Slow Cooker Chile Verde
265 CommentsUpdated Oct 27, 2024
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
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.
Making now for the 1st time, may I cook on high though? Or low for 4 hours then turn it to high?
Yes, you can cook it on high. You’ll know when it’s done when the meat starts shredding.
Can I use roasted green chili’s in place of any of the peppers? I love green chili’s but don’t want to over do it.
Yes, or use extra tomatillos
I am going to make 6lbs or pork shoulder. Should I double the amount of peppers I use?
I think there should be plenty for 6 lbs with this recipe.
Love this recipe, especially the added complexity of roasting the veggies. I blend half the veggies and chop the other half for additional texture. Also doubled all the spices amounts and browned the pork in leftover bacon fat. Super-yum. This dish has been added to the regular rotation due to high demand from the family. Thanks!
Very good recipe – first time trying Chili Verde at home after enjoying it several times in restaurants. Husband loved it.
I adjusted the recipe to make just 6 servings. I tasted the green salsa before adding it to the slow cooker and it seemed salty (maybe from the tomatillos?) so I did not add any additional salt and it turned out just fine.
We didn’t have Anaheim’s so used a bell instead. I cut way, way back on the cilantro and ended up adding about 1/4 cup of water to the slow cooker. Nine hours seems too long; it was more than ready after about 6 or 6-1/2. I’ll definitely make this again.
Very good, tastes just like it’s from a restaurant ! Want to add potato to it….not sure exactly how to though.
I would cut the potatoes into large chunks. This has a long cooking time, you don’t want to cut them too small and have them fall apart.
I’ve been making chile verde as shown but with one exception. After roasting/broiling the veggies, I peel the blistered membrane (husk) of the poblano, Anaheim and jalapeño peppers. Why?, Even though the peppers are cooked inside, the membrane (husk) are not easy to blend/chew. Trick: Put the peppers in a container and cover. Let sit for a few minutes. This creates steam for the peppers making them very easy to peel.
OMG THANK YOU!
I guess you have to be an experienced cook to follow this recipe. Someone told me i had to peel the skin after roasting and i said this recipe says to toss it all in the blender.
Thank you so much for clarifying.
I’ve never peeled my peppers for this or blender salsa. I promise you won’t notice the peels.
Are you using the broiler or baking it
I bake it at 450 degress. Though you can broil it for a shorter time if you want.
It’s so good! Yummmm!!! I used 2 jalapeños and I only used 4 pablamo peppers because that’s all the grocery store had and my pork shoulder was 7 lbs buy it had a bone in it so I had to cut around it and I used double the amount of tomatillos and it turned out great!! I loved it!
I found out if you want to make it less spicy or turn down the heat, just remove the seeds and vein out of the jalapeños after broiling them. I only left one whole to give it a little kick
I found out if you want to turn the heat down in this and not so spicy just remove the seeds from the jalapeños or at least one to give it a kick. Easier to do after cooked from the broiler. Word to the wise; wear gloves when removing the seeds because that stuff won’t scrub out of your hands!
Don’t be such a sissy!
Very delicious! The family loved it . I added a few Serrano chili’s to make it a bit more spicy .