Instantpot Pork Chili Verde

 

Ingredients

• 4 pounds (1.9kg) boneless pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch chunks

• 3/4 pound tomatillos (about 4 large tomatillos), quartered, husks discarded (or canned!)

• 2/3 pound poblano peppers (about 2 peppers), roughly chopped, seeds and stems discarded 

• 6 ounces Anaheim or Cubanelle peppers (about 2 peppers), roughly chopped, seeds and stems discarded 

• 2 serrano or jalapeño chiles, roughly chopped, stems discarded (I only do one, because I am a wimp when it comes to heat!)

• 8 ounces white onion (about 1 medium), roughly chopped

• 6 medium cloves garlic, peeled

• 1 tablespoon cumin

• Kosher salt

• 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves and fine stems 

• 1 tablespoon Asian fish sauce, such as Red Boat

• Fresh corn tortillas and lime wedges, for serving

• Directions

  1. In a pressure cooker, combine pork, tomatillos, poblano peppers, Anaheim peppers, serrano peppers, onion, garlic, cumin, and a big pinch of salt. Heat over high heat until gently sizzling, then seal pressure cooker, bring to high pressure, and cook for 30 minutes. Release pressure.

  2. Using tongs, transfer pork pieces to a bowl and set aside. Add cilantro and fish sauce to remaining contents of pressure cooker. Blend with an immersion blender or in a countertop blender, then season to taste with salt. Return pork to sauce and stir gently to combine. Serve immediately with tortillas and lime wedges.

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     NOTE: 

     You can use other fresh green chiles in place of Anaheims, poblanos, and serranos. Using 100% Hatch chiles is a good way to go. You can also replace the fresh chiles with frozen or jarred roasted green chiles, using the same amount by weight. (same with the tomatillos) Also, if you want to be extra fancy, you can buy whole cumin, toast it in a pan, and then grind it up before adding. Supposedly it takes the flavor up a HUGE notch. 

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Bob Coleman's Cafe Rio Knock-Off Pork Rub

1 cup brown sugar

2tsp chili powder

2 T garlic

1 T tobasco

2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp cinammon

1 teaspoon cumin

rub on pork, then cook for 7 hours at 250 degrees

Julie's Cafe Rio Style Black Beans

First, soak your dried beans overnight.
Put them into a bowl and cover them with water, to a level that is probably about 2 inches above the beans.
The next day, begin by dicing an onion. You want to have about 1/2 cup of diced onions. So, if it is a larger onion, then you will only use half, smaller onion, the entire thing.
Put the diced onion into your crockpot.
Next mince 1-2 cloves of garlic.
Add one can of green chiles (mild)
drain the beans and add them to the crockpot.
next add water (depending on the amount of beans add the appropriate amount -
it's on the packaging).
add chicken bouillon to the water (I like to use the mexican chicken bouillon made by Knorr)
place the lid on the crockpot and cook on low until the beans are tender.
(usually this takes about 8 hours)

Bajio Chicken

5 chicken breasts
1/2 cup salsa
1 Tbsp cumin
1/2 cup brown sugar (more to taste)
1 4 oz. can diced green chilies
6 oz. Sprite (1/2 can)

Combine all ingredients in a crock pot. Cook on low for 5-6 hours. Remove chicken and shred. Return to crock pot and cook 1 more hour. Thicken the juices with a little cornstarch mixed in water.

Serve with flour tortillas, lettuce, cheese, black beans and any other taco fixings.

If you want it spicer rather than sweeter add a hotter salsa and more green chilies.

Cafe Rio Rice

3 cups water
3 cups Minute rice
4 tsp chicken bouillon
4 tsp minced garlic
½ bunch cilantro
1 can green chiles
¾ tsp salt
1 Tb butter
½ onion chopped

Blend cilantro, green chiles and onion together in blender. Bring water to a boil and add all ingredients. Simmer covered 30 minutes.

Cafe Rio Pork Barbacoa

5 - 6 pounds pork tenderloin (or roast)
21 ounces Dr. Pepper
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 cloves garlic
1 (7 ounce) can chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
6 ounces medium red taco sauce
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Place pork in the crock pot and make sauce.

Here's the trick with the sauce: Remove chipotle chilies from the can and put in the measuring cup that you'll measure your Dr. Pepper with. Pour Dr. Pepper over them and remove the chilies (and throw away) just to get the sauce off and then continue pouring Dr. Pepper into the measuring cup until you reach the full 21 ounces. You'll also need to rinse out the chipotle can with the Dr. Pepper to get all the adobo sauce out. Do NOT use the chipotle peppers (I did this and it was killer hot). You can add 1 or 2 for a kick if you want.

Blend all ingredients together in either a blender or with an immersion blender until combined and pour over the pork. Cook on high for 5 hours or on low for 8 hours until the pork is easily shreddable. If you've never had a Cafe Rio Pork Salad, what you'll want to do to make this is take a flour tortilla and melt some cheese on it. From there, here's the layers:

White Rice (I'll post my recipe later for Cilantro Lime Rice)
Black Beans (I just used canned that I heat up on the stove and add seasoned salt and pepper with some garlic powder)
Romaine Lettuce, chopped
Pico de Gallo
Guacamole
Cilantro Ranch Tomatillo Dressing

Cafe Rio Ranch Dressing

1 buttermilk ranch dressing packet (make as per recipe)
2 tomatillos or 4 TB salsa verde (green salsa)
½ bunch of cilantro
1 clove garlic
Juice of 1 lime
1/8 tsp Tabasco sauce

Mix all but cilantro together in blender. Add Cilantro last and blend well. Refrigerate.

Cafe Rio Pork

1 cup Pace salsa
1 cup brown sugar
3-4 lbs pork sirloin roast (very lean)

Mix salsa and brown sugar together and pour over a pork roast. Cook in a crockpot all day and shred right before serving.

Cafe Rio Chicken

1 8 oz bottle Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
1 T chili powder
1 T cumin
3 cloves garlic - minced
5 lbs chicken breast

Cook all together in a crock pot for 4 hours. Shred meat and cook 1 additional hour.