Chile Colorado Tacos

Tacos stuffed with pork slow braised in a deep red chile sauce.

Ingredients

For the Chile Colorado

• 1.5 kilos pork shoulder, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
• 15 large new mexico chiles (hot or mild, to your taste)
• 5-10 chile de arbol, as desired for additional hotness
• 6 tbsps corn oil
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp mexican oregano
• 1.5 tbsp piloncillo¹, or brown sugar
• 1 litre chicken stock or water
• salt to taste

For the Tacos

• Small Corn tortillas, six inches in diamater 
• coarsely chopped white or red onion
• lime wedges
• coarsely chopped fresh coriander

Preparation

To make the Chile Colorado:

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Dry the pork cubes of any excess moisture with paper towels. While the oven is heating up, heat a heavy bottomed pot over medium high heat and brown the pork on all sides. Do this in batches, taking care to not add to much meat at one time so that you get nice color. Set the browned pork aside in a bowl.
2. Spread the chiles out on a baking sheet, place in the oven for 3-4 minutes or until they are fragrant and pliable. They should smell like a campfire, but don't let them burn - they shouldn't even really change color.
3. Place the toasted chiles in a container and pour boiling water over to cover, weight the chiles down with a heavy bowl and leave them to stand 20 minutes to rehydrate.
4. Puree the chiles in a blender with the garlic, cumin, mexican oregano, and piloncillio; add just enough of the soaking water to make a puree a little thicker than heavy cream.
5. Pass the chile puree through a fine sieve into a medium bowl with a spatula until only the chile solids remain. Discard the chile solids but reserve the puree for later use.
6. Return the pork to pot with the chicken broth and chile puree and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, lower heat and cover, and simmer gently for one hour.
7. After an hour, check the pork to see how tender it is. The sauce should be fairly thick, as you want the finished product to have sauce almost as thick as a tomato sauce. Raise the heat slightly and uncover the pork, finish the cooking uncovered at a slightly high heat to evaporate excess liquid and thicken the sauce. If the pork is cooked before your sauce is thick enough remove the pork from the sauce and raise the heat to reduce the sauce until it is sufficiently thick.
8. When the pork is cooked, check salt and adjust seasoning as necessary. It should be well seasoned - you will be eating it with plain corn tortillas, and the coriander/lime/onion will also help balance saltiness.
9. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, and shred the meat coarsely with two forks in the sauce.
10. Your Chile Colorado is now ready to be used in tacos.

To assemble and eat the tacos:

At the table, assemble little bowls with your chopped onion, chopped coriander, and lime wedges. Line a bowl or basket with a clean tea towel to store your hot tortillas. To warm your tortillas, heat a dry pan over medium heat until hot. Add a tortilla, and heat 30 seconds on each side until pliable and soft. Place the warmed tortillas in your basket or bowl, and fold the tea towel over them to keep them warm while you eat. This is a very important step that softens your tortillas; skip it and they will be chalky and unpleasant.

To eat a taco, place a few spoonfuls of chile colorado in a warmed tortilla, add some chopped onion and coriander and a squeeze of lime juice. Fold the tortilla over your filling, and enjoy your taco with both hands, as they would in Mexico.

Check out the blog post that originally featured this recipe to learn more about tacos.

*notes

1. Piloncillo is a type of raw sugar from Mexico. It is available at our store La Dépense; brown sugar makes a good substitute.