Red Pulled Pork Chili

Between the Throwdown, and a few recent questions about whether or not you can use pulled pork to make chili, I broke down and am making a batch. I'm making a very simple Texas Red. I don't think it's all that spicy, but some people tell me it's rather spicy. I know I like it, but then again I like pulled pork and I like chiles, so go figure that I like this.:tongue:

It all started with some pulled pork I made on Monday...



I also carmelized some onions. Because I had work to do that day, I carmelized the onions in my crock pot. That way they could sit and sit and I could work and work while the butts cooked and cooked. If only I had the day off and was drinking beer.:roll: Here's 4 1/2 pounds of onions in the crock before cooking...


...and here they are 12 hours later...


Oh, while the butts were cooking I did toss on a couple yardbirds to eat for dinner. The birds were done a few hours before the butts were to be done. I pulled all the meat off the bird carcasses and tossed both of the carcasses in a pot...


...then I decided rather than use water to make broth, I would use Apple Cider. Don't judge me!:evil: It's my broth dammit!:biggrin: So here are the carcasses in the pot topped off with Apple Cider...


...and a few hours later when the broth was done...


The pork meat, leftover pulled chicken meat, chicken/cider broth and carmelized onions all went in the fridge. The next couple days I muched on leftover chicken and pork, and found many various uses for the carmelized onions.

Finally today came and I had a chance to make some chili!:eusa_clap I started off by filling my Blendtec pitcher halfway (packed) full of dried chiles with as many seeds removed as possible. These were mostly New Mexico, but also about 3 Ancho and 4 Guajillo Chiles as well. On top of the chiles I put carmelized onions, and then poured in apple/cider broth to the top of the pitcher to help it blend.


Then I turned it on lowest setting and slowly ramped up to the highest setting, and guess what?

IT BLENDS!


I poured that into my trusty crock pot...


...and then I added pulled pork...


And then I added some chopped up (actually I tore them up by hand) chiles. These are again primarily New Mexico, but also a couple Ancho and 3 or 4 Guajillo. These are my favorite things to eat in Chili. Well, the meat is important too, but these chunks of goodness are the best!:biggrin:


...then I topped it off with some water...


...added some seasonings (Cumin, Garlic Powder, Pasilla Chile Powder, Salt and Pepper)...


And then I stirred it up.


Now I have it heating up in the crock for dinner tonight. I'd eat it now, but I like my chili warm. Also, the chunks of chile are better after they have absorbed some liquid, so best to wait.:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

Westexbbq said:

Looks pretty darn good to me!
Let us know how it all tastes.
Gotta be real good.

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This is my go to red pork chili, so I already know it's my favorite. I'll post some pics when it's done.:wink: I don't always do the apple cider broth, that's a seasonal thing. Apple juice works too.

Yum! Like I mentioned in the opening post, a lot of people find this too spicy. I don't, and I'm not a crazy chile-head either. I have good habanero sauces I like, and some of them really light me up. I don't go for the crazy hot extracts though. So that's where I dwell in the heat tolerance range. This is right in there in my range, well into the medium-hot area. It does not break a sweat, but gives my head a warm feeling. It is really important to remove as many seeds as possible. I have slacked in that department before and had some unbearable chili as a reasult.

Here's the finished chili in the crock...


Here's my first bowl. Sorry about the blurriness, in the preview window it didn't look that bad.


Here's what was left of that bowl...


I'm on bowl #2 now! Love the stuff. The chiles are the main flavor, the pork is a strong supporting role, and the apple cider, while not really detectable, it's sweetness does tone down the spiciness and enhance the chile flavor in my opinion.

Hope you enjoyed the pron!

There's leftovers for sure. That was a 6 quart cooker there, and it was to the rim! Usually after a couple days I freeze some in individual serving containers, and wrap the rest up into burritos and freeze them for a quick meal.

AlbuQue said:

I'm wondering what the texture of the torn chile pieces is like. Are they chewy and hard to break down? I make my chile the same way but usualy strain the sauce out of the blender to get rid of the tougher plup.

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They're not too chewy. I tear them up into somewhat small chunks so that may be the difference. After the soaking, the meat is very soft, and the piece of skin left behind is like you are expecting it to be, but it's never really bothered me, probably because it's just not big enough to be an issue. If it was a big chunk of skin, yeah, that would probably not be such a great thing to be chewing on. If there was a way to add chunks of dried chile meat, I would. Powder is the closest approximation but that is different.

This recipe actually started with no chunks at all, just blended up sauce like I did in the early stage. I wanted the chiles in there for some reason one day so I did this and liked the chunks so much that I've made it that way since. Maybe I just like thier flavor so much I deal with the skin? I dunno. I like it though.:biggrin: The sauce or powders can not replace the chunks in my opinion because each chunk is a big piece of one particular chile, as opposed to the sauces/powders which are a smooth blend of all of the chile flavors. So the chile chunks add a new flavor dimension in my opinion, and pack a load of that flavor (or flavors) into each bite.