Ingredients
Method
Season and Brown the Pork
- Pat the pork dry well. Season with the 12g salt and black pepper. Heat a heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the oil or lard. Brown the pork in 2–3 batches so the pot does not crowd, 3–4 minutes per side, until well browned with deep golden edges. Transfer each batch out as it finishes. The pork does not need to be cooked through here, but it must take on real browning. If it steams pale-grey, the final stew will taste flatter. A crowded pot releases enough moisture from the pork to trap it around the meat itself, and that surrounding moisture prevents real searing from ever happening — working in properly spaced batches is what gives every piece genuine, direct contact with the hot pot surface.
Roast the Vegetables for the Sauce
- While the pork browns, place the tomatillos, poblanos, jalapeños or serranos, onion wedges, and unpeeled garlic on a tray or dry skillet/comal. Roast under a broiler or on a hot dry pan, turning as needed, until the tomatillos soften and blister, the poblanos and chiles are charred in spots, and the onion is browned at the edges, about 10–15 minutes total. Peel the garlic. For the poblanos, you can remove the loose burnt skin if heavily charred, but do not obsess over stripping every bit. Blend the roasted vegetables with the cilantro and 500ml chicken stock until mostly smooth. A slightly rustic texture is fine. The sauce should taste cooked and roasty, not raw-green or aggressively sharp. Roasting these vegetables before they ever reach the blender is what develops genuine roasted depth and removes the sharp, raw edge tomatillos would otherwise carry straight through into the finished sauce — that transformation simply doesn't happen from blending raw ingredients alone.
Build the Base
- Lower the pot to medium. Add the diced onion to the pork drippings and cook 4–5 minutes until softened. Add the sliced garlic, cumin, and oregano. Cook 30–45 seconds until fragrant. Return the browned pork and any juices to the pot. Pour in the blended green sauce. Add the bay leaf. Add extra stock as needed to mostly cover the pork without making it soupy — usually another 100–200ml. Bring to a gentle simmer. Softening the onion directly in the pork's own rendered drippings, rather than in fresh oil, means that aromatic base picks up real flavour from the pork's own fond left behind after browning.
Braise Until Tender
- Cover partially and simmer gently on low heat for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the pork is fully tender. The pork should be easy to cut with a spoon or fork but still hold its shape in chunks. If the sauce reduces too much before the pork is tender, add a splash of stock or water. The finished sauce should cling to the pork and coat the spoon. It should be thick and glossy, not watery. Keeping the lid partially on rather than fully covering the pot lets some steam escape throughout this long braise, which is part of what allows the sauce to gradually concentrate alongside the pork becoming tender, rather than staying thin the whole way through.
Final Reduction and Balance
- Once the pork is tender, remove the lid and simmer 10–15 minutes if needed to tighten the sauce. Taste and adjust salt. Stir in the chopped cilantro. Add the lime juice only if the stew needs a final lift — often the tomatillos already provide enough brightness. Discard the bay leaf. Removing the lid entirely for this final stretch lets steam escape freely and unobstructed, which is specifically what allows the sauce to reduce and thicken to its intended glossy, clinging consistency in this last, focused window.
Serve
- Serve hot with warm tortillas on the side. Spoon plenty of sauce over the pork. The final dish should be rich and green, with tender pork chunks and a sauce that visibly clings rather than runs.
Notes
Browning the pork thoroughly in properly spaced batches deserves genuine credit as the foundation this entire stew's flavour is built on. Meat that steams instead of searing, because the pot was too crowded, never develops the deep, complex flavour compounds that come specifically from real browning — no amount of careful braising or sauce-building afterward fully makes up for skipping that step or rushing through it with an overcrowded pot.
Roasting the tomatillos, poblanos, and chiles before they're blended is worth understanding as the technique responsible for the sauce's actual character, distinguishing it from a raw, blended salsa verde. That direct heat both softens the vegetables and develops real roasted depth, while also mellowing the tomatillos' naturally sharp, aggressive acidity into something rounder and more savoury — skipping this roasting stage would leave the sauce tasting notably sharper and less developed.
The two-stage approach to the sauce's final consistency — building it thin enough to braise the pork properly, then reducing it uncovered only once the meat is already tender — reflects real understanding of what each stage of cooking needs. A sauce reduced too aggressively too early risks scorching or drying out before the pork has had enough time to become properly tender; saving that final concentration for after the meat is done lets both processes happen at their own correct pace.
Building the pot's aromatic base — softened onion, garlic, cumin, oregano — directly in the pork's own rendered drippings rather than fresh oil is a small but genuine flavour decision worth appreciating. That residual fat and fond carry real pork flavour into the aromatics before the browned meat itself is even returned to the pot, layering flavour more deeply than starting from a clean pan would.