Roasted Chili Verde!
Originally published March 12, 2013. Updated on 8/4/2021
This Roasted Chili Verde is smoky and complex, with 4 different kinds of peppers, tomatillos, onions, and garlic - Roasted, for max flavour!
Recently, my husband and I worked on developing a chili recipe together. This was significant for a few reasons.
For one, we really don't tend to develop a lot of recipes together - we'll hash out an idea, sure... but then I take over the kitchen, usually kicking him out.
Secondly, this was for a chili cook off. Now, I make great chili - and used to seriously kick butt in chili cook offs back home...
... but it's something that I haven't participated in since moving to Minnesota.
As you may already know, the average Minnesota palate is still completely foreign to me.
The Minnesota Palate
Early on, it was explained to me that "Ketchup, salt, and pepper are the standard spices here", and then experience proved that statement to not ENTIRELY be a joke.
I quickly got used to specifying "hot-hot, not Minnesota hot" when dining at various ethnic restaurants in the state.
Apparently, it's all the Scandinavian culture here?
Not a huge deal, more hot stuff for me!
Thing is, when it comes to my famous chili... it has way more heat than would be acceptable for "Minnesota hot".
It doesn't burn your mouth off or anything (I like flavorful heat, not tastebud-killing heat), but... I don't think it would go over so well with the general public here. So, no chili contests for me!
Porter Speaks!
Then, my husband was asked to participate in one for work. Says he:
I work at a large company, and the department I work in decided to have a chili contest, sending out an email to the group trying to find people interested in competing in the friendly competition.
I immediately knew what I had to do…
Show the world that tomatoes suck.
That’s putting it nicely, actually. I feel that tomatoes should be handled like smallpox, and eradicated from the earth in the same manner.
Ok, ok, I wouldn’t seriously do that if I somehow obtained that sort of power, I do realize that plenty of people like them.
I don’t really know why I hate them, there’s some component in them that is really gross. Luckily for me, this gross component gets severely reduced by cooking and other processing.
Tomato sauce on pizza? Yeah, I’ll eat it, though I prefer white sauce.
Ketchup with my fries? Yup, though I prefer ranch.
Fresh salsa? No thanks, I prefer the stuff from a bottle, the stuff that has been processed so much that the gross component is barely there.
Chili? Yup, I’ll eat traditional chili, but there is another option.
Tomatillos are similar to tomatoes, but different enough.
They will never be a favorite food of mine, but I find them to be a far superior fruit than the tomato. The taste and texture are similar.
I wouldn’t say they’re interchangeable, but products can be adapted to use tomatillos instead of tomatoes.
Roasted Chili Verde
My chili would be green, it would be something different.
After talking about the idea with Marie, we starting working on details.
A quick google search showed us that we’re not the first people to do this, which didn’t surprise me at all.
Here in Minnesota where I grew up, I’ve never had it or heard of it, so I knew it would still be in a different category for most people.
I wanted to help, it was a competition for my work after all.
I also knew that I needed to rely on Marie’s super-duper-amazing seasoning skills for this to actually come together as a tasty product.
I did prep work, de-husking and cleaning the tomatillos and other such work, letting Marie do the actual skilled labor.
Although I didn’t win the competition, I know people enjoyed the chili and I think it’s a great recipe to share.
Hopefully you’ll enjoy it too, and perhaps some more people will be turned towards tomatillos.
Making Roasted Chili Verde
... So, we set about making out own recipe. There would be beans, unlike traditional chili verde, because this is the midwest, where chili is supposed to have beans. (And I agree 100%!).
We wouldn't go for a lot of heat, instead bringing out a ton of flavors by roasting pretty much everything in the chili. Sure, there could still be the "it's GREEN" objection, but hey... can't please everyone!
More Soup, Stew, Etc Recipes
Looking for a bowl of some warm comfort food for a cool day? Check these out...
Chicken, Shrimp, & Sausage Jambalaya
Convention Chili
Corn Chowder
Creamy Chicken Wild Rice Soup (Gluten-Free)
Fennel Chicken & Sausage Soup
French Canadian Pea Soup
Hearty Beef Stew
Hearty Corn & Black Bean Soup
Keto Cheeseburger Soup
Keto Italian Wedding Soup
Roasted Cauliflower Soup
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Roasted Green Chili [Pork Chili Verde]
Ingredients
- 4 Poblano peppers
- 1 Anaheim pepper
- 3 green bell peppers
- 4 jalapenos
- Vegetable oil or spray
- 3 lbs tomatillos
- 2 medium onions
- 10 Garlic cloves peeled
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 4 lbs boneless pork butt shoulder*
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 2 cans Mayo coba beans 15 oz each, drained
- 4 cans Small white beans 15 oz each, drained
- 1 + teaspoon cumin
- Salt and pepper
- Cilantro, hot sauce, sour cream, and/or additional roasted jalapenos for garnish
Instructions
- Heat broiler on high
- Slice all four kinds of pepper into large chunks, remove ribs and seeds. Arrange in a single layer on a broiling pan, brush or spray lightly with vegetable oil.
- Broil for a few minutes, until desired level of roasted. Repeat in batches until all peppers are roasted. Allow to cool.
- Remove husks from tomatillos, wash well and remove any that don’t look fresh/good. Slice each in half, arrange in a single layer on broiler pan, cut side up.
- Brush or spray with vegetable oil, broil until desired level of roast is achieved, repeating in batches till all are roasted. Cool.
- Peel onions, slice into ½″ slices. Arrange in a single layer on broiling pan – along with 6 of the 10 garlic cloves – brush or spray lightly with oil, broil until roasted enough, cool.
- In a food processor, puree all of the roasted garlic along with about ⅓ of each type of peppers and onions, and about ½ the tomatillos. Set aside.
- Chop remaining vegetables into ½″ chunks, set aside.
- Trim your pork roast of excess fat, cut into ~ ½″ chunks.
- In a large heavy pot, brown pork in vegetable oil.
- Once browned, add pureed vegetables, chopped vegetables, chicken broth, and beans.
- Finely mince or press remaining garlic cloves, add to the pot.
- Heat chili almost to a boil, reduce heat and simmer gently for two hours, stirring every once in a while.
- Add cumin, stir well. Continue simmering for another hour or so.
- When simmering time is over, season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Garnish with your choice of toppings.
Geoffrey Anderson
The recipe looks good. I will certainly try it (I am a bit of a green chili fanatic). Roasting all the veggies seems like a good idea to me.
However, I can assure you that substituting lean pork loin for the shoulder will be a disappointment. As much of a pain as it is to debone and trim the fat of the pork shoulder, the meat adds a lot of flavor to the final chili.