Rick Makes Chili Colorado (Stewed Pork in Chili Sauce) | From the Test Kitchen | Bon Appétit

[exciting funk music]

This recipe is really my mom's.

This is a dish that I loved, it reminds me of going home.

My mom used to make this for me when I went off to college

and I would come home, she would make Chile Colorado

with her homemade flour tortillas.

Chile Colorado, and Colorado is what I'm actually saying,

it basically means red, so these are red chiles.

It's pork in a red sauce, sometimes it's made with beef.

So my mom didn't use chile powder,

she actually used fresh dried chiles.

So these are dried chile peppers.

Every time I go to Mexico,

I bring peppers back with me, spices.

This is ancho, this is a pasilla, and this is a guajillo.

They all taste really different.

The ancho is almost raisin-like.

It has a natural sweetness to it.

The pasilla is a little bit darker

and more earthy, a little more mineral-y.

And then the guajillo, it's a little bit brighter,

a little more acidic, sometimes it has more heat,

depending on when it was grown,

where it was grown, and how much sun it got.

So when I seed peppers, I usually wear gloves,

and it's not really for the heat,

or I'm not really that concerned about the heat.

When you get fresh dried peppers,

they tend to be a little bit wet on the inside,

and they'll stain your hands.

It's kind of like dried fruit,

or it should be like dried fruit.

And so you can see, it's not cracking.

It's really beautiful.

You wanna take the stem out and most of the seeds.

The seeds in these peppers are a little bit more woody

and a little more tannic,

so they're not gonna add a lot of flavor.

This dish is really just a love letter to my mom.

This is the way she made it, and it reminds me of home.

It's such a comforting dish for me.

When I make this dish, I literally just wanna...

I wanna remember her, and I wanna remember

the times I would go home and I would hear

her rolling pin rolling out flour tortillas,

and the smell of the chile simmering in the kitchen.

I'm just doin' it the way she did it.

So I'm gonna rehydrate these in some hot chicken stock.

Homemade is obviously best, but if you don't have that,

box stock is fine, you can use water if you don't have that.

I like to use chicken stock because it just adds

a little bit more depth of flavor.

We're just gonna cover this so that they can steam.

These need to sit for about 30 minutes

just to rehydrate and soften up,

and it's gets them really nice and soft

so that you can blend them,

and you'll get a really nice, smooth puree.

All right, so the chiles are soaked, and they're softened.

I'm using fresh sage because she did.

And I actually brought back with me

some Mexican oregano from Mexico.

It's different than Greek oregano, or the oregano

that you would typically find here, or Italian oregano.

It's a little more floral, it's a little less bitter,

and a little more subtle.

I feel like sometimes oreganos can be really,

really strong and pungent.

It's really nice, it complements the chiles

and the pork really well.

It's one of the great things about this sauce

is that you don't have to do a lot of prep work.

And you can see how soft these chiles are.

And you definitely wanna use all of this liquid,

because that's just flavor.

And then I've got six cloves of garlic,

I've got my Mexican oregano,

I'm gonna go ahead and put my cumin in there,

and I am gonna give these sage leaves a little rough chop.

Again, this is more like a back-note.

Think of it as vanilla extract in a cookie or cake.

You don't really wanna know that it's present,

but it is going to add something,

and if it wasn't there, you'd feel its absence.

[blender whirring]

So you wanna make sure that your pureeing this

to the point where you don't see any little specks of chile.

You want it to be really, really smooth.

It's really good.

It's amazingly sweet.

I think a lot of people really aren't aware

of how much sugar, natural sugar, exists in these peppers.

A lot of times, it's almost like having dried fruit

in your dishes, so definitely this is a much better way

to make this dish than with chile powder,

'cause you won't get that sweetness in a chile powder.

So this is ready for the pot.

My mom used pork shoulder, it's really flavorful.

It does take a little while to cook,

but in that cook time, it develops so much flavor,

you get a lot of richness from the pork and the pork fat,

it starts to break down and gets really soft.

All right, this guy's heating up.

I'm gonna season the meat.

This is two pounds of pork.

I usually, as a start, I usually add

about one teaspoon of salt per pound of meat,

and then I can finish seasoning once the dish is cooked.

It is gonna reduce, so it's going to concentrate

both in flavor and in salinity as it cooks.

Just gonna give this a little toss.

I'm gonna cook this in two batches.

I don't wanna crowd the pan.

What'll end up happening, if I put all of that meat in here,

it's just gonna steam, you're gonna release a lot of liquid,

and your meat's just gonna dry out.

You wanna do it so that it's not completely crowded.

You want a ripping-hot pan, a little bit of oil,

just to get it nice and coated,

and make sure that it's not gonna stick to the bottom.

I'm gonna put in about two tablespoons of oil.

I wanna see this smoking before I add the meat in.

Otherwise the meat's just gonna sit there,

and it's not gonna brown, it'll just start to steam.

All right, so I'm getting some wisps of smoke,

I'm gonna add the meat in.

[sizzling]

I love this apron so much.

I actually, I need to get another one from him.

This is an artist in Phoenix.

He does a lot of beautiful paintings,

murals, around the city of Phoenix.

And I loved his work, and I asked him

if he could paint me an apron.

We talked about things that I loved,

and two of my favorite things in Mexican culture

are Day of the Dead and luchadores, and so this was a combo

of a Day of the Dead Mexican wrestler.

You can see the browning on the bottom of the pan,

that's gonna add flavor.

It's really about the color.

Some stoves, I know like electric stoves

tend to burn a lot hotter than gas,

so it might go a little faster.

What you're really looking for is something like this.

You don't need a lot of color,

you just need a little bit of caramelization on it.

Render a little bit of the fat, like that's...

These are really nice.

Just a nice deep-golden color.

I'm gonna go ahead and pull these.

But you can also see, even though some of the meat

isn't completely browned, we've got a lot of browning

on the bottom of the pan, which is good.

So you're gonna get that flavor.

And with this next round of meat,

we're going to get some of the browning

up from the bottom of the pan, so that will add flavor.

A lot of times, the outside of the pork will start

to dry out and get really tough.

And another thing when you're searing,

try not to move it around that much,

at least when you initially put it in,

spread it out, and then just let it go.

It'll start to caramelize in the bottom.

So you can probably let it sit there

for about a minute or two minutes,

'til it gets really nice and brown on the bottom.

You'll start to smell the...

When it starts to turn brown, and then you can just

start scraping it up, flipping it over,

and getting the other side.

In other words, are we gonna be able to eat soon?

It's right there, oh my god, can you just calm down?

I'm just saying, it's like practically noon.

Chris Morocco is wasting away.

Good thing we have a swap.

We never have family meal, you went away, you left us.

Oh, my god!

It's just falling apart.

Video shoots every day, and every day it's like,

oh, what are they gonna eat for lunch?

Oh, maybe we'll get to dig in, maybe we'll get,

you know, like, friggin' made nice, I don't know.

It's like a party in there, you know.

We're starvin' out here.

All right, so that's looking really brown, and you can see

this meat is pulling up the brown from the last batch.

All the juices in there.

I'm gonna add more chicken stock,

this is five cups of chicken stock.

Again, use water, use homemade, use whatever you have.

I'm gonna put two bay leaves in and grab my chile puree,

and then just pour that in.

Look how beautiful...

That color is amazing.

I love, love, love this color so much.

And this is how the dish gets its name, the chile colorado.

It's this beautiful brick-red color,

and it's so fragrant, god.

So we're gonna bring this up to a boil,

and then we're gonna turn it down to a simmer.

And it's just gonna simmer there for about two hours.

You want it to be uncovered

so that you'll concentrate the flavor.

And you'll know when it's done when the pork is tender.

The thing that you wanna make sure

is that it's as low as possible,

and that you're stirring occasionally,

because the chile will stick to the bottom if it's too high.

So if it's boiling too rapidly,

just turn it down, turn it down all the way to low.

It's been about two hours, and this looks pretty incredible.

You can see how it's thickened up, it's like really rich.

This is how I like it,

some people like it a little bit thinner.

I don't know, it's just...

Those chiles are so incredible,

the pork is tender, you can see,

smashed up against the wall and just kind of falls apart.

The great thing about the sauce being this thick

is that when you put it inside of a tortilla,

which I'm gonna do, it kinda stays in.

And the meat just sort of disintegrates

and sucks up all that sauce, it's so good.

I might have made duck fat flour tortillas.

Feeling a little extra.

Also I had a couple quarts of duck fat

in my freezer, as I do.

My mom would not have done this.

She probably would have used lard or Crisco,

but I felt like, you know...

It's a tribute to my mom, so she deserved duck fat.

I'm gonna do this the way that we did it at home,

which you basically just use the tortilla as a little scoop.

It's so good.

Who needs a spoon?

Just the richness from the chiles,

it's a really nice little back-note of cumin,

it's not, like, in your face.

It's got a nice little heat that builds.

The pork is so completely tender and falling apart.

Hey, Morocco.

Yo.

You ready?

I'm ready.

Okay.

You tried to give me a tortilla a minute ago

without any of the chile.

What was I gonna do, just eat it all dry?

I mean, sorry I'm trying to feed you.

Already, like, so hangry today.

Do you want a bowl?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, set me up.

I feel so un-bedazzled compared to you.

You've got, like, shirt buttoned down just so, you know.

I mean, you can unbutton.

Your spiky little tips.

Ooh, you can see the black t-shirt in all its glory.

Oh, my god, wow.

How 'bout that?

Two can play this game Mr. Martinez.

Oh, okay. [laughs]

I'm definitely a bean-in-my-chile kind of guy.

[record scratching]

Okay, Chris, this is not--

No, no, no, I know.

This is not that kind of chile.

This is delightful, though.

[Man Offscreen] All right, thanks for tasting, Chris.

I know.

[laughing]

And we're done.

So you serve this with beans on the side.

I see.

I'm from Houston.

Oh, okay.

Are you...

Where are you from?

Austin?

Amazing.

Yes.

What part?

From the south, so like Manchaca.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, amazing.

Have a tortilla.

Oh, my god, thank you so much.

You're so welcome.

Wait a minute, where are you from again?

Oh, Boston, right, okay.

Beans.

That makes sense.

Hey, we've got our own beans, all right?

Yeah, you just keep your baked beans...

Keep your baked beans away from my Chile Colorado.

No, no, no, you're dead to me, Morocco.

It's so good.

Thank you.

So what was kind of, like, the development process like?

This is actually just my mom's recipe.

Like pretty much straight up.

Thank you very much.

Sure.

How are you?

Oh, my god!

Hi!

I made you something!

Thank you, I'm very excited to try this finally,

because every time you post it on social,

it does, like, bonkers-well, and I've never had it before.

Mmm.

So much going on, holy crap.

So good.

Did you make these?

Mm-hmm.

What the hell?

I mean, come on.

What, I'm gonna buy a store-bought tortilla?

Oh, my god.

So good.

I feel like I've said everything I need to say,

it's really [bleep] good.

Probably make it a little bit better.

I mean, I do kind of miss the rice and beans, but...

I mean, really, tortillas and chile,

that's all you really need.