You can cook a few more hours and it only gets more flavorful and the pork even more tender. Though eventual you can burn it if left too long.
This recipe has added flour that will make a nice thick sauce. After your dish is completed and you want a thicker sauce, make a cornstarh slurry with two tablespoons of cold water and two tablespoons of cornstarch. Add to the hot sauce and cook for 15 minutes longer.
This is the BEST chile verde recipe, great for any day of the week, get togehters and even parties!
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Slow Cooker Chile Verde Recipe
Equipment Needed:
Ingredients:
- 3 lbs. pork shoulder, trimed and cubed
- 2 Tbsp. cooking oil (approximate amount)
- 2 Tbsp. all purpose flour
- 2 poblano peppers
- 2 Anaheim peppers
- 2 jalapenos
- 4 garlic cloves
- 6 tomatillos, husks removed
- 1 large white onion, peeled and quartered
- 1 bunch cilantro, bulk of stems removed
- 3/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
- 1/2 tsp. cumin
- 1/2 tsp. oregano
- 1 cup chicken broth
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place the peppers, tomatillos, garlic, and onion onto a baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the oven 2 racks down from the broiler. Let the veggies roast for 20-25 minutes or until the veggies are charred, keep an eye on them so they don’t overcook. Let cool down a bit before moving on to step 2.
- Place the veggies into a blender and place the cilantro on top. Place on lid on blender. Pulse until a fine salsa forms, you can make this any texture you desire. If your salsa is too thick to blend up properly, add a splash of the chicken broth from the recipe.
- On a baking sheet or in a ziplock bag coat the pork with the flour. Set a large skillet to medium high heat. Add the enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan. When the pan and oil are hot, brown the flour coated pork on all sides, no need to cook through. You may need to cook the pork in batches if your pan isn’t large enough to do all at the same time.
- Add the meat to the slow cooker. Pour over the salsa, add the salt, pepper, cumin and oregano. Pour over the chicken broth and stir.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 9 hours without opening the lid during the cooking time.
- Serve over tortillas with desired toppings, enjoy!
How to Video:
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
I made this for the second time today, and it is incredible. The flavors are so tasty, and the level of spice is just perfect for me. I like spicy food that makes my mouth sing, without being stupid-hot to the point where I’m reaching for water, and this hit the spot. I put the peppers in the blender whole; seeds, veins , peels and all. You can really taste the different peppers, the sourness of the Tomatillos, the smokiness of the Poblanos, the heat of the Jalapenos, and the onion gives a nice umami without being overwhelming. Even though the amount of Cumin and oregano is small, it was perfect for the dish, because the peppers are the star. I did add a little extra salt to bring out the flavors, and you could use slightly less chicken broth if you want a thicker sauce. I would literally serve this to anyone!
This was a first for me, I had never made anything like it before. It was not difficult, delicious and my wife also enjoyed it. I used pork loin, because that’s what I had, skipped the jalapenos because they’re too hot for me, skipped the Anaheim peppers because they were unavailable, added an extra poblano, extra onion, and about five times more garlic. When I make it again, I would prefer pork shoulder because the loin is just a little dry. I might add even more onion and maybe replace the extra poblano with a milder pepper, or follow Sarah’s suggestion in the comments to remove the seeds and membranes.