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.
I love the recipe and I want to try it but I don’t have a slow cooker. I do have a dutch oven with lid (Cocotte) that I think would work well but I have no idea how long I can safely leave it on. Would the burner all the way at the low setting even work? Seems like it would be pretty difficult to get it right using a burner but I’d gladly cook it 9 hours if I could this way. I also like the idea of browning the pork in the same dutch oven to get the fond.
Hi Matt! It won’t take as long on the burner, check out this stove top version. https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chile_verde/ You’ll have to keep an eye on it and stir often I’m sure.
I’ve done this in a cast iron dutch oven, in an oven. 225 for 8 or 9 hours. If your pot is really heavy, it’s almost impossible to overcook it.
I don’t blend the veggies ahead of time either. I put it all in the dutch oven, pork on the bottom, with maybe half a cup of water, and let it all roast all night long. Slow and low. Then I take out the pork, which is falling apart at this point, and blend up all the veggies with a stick blender. If the veggies are on top, they take on a sort of roasted flavor anyway. Shred the pork, toss it back in the sauce, stir it all up, spice it all up until it tastes good, and simmer for a while to meld it all together. It tastes great!
I should have added to my comment above, my cast iron dutch oven has a tight fitting lid. That’s key. Don’t do this without it.
Can the salsa be made in advance and kept in the refrigerator or freezer?
Yes, that will work great.
Ugh i really wish this recipe had ingredient amounts listed!! I made due but bought a little more than needed. Please list ingredient amounts next time, thanksss
There is a full recipe in a card at the bottom. It’s printable if needed.
How can you alter this for a pressure cooker instead of a slow cooker?
Hi! I think there is plenty of liquid to do this in the pressure cooker. Use a roast setting and it should do great.
I noticed you didn’t remove the seeds from the peppers. Doesn’t it make it too spicy?
Chile verde is very spicy. Yes, it is spicy but that’s what most like about it. You can take the seeds out if you want to tone it down.
Has anybody made this?
Yes! Love this recipe, a little time consuming, but so good
Can use chicken instead? If so do you think it will take 9hr?
You can probably get away with 7-8 hours with chicken
do you need to “brown” the chicken before hand or can you just toss in and shred once its done cooking?
I’m unsure how the flour would do without being cooked to the chicken (or pork). It would probably be fine.
Just wanted to say “Thank You” for sharing this with us (Came across YouTube video first) -my mouth was just watering – I’m a huge fan of Latin food.
I cannot wait to make this for the family.
Good day.
This recipe is ridiculous. The purpose of a Slow cooker is not getting everything in the kitchen dirty. I just threw everything in the cooker and forget all the rest of the cooking up in the oven and on the stove. Silly
I don’t know how yours turned out, but the comment was funny as hell 🙂
I have many dump and go recipes. And some more complicated and true to their original recipe. No matter what I do someone will complain.
I love this recipe . Everyone always complains about something lol
That is a stupid review. The purpose of a slow cooker has nothing to do with how dirty your kitchen gets
Amen! That person is such a idiot
Can I cook this on high for 4.5 hrs if I need it by a certain time?
Yes, that should do fine. Keep the lid on the entire time.
I use dutch oven to cook the meat quicker much faster than crockpot on high.