Chilaca Pork Stew is a traditional Mexican recipe for a classic stew of pork and roasted chilaca chillies in a tomato base flavoured with avocado leaves, tomatillos and serrano chillies. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Mexican version of: Chilaca Pork Stew.
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This Mexican dish is named after the chilaca green chilli though you could substitute poblanos or even jalapenos at a pinch.
Ingredients:
6–9 chilaca or Anaheim chillies (or 4–6 poblanos)
2kg pork shoulder cut into 5cm chunks
8 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2 to 4 avocado leaves (or bay leaves)
salt, to taste
500g plum tomatoes
3 to 6 large tomatillos, husks removed
3–5 serrano chillies, stems removed
freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
Method:
Roast the chilacas or other chiles as described in the how to roast chillies recipe. Remove the stems and seeds and tear into long strips, You can cut the trips shorter if you want. Set aside.
Sit the pork in a cast iron casserole (Dutch oven) or other similar large pan then cover with water. Add the crushed garlic and avocado or bay leaves and bring to a simmer then add salt to taste. Partially cover the pan and continue simmering for a generous 30 minutes.
At this point add in the tomatoes, tomatillos and serrano chillies (leave them whole). Let them cook in the pan for 10 minutes until tender. At this point fish them out along with the crushed garlic. Transfer to a blender along with some of the stock and render to a purée. Scrape into a bowl and set aside.
Continue simmering the pork until mostly tender (about 25 minutes more). Let the stock cook down during this time (remove the lid) but don’t let the mixture dry out completely. Once the pork is tender, ladle out most of the stock but leave some behind (use the removed stock for another dish).
Allow the pan to cook dry (only a few tablespoons of the fat rendered from the pork left behind). If the pork is lean you may need to add a few tablespoons of oil at this point. The aim here is for the now tenderised pork to fry in its own fat. Make sure to pick out and discard the avocado or bay leaves.
When the pork is nicely browned, add the chilaca chiles and the blended sauce you prepared earlier. Scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot, then bring everything to a simmer and cook 10 minutes. Ladle into a warmed serving dish and bring to the table.
If you want to use this as an empanada filling, then allow to cool and chop the pork and chillies very finely.
