Slow Cooker Pork Chile Verde

This slow cooker pork chile verde is super easy to make and so flavorful. The pork shoulder is slow cooked in a mixture of puréed tomatillos, onion, garlic, jalapeño, and poblano peppers until it is fall off the bone tender! It’s delicious served over rice or in tacos!
Pork and Mexican food are two things I couldn’t live without. I know you know about my Mexican food obsession, but not sure about pork. Hence, the need to share this recipe today. I want to share more pork recipes on the blog, because it’s seriously my favorite meat and I have so many recipes I want you guys to try! Pulled pork is probably my favorite way to eat it, but bacon comes in a close second. (Sometimes first, depending on my mood).

If you’ve never had chile verde, its basically pork slow cooked in a sauce consisting of roasted tomatillos, poblanos, jalapeños, garlic, and onion. I believe that the super authentic version uses hatch chiles, but I couldn’t find them in the stores near me. I love poblanos and figured that they’d be a good substitute! If you haven’t cooked with poblanos before, you should totally try this or this OR this! I totally forgot how many poblano recipes I had on the site. Oldies but goodies.

This recipe was actually inspired by my boyfriend who always orders pork chile verde at this tiny hole in the wall Mexican place near where we live. It’s SO authentic and insanely delicious. I knew I had to re-create it at home.

I was so happy with how this turned out. It’s really simple to make, and the only somewhat time consuming part is making the sauce to cook the pork in. Once that’s done, the slow cooker does everything for you. This time of year, slow cooker meals are EVERYTHING. So comforting. Except for the fact that it’s 70 degrees here today in Maryland?! In the first week of February. Crazy.

I served this over short grain brown rice, with a little sliced radish (aren’t they so pretty!?), cotija cheese (ALWAYS), and hot sauce. SO good!

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Slow Cooker Pork Chile Verde

This slow cooker pork chile verde is super easy to make and so flavorful. The pork shoulder is slow cooked in a mixture of puréed tomatillos, onion, garlic, jalapeño, and poblano peppers until it is fall off the bone tender! It's delicious served over rice or in tacos!

Course Main, Pork

Cuisine Crockpot, Slow Cooker

Prep Time 40 minutes

Cook Time 12 hours

Total Time 12 hours 40 minutes

Servings 6

Author Molly | Spices in My DNA

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds tomatillos, peeled, washed, and halved
• 1 white onion, cut into chunks
• 12 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 2 poblano peppers
• 2 jalapeño peppers
• 2 1/2 pound pork shoulder (I used bone-in)
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro, plus extra for garnish
• sliced radishes for serving
• crumbled cotija cheese for serving
• brown rice for serving*
• hot sauce for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400℉. Add tomatillos, onion, and garlic to a large rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Toss to coat. Roast for 30 minutes, or until tomatillos start to shrivel and get golden on the edges.

2. Preheat the oven to broil. Put the poblanos and jalapeños on a baking sheet and broil on high for about 15 minutes, turning the peppers a couple times in between. They should be black and charred when they're finished.

3. Put peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit for 10 minutes (this helps the skin come off easily). Once finished, peel the skin off the peppers and discard the seeds and stems.

4. Add tomatillo mixture and peppers to a blender and blend on high until smooth and combined. Season to taste with salt. Set aside.

5. Rinse and pat dry your pork shoulder. Combine chili powder, cumin, coriander, and salt in a small bowl. Rub spice mixture evenly on pork. Heat a large skillet to medium/high heat. Add the pork shoulder to the skillet and sear on all sides until crusty and golden. I did about 3-4 minutes per side. Add pork to slow cooker and pour the tomatillo sauce over the pork.

6. Cook on low for 10-12 hours, or high for 7-8. Once pork is finished, remove from slow cooker, discard the fat and bones, and shred. Add pork back into the slow cooker and stir in the cilantro. Season to taste with salt. Serve over rice with sliced radish, extra cilantro, cotija cheese, and your favorite hot sauce!

Recipe Notes

*You can also use white rice, or use tortillas to make tacos! The possibilities are endless.