Samin Nosrat’s legendary Pork Braised with Chilies. She calls it “the single most versatile recipe in this book” referring to her famous cooking bible Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. This is one to remember. Happy Fall!
This delicious pile of meat will leave you swooning for days. It’s a carnivore’s dream, perfectly delivered in a charred tortilla with sour cream and cilantro, and just as well adapted on a plate with polenta and roasted vegetables…
Samin Nosrat’s approach to cooking is all about quality ingredients and simple methods to yield flavor packed dishes that are memorable and repeatable. I’ve shared her conveyor belt chicken, which is a top 10 for sure in our house.
The pork butt is salted a day before to allow the flavor to penetrate deep into the meat. If you don’t have time for this, it will still be good, but try to plan ahead if possible. Heavily salt and pepper the outside before searing, then sauté the aromatics, and throw the whole pot into the oven for about 4 hours. I’m sure you could adapt this to a slow cooker and have great results, but I love the slow cook in the oven on a Sunday afternoon…
Pork Braised with Chilies
Ingredients
- 4 lbs boneless pork shoulder roast salted in advance
- 2-3 Tbsp kosher salt
- cracked black pepper
- Neutral oil such as grapeseed or canola
- 2 medium yellow onions sliced
- 1 head garlic sliced through the equator
- 2 cups crushed tomatoes in their juice, fresh or canned
- 2 Tbsp cumin seed
- 2 bay leaves
- 8 dried chiles such as Guajillo
- 1 Tbsp smoked or regular paprika
- 2-3 cups lager or pilsner beer
- ½ cup roughly chopped cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- One day before - remove the roast from the paper, and sprinkle with 2-3 Tbsp of kosher salt - place in a dish and cover with plastic wrap over night.
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Sprinkle cracked black pepper over the already salted roast.
- Set an oven-proof Dutch oven over medium-high heat. When it’s warm, add 1 tablespoon neutral oil. When the oil shimmers, place the pork in the pan. Brown it evenly on all sides, about 3-4 minutes per side.
- When the meat is brown, remove it and set it aside. Tip out the fat from the pan, if there is excess. Return the pan to the stove, reduce the heat to medium, and add 1 tablespoon neutral oil. Cook the onions and garlic over until they are tender and lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Add the tomatoes and juice, cumin, bay leaves, dried chilies, and paprika into the pot and stir. Nestle pork atop the aromatic base, and add enough beer to come 1½ inches up the sides of the meat. Make sure the peppers and bay leaves are mostly immersed in the juices so that they do not burn.
- Increase heat and bring to a boil, then slip the pot, uncovered, into the oven. After 30 minutes, check to make sure the liquid is just barely simmering. About every 30 minutes, turn the pork over and check the level of the liquid, adding more beer as needed. Cook until the meat is tender and falls apart at the touch of a fork, 3½ to 4 hours.
- Remove the cooked pork from the oven and carefully remove it from the pan. Using a food mill or whizzing machine, puree the aromatics and strain them through a sieve. Skim the fat from the sauce and then taste, adjusting salt as needed.
- At this point, you can either shred the meat and combine it with the sauce to make pork tacos, or slice it and spoon the sauce over the pork to serve it as an entrée. Garnish with chopped cilantro to serve.
Notes
