Carne Adovada

As difficult as it might be to say, Carne Adovada, this is a dish that is typically found in the state of New Mexico, and one that is not commonly found on a Mexican menu. If you have never been to New Mexico, I highly recommend it. It is simply beautiful, and you get everything from desert (the White Sands) to spectacular mountain views. Along your journey through New Mexico, you will notice a lot of roadside diners, which by itself is really cool, and these diners are worth stopping for.  For some odd reason, one of the things I remembered from being in New Mexico (early 90’s), was stopping at one of these roadside dinners and having a really great lunch.

Typically when one thinks of food from New Mexico, they think of red chili or green chili. Whatever the case, I love them both, and love the food not only of New Mexico, but Mexico itself. But lately I had a real craving for some red chili sauce, and hence why I made a delicious batch of carne adovada.

Carne adovada can be eaten any time of the day, however I believe the best time of day to have this dish is for breakfast. There is something to be said about the awesome chili broth with slow roasted pork, a sunny side up egg, and some corn tortilla flutes. Really comforting, and super delicious, this recipe is sure to fill you up and satisfy the soul.

Ingredients:

• 4 lbs of pork shoulder, fat trimmed, and cut into cubes or larger chunks
• 20-30 dried New Mexico chili peppers, or guajillo chilies, like I used
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 8 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 2 large onions, chopped
• generous pinch of salt
• generous pinch of pepper
• 1/2 tbsp Mexican Oregano
• 3-4 cups of chicken stock
• corn tortillas
• water

Begin by ripping off the stems of the dried chili peppers and empty out all of the seeds. Feel free to cut a slit into each chili if it helps removing the seeds. Get a large pot of water boiling and add in your chilies, cooking until nice and tender, about 40 minutes. During this time, get a large skillet out and warm the olive oil on a medium heat. Take a small batch of the pork shoulder and brown each side, roughly 2-3 minutes per side. Do this for all of the pork, adding more oil if necessary. Once the shoulder is browned, remove to a slow cooker if you have one, or place in a large pot. Once all of the pork has been cooked, toss in the onions, garlic, and salt and pepper to the skillet, and cook for about 5 minutes.

Once the chilies have softened, add them to a blender with about a cup, or more of the water it was cooking in. Add in the onion and garlic mixture, and the chicken stock. Blend until you have a nice sauce, with the everything being pureed. You should have a nice smooth sauce. Add this sauce to the slow cooker or large pot, making sure that the pork is covered. Cook this for about 3 hours on the stove, or go low and slow in the slow cooker for 6-8 hours.

You are ready to serve this up. I like mine simply placed in a bowl, with an egg on top, using corn tortillas as my helper. However, once you taste this, you will probably want to put it in a taco, stuff it in a burrito, or go full force and use it for enchiladas.

Trust me, it is just that good!

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