Super Easy Slow Cooker Chile Verde
This Easy Slow Cooker New Mexico & Colorado Hatch Chile Verde Recipe may be the best pork stew you've ever tasted
4 hrMedium
Green chicken and hominy stew built on tomatillos, poblanos and toasted pepitas, finished with a raw cilantro puree. A weekend pot with a full garnish spread.
Heat the bacon fat in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the poblanos, jalapenos, scallion whites, pepitas, garlic, salt, cumin, coriander and allspice. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are just tender, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatillos and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until they soften and begin to brown, 5 to 6 minutes.
Remove from the heat. Working in batches, transfer some of the vegetable mixture to a blender, add some of the chicken broth and puree. Transfer the pureed mixture to a large bowl and continue until all the vegetables and broth have been blended. Return the mixture to the pot and add the hominy. Place over high heat, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until the flavors come together, about 30 minutes.
Leave the hole in the blender lid open and cover it with a towel. Sealed hot liquid will blow the lid off.
Meanwhile, combine the cilantro, scallion greens and 2 cups of water in the blender and puree until completely smooth.
Add the chicken and the cilantro puree to the stew, remove it from the heat and stir to combine. Let sit until the chicken is heated through.
The cilantro puree goes in off the heat. Cooking it dulls the colour from bright green to army green.
Serve the pozole with sliced onion, sliced radish, sliced avocado, crushed chicharrones, oregano and lime wedges.
The pepitas are what thicken the broth — don't skip them.
The garnish spread is half the point. Shredded cabbage, radish, avocado, lime and tostadas, all on the table so everyone builds their own bowl.
Same tomatillo-and-green-chile base as our Slow Cooker Chile Verde, but it stays a soup instead of reducing down to a braise.
Saved for a weekend — about 75 minutes door to door, and it serves six.