Pork Shoulder Green Chili Stew
When I think about meal planning, I not only think about the weekday meals, I also think about the weekend meals. I think about what my plans are for the weekend…I also check the weather because that plays a big role in what I might feel like eating. Well, this weekend’s weather called for rain and we are still under the stay at home order with COVID-19. Therefore, I thought, what better weekend to make this Pork Shoulder Green Chili Stew. This is the perfect recipe to have cooking away all day long when you have nothing better to do! The longer this stew cooks the more the flavors will develop. To make this recipe even better, it is a freezer-friendly recipe, so go ahead and double the recipe and store some for another rainy day! For those of you counting macros, I know you don’t typically think of stew as being a macro-friendly recipe, but check out my notes below…you might be surprised!
Green Chili ad Pork Shoulder Stew
Ingredients
Roasted Tomatillos and Peppers
- 175 g Tomatillos cut in half, (about 3 cups)
- 150 g Anaheim Pepper (about 2 large peppers)
- 75 g Jalapenos (about 3 peppers)
- ½ tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Pork Shoulder Preparation
- 40 oz Pork Shoulder excess fat trimmed off, (about 2½ lbs)
- 2 tbsp All Purpose Flour
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tbsp Black Pepper
- 1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Putting it all Together into a Stew
- 1 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 185 g Yellow Onion diced, (about 1 onion)
- 25 g Fresh Garlic diced, (about 5 cloves)
- 24 oz Water
- ½ tsp Cayenne Pepper
- ¼ tsp Jalapeno Chili Powder
- ½ tsp Ground Coriander
- 2 tsp Reduced Sodium Chicken Base
- 450 g Baby Yukon Gold Potatoes cut in half (about 4 cups)
Optional Toppings or Sides
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Avocado
- Red Onion
- Lime
- Rice
- Flour Tortillas
Instructions
Roasted Tomatillos and Peppers
- Pre-heat oven to 400'°. While the oven is heating line a baking sheet with tin foil. Then arrange your tomatillos and peppers on the tray. Drizzle with the oil and toss to coat. Then bake for 20-25 minutes at 400'°. Halfway thru flip everything to allow browning on the opposite side.
- Once the peppers and tomatillos are blistered and charred, pull them from the oven and wrap them tightly in the foil to steam for 5-10 minutes. This will loosen up the skins for easy removal.
- After 10 minutes, open the foil, and peel the skins and stems off from the peppers and tomatillos, discard the skins. Remove the seeds from the peppers. The peppers contain most of the heat, so if you like spicy feel free to leave some in. Chop the tomatillos and peppers and set aside.
Pork Shoulder Preparation
- While the peppers and tomatillos are roasting work on your pork shoulder. Heat a large heavy bottom pot or dutch oven to medium heat. While waiting for the pot to warm up cut your pork shoulder into bite-sized cubes, removing any excess fat. (Leaving too much fat on will cause a layer of fat to accumulate at the top of your stew. You don't want to remove it all, just the large sections.)
- Pat the pork cubes dry and place in a large bowl. Season with pepper, salt, and flour. Toss until the pork is evenly coated.
- Once the pot is warm add the oil to the pot. Working in batches (do not overcrowd the pot) cook the pork until browned on all sides, 3-4 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to a large bowl. Do this until you have worked thru all of the pork chunks.
Putting it all Together into a Stew
- At this point your pork should be browned, you should have pulled your tomatillos and peppers from the oven, steamed them, and peeled/removed the seeds.
- Now to put it all together: Start with the large heavy bottom pot or dutch oven that the pork was cooked in…do not clean, all of that goodness at the bottom is going to add flavor to the stew.
- Turn the heat to medium and add the oil, onions, and garlic to the pot. Cook until soft and translucent, 5-7 minutes.
- Then add the tomatillos and peppers to the pot cooking with the onions and garlic for 1 minute. Then add a few tablespoons for the water, using the water to deglaze the bottom of the pot, scraping the bottom of the pot with a heavy spatula.
- Now add the pork into the pot with the peppers, onions, garlic, tomatillos. Season with the cayenne pepper, jalapeno pepper powder, and ground coriander. Stir everything together and cook for 3-5 minutes.
- Then add the remainder of the water and the chicken base. Bring everything to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Then turn the heat to low and allow to cook for 1 – 6 hours adding the potatoes 45 minutes before you plan to eat. (The longer the stew cooks, the more the flavors will develop. If planning to eat within 1 hour of adding the water and chicken base you can go ahead and add the potatoes in right away. But if you have the time to allow the stew to simmer for hours then wait to add the potatoes until 45 minutes before eating.)
- Serve with any of your favorite toppings or sides. I love some sliced: avocado, tomatoes, onions, and jalapenos on top. You can also serve this stew on top of rice or with a few flour tortillas. Let your heart and pantry be your guide. But this stew is delicious on its own, it is filling, and doesn't need rice, tortillas, or toppings.
Macro Nutrition
QUESTION:
- Are you trying to get better at meal planning?
- Do you find yourself eating the same recipes every few weeks?
- Are you having trouble finding recipes for meal prep?
- Or are you counting macros?
If you are bored of eating the same recipes every week and answered yes to any of these questions, then you are going to want to check out my notes below. Tips on how you can incorporate this Pork Shoulder Green Chili Stew into your meal plan and meal prep. If you are counting macros I have also included notes on how you can easily adjust the protein, carbs, and fats to meet your macro requirements.
NOTES FOR MEAL PLANNING:
Meal planning doesn’t have to be hard or take a lot of time. In fact, meal planning can be fun when you are provided with easy new recipes each week. Meal Planning can also help save money, prevent food waste, and save you time.
The best things about this recipe is: it tastes AMAZING right off the stove or reheated, can be adjusted to fit just about any macro goals, and is freezer friendly.
NOTES FOR MEAL PREP:
When meal prepping recipes it is important to think about the best way to store and reheat your finished meals:
FRIDGE STORAGE:
Storing this Pork Shoulder Green Chili Stew in the fridge will last 5-7 days.
There are a few ways you can choose to store this recipe in your fridge:
- You can store as one large meal or as individual servings.
- I always prefer individual servings. This allows me to only reheat the number of servings that will be eaten.
- However, if you know you will eat the entire recipe when it is time to be reheated, go ahead and store it as one large serving.
For fridge storage, you can use zip lock bags, plastic containers, or glass food containers. I prefer to use glass containers, as this allows me to reheat and eat the recipe right out of the same container. Which in turn saves me time, dirty dishes, and makes clean up easier. It also saves on waste: either tossing out the used zip lock bags or eventually having to replace the plastic containers.
Be sure to allow the recipe to cool completely before closing the container or placing it in the fridge. If you close the container or place the recipe in the fridge before it has cooled you could have built up condensation within your container, thus watering down the recipe.
TIPS FOR RE-HEATING AFTER BEING IN THE FRIDGE:
- If reheating as an individual serving, microwave for 90-120 seconds, stirring halfway thru.
- If reheating as one large meal, I recommend reheating on the stove, in a large pan, at medium-low heat. Cook for 7-10 minutes until the recipe is warmed thru. This will ensure the best flavor, consistency, and really bring the recipe back to life. If the stew seems a little dry, you may want to add a tiny bit of water to help loosen up the sauce and ingredients. Adding 1/4 tablespoon at a time, you don’t want to water down the recipe.
- However, you can also microwave the entire recipe, this will take about the same time as the stovetop. Microwave for 7-10 minutes, stirring every few minutes.
FREEZER STORAGE:
This is the perfect freezer-friendly recipe. When frozen this Pork Shoulder Green Chili Stew will keep for 3-6 months.
There are a few ways that you can choose to freeze this recipe:
- Freeze as individual portions, one serving per each freezer-safe zip lock bag. Be sure to remove all of the air from the bag. Storing individually allows you to reheat as many servings as you wish.
- However, you can also store the entire recipe. To do this you would simply use a larger freezer-safe zip lock bag.
- Or, my favorite way to freeze meals is in souper cubes. These cubes are reusable, freezer safe, and store the perfect serving size.
Be sure to remove all the air from the zip lock bags and allow the recipe to cool completely before placing in the freezer. Failing to allow the recipe to cool completely could result in freezer burn.
Be sure to label your frozen meal with the name of the recipe and the date you cooked it. I like to use a piece of masking tape to write on. You don’t want to forget about the delicious recipe you have on hand!
TIPS FOR RE-HEATING AFTER BEING FROZEN:
Going straight from the freezer to the microwave or oven you will want to remove the recipe from the frozen container. You can not microwave zip lock bags, a glass container could crack going from such cold temps to such warm temps, and super cubes are not microwave or oven safe.
- As individual servings, I recommend reheating on the stove and not the microwave. Frozen recipes always defrost better this way. Cook in a small pot at medium heat for 10-12 minutes until the stew has defrosted and is warmed thru. If the stew seems a little thick feel free to add a tiny bit of water to loosen it up, be careful not to add too much or the stew will turn to soup.
- Or pull the number of servings you are looking to eat from the freezer the night before, and store in the fridge to defrost overnight. Then follow the instructions above for reheating from the fridge.
- If frozen as an entire recipe, I recommend pulling from the freezer the night before to allow the meal to defrost. Then reheat on the stove in a large pot at medium-low heat for about 10-12 minutes, enough to warm thru.
NOTES FOR COUNTING MACROS:
PROTEIN:
The majority of the protein in this Pork Shoulder Green Chili Stew comes from the pork. You can easily adjust the amount of pork without changing the flavor of this recipe too much.
- For every 1 ounce of pork, you can increase or decrease the protein macro by 8.7 grams. However, it is important to remember that pork does contain fat, for every 1 ounce of pork there is also 2.5 grams of fat.
Therefore, when making adjustments to the protein macros you will also be making adjustments to the fat macro.
CARBOHYDRATE:
Surprisingly there is not a ton of carbs in this recipe. Therefore I feel that anyone looking to make adjustments to the carbs is most likely looking to increase the carbs. And let me tell you, that could not be easier!
First you could adjust the amount of potatoes used in this recipe.
- For every 50 grams (1/2 cup of chopped) potato, there are 8.8 grams of carbs.
Therefore, allowing you to add as much or as little potato to this recipe as you would like. This recipe is really great served on top of grains, you cook this stew and serve it on top of:
- Rice
- Barley
- Couscous
- Farro
- Orzo
You name it, anything that is great at absorbing flavors is a great addition to this recipe. So if you are looking to increase the carbs, check out your pantry and cook whatever you have available following the directions of the package.
- Another great option is to enjoy the stew as it is and eating it with flour tortillas. I love to tear my flour tortillas and use them and my serving vessel, forgoing the fork or spoon and eating with my torn tortilla! Give it a try, not only is it delicious, but fun too!
FAT:
The fat in this Pork Shoulder Green Chili Stew comes from the pork and the oil. This recipe does have a decent amount of fat, but this is a delicious hearty fat recipe! However, if you are looking to make adjustments to the fat below are my recommendations.
- I would not adjust the amount of oil used, as the oil is providing the moisture during each of the above cooking steps.
For every one ounce of pork there is 2.5 grams of fat.
- You could reduce the fat by cutting as much fat off the pork as you can, but this will be hard to measure and track how much fat you actually have remaining. Additionally, the fat in the pork provides a delicious flavor to the recipe.
- If you are looking to significantly reduce the fat in this recipe you could trade out the pork for a completely different cut of meat. You could use a less fatty cut of pork or steak. You could also switch to chicken, which as you know chicken breast has little to no fat.
However, if you are looking to increase the fat, this recipe allows you to add one of my favorite toppings:
- Sliced avocado! Who doesn’t love avocado? And nothing is better as a topping on this recipe.
For every 35 grams (about 1/4 avocado) there are 5.1 grams of fat. Allowing you to add as much additional healthy fats to this recipe as your heart and macros allow!
When making adjustments to the macros in this Pork Shoulder Green Chili Stew, you will want to keep in mind the number of servings you are making.
Love Chili, but looking for for something a little different?
Check out my: Spicy White Chicken Chili Recipe.