Slow Cooker Chile Verde
265 CommentsUpdated Oct 27, 2024
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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, Salsa Beef Verde 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.
Also, try our slow cooker chile colorado for a red beef version!
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!
Slow Cooker Chile Verde Recipe
How to Video
Ingredients
- 3 lbs. pork shoulder, , trimmed 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!
Sarah’s Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition info is auto-generated. This information is an estimate; if you are on a special diet, please use your own calculations.
It’s not necessary to remove the skins on the peppers? The paper towel to remove excess grease is genius! Thank You!
Could you make this without cubing and searing the pork?
Yes, will work fine without. You will need to degrease the sauce after cooking though. I lay a paper towel over the sauce then discard it.
Could I use a pork tenderloin? I have one that needs used up.
Yes, I think that would work fine.
Not what I was looking for. I love chili verde because of the bright tangy green sauce, but mine just tasted like stew when it was done. No tang whatsoever. The sauce was also super watery.
Try using double the amount of tomatillos. I boiled mine for about 7-10 mins making sure they didn’t pop. I also used 1 can of chicken broth and it wasn’t watery at all. However, i took the lid off after 5 hours, so that the liquid could reduce. It was perfect!
I followed this recipe closely with two minor changes. I live in Arizona, so having my oven on at 450 deg. for a half hour was out of the question. Instead, I placed all the veggies in my cast iron frying pan with a touch of olive oil. Worked very well. Instead of using a cup of chicken broth, I poured the entire 14 oz. can in because I liked the consistency. Turned out wonderful, except it’s really spicy!!! Will experiment with what peppers I use next time to tone that down, but this is an amazing recipe.
Thank you for the tips Kathy! I hate running my oven this time of year too.
This was easy to make and sooo delicious!! Thank you for sharing!!p
This is by far one of my most favorite recipes I’ve ever made in the slow cooker. Mouth watering delicious!. Since I was pressed for time I opted for the 4.5 hours on high and it STILL came out perfect.
Any way to make the verde not spicy? Could switch out for different types of peppers?
You could try using bell pepper peppers and anaheims, though anaheims do have some heat.
I used anaheim, pasillas, and jalapenos. I just took off top and seeds and wasnt hot at all. I made sure to blacken all ghe peppers
This feels like a silly question, but did you remove stems before you threw this in the blender?
Yes, thanks for asking!
What about the seeds?
If you want less heat, remove them 🙂
My sauce is thinner than I would like ideas on something that will thicken it?
You could leave the lid off for a bit, or you could mix a few tablespoons of cornstarch with water and stir in.
Adding some (2-3 tablespoons? ) of corn meal might work well, too thicken; I’ve done that with some taco-like soups. Just add to simmering soup and let cook a bit. — Getting ready to make the chili for tomorrow!! — Anyone ever add a can of pinto bean to this recipe…I’m feeling compelled to try??
To go along with the Cuban theme try adding a rinsed can of black beans.