Green Chili

Rich and flavorful slow-cooked pork in hot green chili salsa, cooked to perfection in this easy green chili recipe.

If you’ve ever tried green chili in Mexico, New Mexico, or Colorado, you know it brings the heat, the flavors, and the mouthwatering pork bites.

My easy recipe is a fantastic weeknight dinner for those who love a little bit of spicy kick in their food. It is a go-to recipe on cold winter nights.

And there is no need for the slow cooker. Everything is cooked in one pot. I use another two shortcuts: canned roasted green chilis, and leftover (pre-cooked) pork. The prep takes me less than 10 minutes and I’m ready to serve a super fragrant dish in an hour.

What Is A Green Chili?

Green chili is a type of Mexican stew with spicy salsa verde sauce made of roasted peppers and tomatillos, and pork slow-cooked in that sauce.

It is very popular in Colorado, New Mexico, and Southwest in general.

• Colorado green chili recipe calls for Pueblo chilies and slow-cooked pork, tomatillos, and often uses thickeners for the sauce.
• In New Mexico, the recipe uses mostly Hatch chilis, and tomatillos (no tomatoes).
• Tex-Mex green chili is close to New Mexico. It calls for more tomatillos than peppers. They can also use beans and beef instead of pork.

What Goes In Green Chili? Ingredients Notes

• 2 lbs pulled pork or ground pork, lightly seasoned. I use pre-cooked shredded pork, but I’ll share how to prepare it for this recipe if you’re making it from scratch.
• Olive oil to warm up OR pre-cook the pork. A delicious substitute is bacon fat.
• Garlic powder, Salt, and Black pepper to season. White pepper is a great option if you love the heat.
• All-purpose flour or cornstarch to thicken the sauce. During slow cooking, the sauce would thicken naturally, but to speed up the process, I added flour.
• Roasted green chilis. I use 5-7 large peppers for a large pot that yields 12 portions. Remove the seeds and core to reduce the heat. Freshly roasted, canned, or frozen.
• Diced tomatoes, Rotel, or crushed tomatoes. For a more authentic recipe, swap with tomatillo salsa or fresh tomatillos.
• Chicken stock or Better than Bouillon. Regular chicken broth works too, but stock has a richer flavor.

Kitchen Equipment

• I used a stock pot, but a large Dutch oven or a simple large pot works fine. You can of course take this recipe further and use an instant pot or slow cooker.

How To Roast The Peppers For Green Chili Recipe

This is optional, you can use canned roasted green chili peppers.

1. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, layer the chilis, and place in the oven.
2. Once you see blackened spots, blistering, and softened skin, peppers are done.
3. Remove from the oven to a large bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, and let the peppers sit like that for 20 more minutes.

Pre-Cook Pork For Green Chili Recipe

It is easier to use cubed pork for green chili, as it cooks faster.

• Season pork with salt and pepper,
• Heat oil in the pan,
• Add half of the pork cubes (or less, the goal is to have a single layer) and cook over medium-high heat until golden brown from each side, for about 7 minutes.

We don’t need to cook the pork completely, we only sear the skin to keep it moist. It will then slowly cook with the green chili sauce in the pot.

How To Make This Green Chile Recipe

1. Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat.  
2. Add pulled pork or ground pork and heat until warm.  
3. Stir in the garlic powder, salt, and pepper.  
4. Whisk in the flour.  
5. Remove from the heat.  
6. Blend the chilis into a blender or food processor with 1 cup of water. Cover the lid with a folded kitchen towel. Blend until smooth. 
7. Add tomatoes, blended chilis, chicken stock or Better than Bouillon, and the remaining water to the stock pot meat mixture.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low.  
8. Cook the chili until it reaches the desired consistency and until the pork chunks fall apart tender.  The longer it cooks, the thicker it will get.  Check on the chili often, stirring occasionally.

Serving

Serve hot with extra sliced jalapeño peppers, fresh cilantro, diced red onion, and lime juice.

• sliced avocado or homemade guacamole with tortilla chips is a go-to easy serving idea.
• sour cream (or Greek yogurt) to balance the spiciness.

How To Store Pork Green Chili

Green chili can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days or frozen for 3 months. Freeze in portions in individual freezer bags.

Before serving frozen chili should be thawed overnight in the fridge.

Reheat in the microwave or over medium-low heat on the stove.

Leftover chili over some burrito or nachos is fantastic!

Variations And Substitutions

• Add sweet onion, chopped, to the pot for fragrant aroma and flavors.
• Cumin, cloves, and oregano pair really well with slow-cooked pork.
• To bulk it up, you can add pinto beans, potatoes, and white hominy kernels. A fair warning, they are not quite part of the traditional recipe.
• To keep the meat soft and the dish buttery, melt some butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat together with chicken stock before mixing them with blended chili.
• A perfect recipe for the slow cooker. Cooked in a crock pot it can take anywhere from 4 hours on high to 6-8 hours on low, depending on the meat you use and the preferred doneness.

Tips To Make The Best Green Chili

• I highly recommend wearing gloves when handling the chilis – remove the stem and the charred skin from the chilis.  The seeds hold some heat, so if desired, remove the seeds as well. 
• There is no exact cooking time for this recipe. Do at least one hour and then test the texture of the meat and its internal temperature. It should be above 145ºF.
• If you can’t handle spicy, use regular bell peppers instead of chile verde. If you can take just a little bit of spice, add some chili powder to bell peppers. White pepper also gives more heat.
• If cooking green chili in the oven, set the oven rack to the top position, roughly 6 inches from the top heat source.
• An easy hack to evenly season pork is to place it with seasoning into a Ziploc bag and toss for 30 seconds.

Popular Questions

What Is The Difference Between Green Chili And Chili Verde?

Chile Verde is the Spanish name for green chili pepper, while in the US we usually call green chili the whole dish.

There are dozens of green chili recipes depending on the region and the type of green chili pepper they use.

What Meet To Use For Green Chili

Classic meat for Mexican-inspired green chili is pork, and you can use different cuts:

• ground pork is very lean and cooks the fastest.
• pork shoulder takes longer to cook, has more fat, and is thus a more authentic ingredient.
• pork butt also takes longer to cook ads is fatty. Also a classic meat choice for chili.
• pork tenderloin is leaner and faster to cook.

But, modern recipes have variations with chicken or beef too.

What Green Pepper Is Best For Green Chili?

The most flavorful green chili recipe will have a variety of peppers. Green chilis are a classic green chili ingredient and they have a few options to choose from:

• Poblano peppers – easy to find, mild flavor, a little bit smokey.
• Anaheim is one of the milder green chilis, close to Poblano.
• Jalapeno – hotter than Poblano chiles, super easy to come by.
• Hatch Green chiles make a super spicy dish. A close substitute to them is Pueblo chiles. Harder to find but has a more complex flavor profile.
• Serrano chilis are extra hot. Only for those who are prepared and who love spicy food. 

Use one variety or two to let them complement each other. 

If you love this green chili recipe, you’re going to love these other spicy dinners too. Please click each link below to find the easy, printable recipe!

More Comfort Food Recipes

Chicken and Mushroom Soup

Cabbage Roll Soup

Slow Cooker Turkey Chili

Chili’s Southwest Chicken Soup – Copycat Recipe

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