Roasted Chili Verde with Pork and Rice

 Roasted Chili Verde with Pork and Rice was on the menu for Monday night and it was delicious! It was from my fave Cooking Light this month (Oct 2012)

Roasted Chili Verde with Pork and Rice

I rushed home from work to get it going because, although the actual hands-on time for this dish is not too bad, but takes a bit of planning to pull it off because it has to cook for at least an hour to make sure that the pork gets nice and tender.  The pay-off is so worth it!  

The first step was to peel the papery covering off and roast some tomatillos.


Aren't these cool?  They have kind of a sticky film underneath the husk.

Getting tomatillos ready for the oven

After broiling for 15 minutes

The raw ingredients for the salsa

After you roast the tomatillos, you take them for a spin in the food processor with some onion, sugar, garlic and jalapeño pepper.

This is the point where you wish this blog had smell-a-vision!  It smelled A-MAZ-ING!

While the tomatillos are broiling, I was browning some cubes of boneless pork shoulder.  And then it all went together into a pot to simmer for an hour or until the pork is fork tender. 

Now you have a pocket of time to run downstairs for a quick workout so that you have calories left to eat this deliciousness.  (Yes - I actually did do this!)

With about 20 minutes left in the pork cooking time, you throw some onion and rice in a pan with a touch of oil.  Add a can of mild chili-flavored tomatoes and some water and let it simmer by itself.  Plate it up... and...

Deeeelicious!  

I served it up with a simple salad of navel oranges and avocados.

My only regret...I should have made a double batch and frozen some for later! Oh well, next time - and there will be a next time!

Roasted Chili Verde with Pork and Rice

1 1/2 pounds tomatillos, husks and stems removed

1 cup chopped onion, divided

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

1 tsp sugar

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 jalapeño pepper, chopped

2 Tbsp canola oil, divided

1 poud boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt), trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces

1/2 tsp kosher salt, divided

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 cup uncooked long-grain rice

1 (10 ounce) can mild diced tomatoes and green chiles, undrained

1 cup water

1 jalapeño pepper, sliced (optional)

Cilantro leaves (optional)

1.  Preheat broiler to high.

2.  Place tomatillos on a baking sheet or jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray.  Broil 8 inches from broiler for 15 minutes or until skins blacken and tomatillos are soft.

3.  Place tomatillos, pan juices, 3/4 cup onion, and next 4 ingredients (through chopped jalapeño) in a blender or a food processor; process until sauce is almost smooth.

4.  Heat a Dutch oven over med-high heat.  Add 1 Tbsp oil to pan; swirl to coat.  Sprinkle pork evenly with 1/4 tsp salt and black pepper (I forgot this step so I threw it into the pan as the pork was sautéing - oops!)  Add pork to pan.  Sauté 6 minutes, turning to brown on all sides, Add tomatillo mixture to pan; bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour or until pork is very tender, stirring occasionally (It took mine about an hour and 20 minutes - I like it very tender.)

5.  Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add remaining 1/4 cup onion; saute 2 minutes or until soft.  Add rice; sauté 3 minutes, stirring frequently.  Add remaining 1/4 tsp salt, tomatoes, and 1 cup water to pan; bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer 15 minutes or until liquid evaporates and rice is tender; do not stir. (Shhh...Don't tell...I stirred.)  Divide rice among 4 plates.  Top with pork mixture; garnish with sliced jalapeño and cilantro leaves, if desired.