The Peanut Butter Boy: Chile Verde

I love Mexican food. I can't get enough of it. Other than peanut butter, Mexican food is what keeps me going. The savory meats, refried beans, tortilla chips, guacamole, salsa, onions, cilantro, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, black olives... Perhaps not all of those are authentic, but they certainly manage to make their way into my Mexican-inspired dishes. The one ingredient that hasn't yet made it into my Mexican cooking is peanut butter. I don't want to simply throw in peanut butter for the sake of adding peanut butter, I want it to work and complement the dish. So for now, this dish is peanut butterless, but don't let that deter you!

If you didn't already know, on the right side of the screen you can click "More Categories" in the "Categories" menu block and click on "Mexican Dishes" at the bottom. Recipes there include my famous & super healthy Enchiladas, Mexican Bean Pie, a recently updated 7-layer Bean Dip and of course, Homemade Tortilla Chips.

This recipe is a little different. I never had a good chile verde, only a bite of some fatty pork in a "chile verde taco" once. After exploring the Mexican recipes on Elise's outstanding blog, Simply Recipes, I stumbled upon her version of Chile Verde and immediately fell in love with the picture. The recipe was enticing, but tomatillos are difficult to find around here. If you've got the time and the means, I suggest following her method for the homemade tomatillo salsa, but it came out delicious with the store-bought salsa and it was much faster. To create this recipe, I combined what I thought was the best of several different recipes to make a healthy, quick and delicious chile verde while trying to maintain authenticity. This dish is very spicy (depending upon the salsa you get), but my Dad and I were raving for days about this one.

I've already made this dish twice in a week's time, once with a slow cooker and once without. There wasn't much of a difference between the two, but if you've got a slow cooker (crockpot) then I don't see a good reason not to use it. Pork is more traditional in this recipe, but turkey was just as delicious and a touch healthier.

Ingredients:

20oz (1.25 lbs) pork or turkey tenderloins, chopped into small cubes
16oz jar salsa verde (Mrs. Refreno's is excellent, but any will do)
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 large onion, chopped (~1 cup)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1t oregano
pinch cloves
fat free sour cream
Tortilla Chips

Instructions:

1. Add a teaspoon of olive oil to a large pot on high heat. Add diced meat and brown on all sides as shown below, about 4-5 minutes - it's fine if the meat isn't fully cooked inside. Pour off excess grease and place the meat in a bowl on the side.

2. Return the pot to the stove and add the onions and garlic. Cook for about 3 minutes, or until onions are translucent. At least point you have two options:

Stovetop method: Add the meat and oregano to the pot and cook for another minute. Dump in the jar of salsa, chicken broth and cloves. Bring to a boil, then simmer on low for 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until meat begins to fall apart. I used 2 turkey tenderloins and the meat began to fall apart after 1 1/2 hours, so I stopped cooking and ate!

Crockpot method: Add all ingredients to the crockpot and stir until mixed. Cook on high for 3-4 hours and then on low for an additional 2-3 hours.

3. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and Homemade Tortilla Chips, for dipping.

Additional Info:

This dish is very spicy and you may not be able to eat a huge bowl of it. I suggest serving it with a nice side of homemade refried beans, a recipe I'll be sharing next.

Labels: dinner, mexican, peanut butterless, protein

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Posted by Nick on Apr 11, 2008 | Post a Comment | Comments | Permalink | Links to this post

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Nick, you know I love you and all - but I have to say that the cover photo looks a little bit like sick. Don't hate me ok, I speak as I find, I'm sure it tastes just fantastic.

I also came over to say that I nominated you for a meme if you fancy doing one - it's very brief, just 6 words that sum you up (I guess one of them might begin with a P?)

x x x

Posted by Naomi Devlin | 12:50 PM

i feel exactly the opposite about the photo--it makes me want to lick the bowl clean. in fact, i've never met a mexican dish that didn't make me feel that way. :)

Posted by Grace | 1:44 PM

I looove Mexican dishes - so comforting!

Posted by VeggieGirl | 7:09 PM

This looks fabulous. I love Mexican food!

Have a great Sunday!
Amanda

Posted by downhomedieting | 4:17 AM

I adore chili verde--that looks fantastic! And if you go to Trader Joe's, which I assume you do, since you said you love their PB, they have a great salsa verde, too.

Posted by Elle | 8:31 AM

Naomi, point taken! I switched the first and last photos. At least by putting the offending one at the end, at least it's in order of cooking so it doesn't look as sickly =).

grace, veggiegirl, Amanda, I agree, something about Mexican food that is so simple yet outstanding! I truly can't get enough of the stuff!

elle, thanks for the tip, I didn't know TJ's had salsa verde. I'm heading there today so I'm gonna get some for my next batch! Thanks!

Posted by Nick | 10:37 AM

Oh, Nick, where to begin? I love tomatillos and salsa verde; my favorite brand of the latter is made by Desert Pepper (which, I think, is a lovely and poetic name for a salsa company!).

This recipe reminds me of several recipes that I have tried and loved, but I have yet to decide if they are blog-worthy. I adapted a Rachael Ray recipe for green chili; my version is vegetarian, but I have yet to get the spices right, so I have to work on that. Another recipe comes from The Cornbread Gospels by Crescent Dragonwagon; basically it involves opening cans and perhaps a tiny bit of chopping, so it's good for those days when you want a big pot of something (perhaps to cover dinner and lunch the next day?) but have very little time to cook.

But OH! Those tomatillos! Makes me wish I had time and room for a second dinner tonight!

Posted by Rosiecat | 6:00 PM

This was really delicious even though it was too spicy for me. I haven't been able to find a "mild" salsa verde. Is there such a thing? I had it with pork tenderloin. I can't wait to try it with turkey.

Posted by mom | 6:23 PM

rosiecat, Those people at Desert Pepper really know how to make a salsa. I've never had their salsa verde though, in fact I'd never really had salsa verde at all until I decided to make this. But now that I have, I'm addicted! I love those days when you've got like 10 cans of stuff you can just open and pour into a pot. Add some onions and garlic and you've got a wonderful pot of chili!

I just picked up TJ's salsa verde because of a recommendation from Elle. I can't wait to try it out!

Posted by Nick | 9:38 PM

Hi, Nick

I cut the recipe way down and combined it with another recipe that a friend had given me...here it is..1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 cup peanut butter, 1tsp. GF vanilla, 1 egg..and don't ask me why, but I had buttermilk in the fridge so I added 1 tablespoon. Baked them exactly as you do, and they came out fabulous. I thought it was a fluke, so I mixed up another batch & they were good too! I even had them for breakfast a couple of mornings! LOL!

The chili verde looks good, but it may be a bit spicy for me (but I will try it!..I'm fixing it for my husband, he'll love I'm sure!

Have a good day!
Lisa :)

Posted by Lisa | 10:01 AM

Nick -

Thanks for recommending this recipe. Can't wait to try it!

Clay

Posted by Clay | 4:41 AM

mmm mexican food.

mmm peanut butter! do you really consume 1/4 a jar per day? do you just take tiny spoonfuls? I find sometimes I need a fingerful to end my meals...otherwise something just feels off.

Posted by glidingcalm | 6:23 PM

That chile verde looks awesome!

I'm in agreement with your opinions on both peanut butter and Mexican food :) Have you found any Mexican recipes that involve pb? I've been to tex-mex restaurants around here that serve chicken enchiladas with pumpkin seed sauce- maybe peanut butter would work just as well? Hmm...

Love your recipes!

Posted by Heather | 9:17 AM

Hi Nick,

I'm a newbie to your site but the comment that you made that Mexican cooking doesn't have peanut butter is incorrect.

Have you ever heard of "Mole"? It is a sauce that is made with chocolate (and that I find disgusting) and then poured over chicken or meat but I don't like a sweet taste with my meats.

My family makes their mole with, you guessed it, Peanut Butter! The sauce is savory and absolutely delicious. You can't "taste" the pb per se but you definitely need it to make the sauce. I don't have a recipe for you (I'm not the cook in our family) but you might be able to find something from the internet or maybe from Elise Bauer.

p.s. Your chile verde looks pretty good!

Posted by crazy4shabbychic | 11:36 AM

heather, I have not found any Mexican recipes with peanut butter, but maybe I haven't looked hard enough. I've been waiting for some inspiration or a breakthrough but none as of yet. However check out what crazy4shabbychic said above.

crazy4shabbychic, I love a good mole sauce. I love chocolate and I think it can be used very well if the mole sauce is made right. I have never heard the use of peanut butter instead, you must find out and divulge this recipe! I need it! I'll have to email Elise and see if she knows anything about it. Or, I could beg you for it until you cave!

Posted by Nick | 4:37 PM