A few months ago I bought some tomatillos on a whim. I’d never cooked one in my life, but I had a craving for some chili verde type thing. You see, in Seattle, we are lacking on the Mexican food front and I had a hunger that could only be cured by some delicious tacos.

I searched around online and couldn’t find quite what I had envisioned. I finally came across a recipe from Rick Bayless, famous chef of Mexican food in the US, and it was close enough to what I was looking for. I used it as a base and made some changes. I really wanted small bites of delicious pork for tacos and his recipe was for roasting a whole pork loin and serving in slices with potatoes. I just wanted some tacos. The recipe below is my adaptation. If you want the original, you can search for Rick Bayless Tomatillo-braised pork loin and I’m sure you can track it down.

I’ve made it twice now and it is delicious. Fairly easy and authentic. Just wonderful served with some rice, warm tortillas, and sides of sour cream, cheese, and salsa. Yes please!

Leftovers can also be turned into enchiladas or quesadillas that will blow your mind.

Tomatillo-Braised Pork

INGREDIENTS
•1 1/2 tablespoons rich-tasting olive oil
•1 2-pound boneless pork loin roast, untied if in two pieces- cut into bite sized pieces
•1 pound (10 to 12 medium) tomatillos, husked and rinsed
•Fresh hot green chiles to taste (roughly 3 serranos or 2 jalapenos), tops cut off
•1 medium white onion, thinly diced
•3 large garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
•1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus a few sprigs for garnish
•Salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

Browning the pork.
In a medium-size (4- or 5-quart) Dutch oven or other heavy pan with tight-fitting lid, heat the oil over medium. When quite hot, lay in the pork pieces (you may need to do this in batches, don’t crowd them or they’ll stew rather than brown). Brown well on one side, then flip and and brown the other side. Sear all over as best you can, but don’t worry about cooking through. You just want to get some good brown on these. Remove the pot from the heat and transfer the pork to a plate; set aside the Dutch oven or pan to use for the sauce making.

The sauce.
Roast the tomatillos and chiles on a baking sheet 4 inches below a very hot broiler until darkly roasted, even blackened in spots, about 5 minutes. Flip them over and roast the other side — 4 or 5 minutes more will give you splotchy-black and blistered tomatillos and chiles that are soft and cooked through. (My broiler must not be this hot and took about 7 minutes each side) Cool and transfer everything to a food processor or blender, being careful to scrape up all the delicious juice that has run out onto the baking sheet. Process until smoothly pureed.

Set the pork-browning pan over medium heat. When hot, add the onion and cook, stirring regularly, until golden, about 7 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook a minute longer.
Raise the heat to medium-high, and, when really sizzling, add the tomatillo puree all at once. Stir until noticeably darker and very thick, 3 to 4 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups of water and the cilantro. Taste and season with salt, usually 1 teaspoon. Stir everything thoroughly.

Braising the pork.
Heat the oven to 325. Nestle the browned pork into the warm sauce, cover the pot, and set in the oven. Cook 30 minutes.

When the pork has cooked 30 minutes, stir, re-cover and cook about 10 minutes longer, pork should be very tender. Spoon off any fat on the top of the sauce, taste the sauce and season it with additional salt and pepper if you think necessary.

Serve over rice with some tortillas or chips and enjoy!