The Best Cut Of Pork To Use For Chili Verde

Pork in chili verde is a staple in many Mexican households, where it's known as puerco en salsa verde. The dish is also a classic in the cuisine of New Mexico, with the state's famous green chiles taking the place of the tomatillos used in the Mexican version. Both recipes are delicious, filling, and excellent on a cold day to warm up the body and soul. 

As this is the season for cooking and enjoying such a dish, Tasting Table chatted with Marc Marrone, Executive Chef at Arriba Abajo Rooftop Cantina in Austin, Texas, to find out what cut of pork is best to use on the dish. "Pork cushion or shoulder is my favorite for this", he told us. Since pork shoulder is the best cut to use in making a rich stew, it makes sense that the same would work for a green chile-based stew. 

A pork shoulder consists of three individual cuts: The picnic shoulder, the butt (also known as Boston butt), and the cushion, a triangle-shaped cut on the side of the shoulder. It's a lean muscle with less fat and more connective tissue compared to the other pork shoulder cuts, but pork cushion is flavorful and lends itself perfectly for stewing. In a tangy, spicy sauce made with tomatillos and green chiles, it turns into a thing of beauty, with a warm heat that counteracts the richness of the meat, creating a balanced and satisfying cold weather dish.

At Arriba Abajo, Marc Marrone cooks modern takes on Mexican foods, so he will probably recommend you make the Mexican-style pork in chile verde, with tomatillos, jalapeños, poblanos, onion, garlic, and various spices. The sauce is greatly reduced to coat the meat, making it on the drier side for a stew, and usually served with rice and beans. This style of Mexican stew is known as "guisado," which translates to "something that's cooked." Guisados with meats and veggies in some form of chile sauce are traditional in Mexican home cooking.

New Mexican-style green chili, on the other hand, is a brothy stew that's eaten out of a bowl. A classic New Mexican green chili is made with New Mexico chiles, the most famous of which are grown in Hatch. The Hatch chiles are roasted, peeled, and blended into a broth, which is then enriched with potatoes and succulent pork bites and served with hot flour tortillas for a soul-warming meal. While a New Mexico chile verde may vary from the consistency of a thinner soup to a chunkier, thicker stew, the traditional recipes don't include tomatillos, relying on the roasted chiles to provide all the color and flavor. 

Regardless of the style of chile verde you prefer, using pork shoulder in any of its forms will guarantee a rich flavor and perfectly tender chunks of pork with a hearty toothsome texture.