Chili Verde
Finally, I’m willing to admit that my garden is done for the season. I’ve harvested all it had to offer and preserved much of it for future meals. One of the vegetables that my garden provided in abundance this year was tomatillos. These plants seem to sprout EVERYWHERE so I just let them do their thing and was rewarded tenfold. Of course, I then had to come up with ways to use them. Salsa verde is a big one for me as I make it to sell at the local artisan market so I accomplished that task first. Wanting to do something different (and to stock my own shelves with home-canned soup for the winter), I landed upon making a large batch of chili verde. Authentically flavored, this chili verde is a south of the border stew prepared with fresh tomatillos, pork and green chilis for a mouth-watering medley.
Chili verde is also very versatile. I’ve made it a few times this season and discovered that it’s equally as awesome with potatoes or beans. I happened to have a lot of ground pork in the freezer so that is what this version calls for but it’s also fantastic using diced pork shoulder or even ground poultry. For a mild pop of spice, this stew uses jalepenos, anaheim or hatch chilis. If you want it warmer, you can use hotter green chilis as well like serranos.
- 6-8 jalepeno, hatch or anaheim peppers or other green mild green chilis
- ¾-1 pound tomatillos, husks removed
- 1 large onion, diced
- 10 garlic cloves, minced
- 2-3 pounds ground pork or chicken (can use diced pork shoulder or chicken breast as well)
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons Mexican oregano
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 8 cups chicken stock
- 2 pounds navy beans, cooked (or use 4 peeled and diced white potatoes)
- ½ teaspoon coriander, ground
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- up to 1 tsp pink himalayan salt, to taste
- Preheat broiler to 400 degrees.
- Place tomatillos and peppers on a large rimmed sheet pan and roast until lightly charred and softened about 20 minutes turning the pan halfway through.
- Remove from oven and let cool enough to touch.
- While tomatillos and peppers are roasting, brown the meat with the onion and garlic in a large stockpot.
- Add all remaining ingredients to the stockpot and stir to combine.
- When tomatillos and peppers are cool enough to handle, roughly chop them and add them to the stockpot along with any juices from the pan.
- Let simmer for 30-60 minutes for flavors to meld.
- Top with chopped cilantro if desired to serve.
To can, ladle hot soup into hot sterilized jars, wipe rims and seal with a two piece canning lid to finger tight. Process in a pressure canner at 10 pounds of pressure for 75 minutes for pints or 90 minutes for quarts.
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