Recipe Millwrights Green Chili

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
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Had to find the recipe hidden in another thread. Posting here so it doesn't take me two beers to find it.

Millwright's Green Chile

The seasonings are a guestimate, adjust to your taste. I probably use more than what I listed. (maybe a lot more :D)

3lb pork, cubed into 1" chunks...or thereabouts.

2 LARGE yellow onions or 3 medium, Coarse chopped. You don't want red or sweet onions, they should make you cry...they should make your unborn grandchildren cry.

4+ cans (the little cans with about 4 peppers in them) of WHOLE green chiles, sliced once or twice longways...seeds and all. The liquid goes in the pot. I might add some chopped ones too...just because.

1 whole gob of garlic or 2tbsp of cheater garlic.

2-4 Tbsp of Slap Ya Mamma or other good seasoning mix.

1Tbsp oregano

1Tbsp basil

1Tsp cumin

1Tsp chili powder.

3-6 shakes of tabasco (I prefer the green)

5 shakes of worschester sauce

2-3 bell peppers, coarse chopped

2 bunches of green onions, chopped

1lb tomatillos, coarse chopped. (quartered is fine)

1 jalapeno (depending on heat) minced (sometimes I put several before finding one with a little bite)

5 medium yellow potatoes, 3/4" cubed

1 messican beer...for the pot. Several to drink while cooking.

1 lime...for the beer you are drinking, maybe half squeezed into the pot.

A dab of tomato sauce, maybe a Tbspn or two. I use about half a V-8 instead. A Chelada style beer is close enough.

Cilantro, some like it, some don't. If you put too much-too early, it will get bitter.


Brown the pork. Sprinkle some Slap ya Mamma on it, the salt helps draw the water out. This is the hardest part. Most commercial pig has a lot of water added. You have to kinda cook that off before it will brown. Wild pork will brown easy in a bit of oil.

A cast iron pot works best for me.

Once the water is gone and it's starting to brown, I'll add some oil and stir it around. I sprinkle a little more Slap Ya Mamma on at this point. A good square, metal spatula is needed to scrape the bottom of the pot. When the pork & oil starts to stick to the bottom (and burn), add a splash of beer, this will blow the fond off the bottom of the pot (deglaze). Do this a couple or three or four times til the pork is browned and coated in that brown goodness from the bottom of the pot. That's where the rich, dark color comes from.

Dump the onions in (with the pork) and keep stirring til they clarify. Sometimes it may take a little oil to keep them from scorching. You can't walk away at this point.

When the onions are starting to carmelize, dump the garlic in. The garlic will burn very easy, stir it almost non-stop.

Once the garlic is browned, reduce the heat to an idle and pour the beer in. This will stop the controlled scorching and deglaze the pot. scrape all the goodies off the bottom.

Add enough water to just cover everything and simmer.

Dump everything else in and keep just covered in liquid.

You might add the seasonings slowly and taste as you go.

I let it idle on the stove for a coupla hours to get all the veggies cooked down.

This is a very simple deal, everything is coarse chopped and dumped in.

I generally do a bowl of it with pepper jack cheese melted in.


ETA: This chili will knock 2 days off a cold. Every single person I've made it for when they were sick craves it when they catch another cold. I think it's all the all the allicins in the onions & garlic.


48988132861_5088b88432_z.jpg
 
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Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
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Trying to remember some details that are just habit to me...

Pork loin is easier, but it's generally dry, even in this. The elcheepo, ugly pack of pork steaks usually do better. You may have to bone out three or more packs, but...

I put the green onions, japs & potatoes in last. Maybe even hold them back for a little while when you start simmering. 10 min or so, let the other seasonings settle down.

Potatoes will grab a lot of seasoning, you may have to add some after they are getting cooked.
 
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Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
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If you can't find Slap ya Mamma seasoning, Tony Chachere's will work, it just has a lot more salt in it.

You have to use less of it and fill in with the other ingredients.

Paul Prudhomme has a salt free mix. It doesn't have salt substitutes either. Makes a good backup with the Tony's.

It does tend to cake up tho. have to keep it in a sealed jar.
 
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pauldingbabe

The Great Cat
If you can't find Slap ya Mamma seasoning, Tony Chachere's will work, it just has a lot more salt in it.

You have to use less of it and fill in with the other ingredients.

Paul Prudhomme has a salt free mix. It doesn't have salt substitutes either. Makes a good backup to the Tony's.

It does tend to cake up tho. have to keep it in a sealed jar.

Put some dry rice in your slap yo mama. The rice can absorb what's making it cake, and the coarseness of the rice will break up the mix.

Shake a few times then use the shaker side of the lid to hold the rice in.
 

SousJo

Contributing Member
Potatoes will grab a lot of seasoning, you may have to add some after they are getting cooked.
Top-shelf advice here. I'm only commenting to confirm Millwright's got expertise backed up by a great recipe.

If y'all have spent any time in New Mexico or Colorado, you know green chile is a big thing there. Any halfway respectable outfit makes their own in-house. It's not exactly like red chili, despite the whole thing where just about anything you order in either state they'll ask if you want chili on it, then ask, "Green or red?"

Green chile is more like chicken and dumplings without the dumplings. It is meant to be a large pot of gravy/sauce that just reminds you God's love exists in this world. And there's some meat bits. It's amazing.

Put. It. On. Everything. Over a plate of burritos. Make eggs and potatoes, or hash, and ladle on some green chile. My favorite is just to put it over rice, with a dab of sour cream to cut the heat, and chow down with crackers. It's amazing.

Millwright's recipe is pretty spot-on authentic. I will say nothing of worcestershire sauce or tomato in any capacity. And I've made mostly commercial recipes meant to go over stuff, so those didn't have potatoes. Insignificant quibbles, this recipe is genuine and I'm jotting down notes.

He's not joking about potatoes. If you've over-seasoned a dish, adding potatoes is actually the recommended fix. Potatoes will soak in huge amounts of salt and flavor.

Great post, Millwright. I'm yoinking that recipe.

ETA: Hey, while we're on the subject. Weirdest ticket I ever had was at the second-floor outfit I ran at a casino in Blackhawk. Guy wanted two scoops of tuna salad sandwich filling (just the filling) in a bowl of green chile. In matters of taste, the customer is always right. But I will remember that ticket forever.
 
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Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
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I will say nothing of worcestershire sauce or tomato in any capacity. And I've made mostly commercial recipes meant to go over stuff, so those didn't have potatoes.

I guess it's a green chili stew as opposed to a traditional green chili....if that makes sense.

Tomato doesn't always go in, and I use very little. It's not a "flavor", just a background tone. It helps when things aren't....
aren't right. :D Other times I'll add a 1/4 stick of butter, that will make the taste voids fill in. It may have something to do with how much fat or the location the fat came from or something like that. Haven't really explored all those possibilities.

Cajun cooking is what I grew up with.

This is something I had while living in Phoenix way back when and have been trying for years to recreate something from a 30 year old memory.

The southwest flavors aren't my native thing.
 

SousJo

Contributing Member
Tomato doesn't always go in, and I use very little. It's not a "flavor", just a background tone. It helps when things aren't....
aren't right. :D Other times I'll add a 1/4 stick of butter, that will make the taste voids fill in. It may have something to do with how much fat or the location the fat came from or something like that. Haven't really explored all those possibilities.
It sounds as if you're referring to umami.

See, western cuisines know about the four basic tastes/flavors: sour, salty, sweet, and bitter. The Japanese proposed back in like the 70's or 80's (with sufficient evidence that most of the rest of the world has given in on it by now) a fifth taste/flavor referred to as umami.

It's basically what makes your brain tingle when you eat it. Fat has a high umami profile. Foods with high levels of glutamic or inosinic acids (fish, tomatoes) have umami.

So when you tell me you tasted a hole in the flavor, which could be plugged by a bit of tomato or butter, I'm guessing it's the umami. There was a certain... satisfying richness missing.

Umami has trouble translating into English. My autocorrect, for example, will not be convinced I don't really mean Umatilla.

The southwest flavors aren't my native thing.
Could have fooled me.
 

Walrus

Veteran Member
It sounds as if you're referring to umami.

See, western cuisines know about the four basic tastes/flavors: sour, salty, sweet, and bitter. The Japanese proposed back in like the 70's or 80's (with sufficient evidence that most of the rest of the world has given in on it by now) a fifth taste/flavor referred to as umami.

It's basically what makes your brain tingle when you eat it. Fat has a high umami profile. Foods with high levels of glutamic or inosinic acids (fish, tomatoes) have umami.

So when you tell me you tasted a hole in the flavor, which could be plugged by a bit of tomato or butter, I'm guessing it's the umami. There was a certain... satisfying richness missing.

Umami has trouble translating into English. My autocorrect, for example, will not be convinced I don't really mean Umatilla.


Could have fooled me.
That's true.

What Millwright didn't mention is that the Cajun translation of umami in the red-powder Slap-ya-mama is mo' correcterly pronounced Slap-U-mommy! :D

BTW, best chili verde I've ever found is in Denver at the Taqueria Mi Pueblo on the corner of 23rd and Federal west of downtown. It's like a Mexican McDonalds or something. If If you can speaka los Espanol, the ordering goes easier. Order a carnitas plate and tell them to ladle a lot of chili verde over the top. Costs extra but it's very worth it.
 

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
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What I remember is from a place in south Phoenix called "El Molinos" IIRC.

We'd get a quart of green chili, a dozen fresh tortillas and a gallon of milk.
 

jward

passin' thru
Well crud. I didn't copy the whole recipe- totally left out the cilantro (good!) and the tomato paste/v8. Oops.
..and the beer. Figured if I started drinking in these days o' clown world, I might never stop LOL.

Other than totally not following the recipe, I'm givin it a try. So far I'm still sweating here in the office- the furthest room from the kitchen- with just the smell wafting thru the closed door :eek:
I'm certain it'd be better had I dug out the cast iron, or at least fired up the wood stove to cook upon- but it's 100 degrees in the shade here n i'm sick so lazy short cuts it is.

MWgreenchili.jpg
 

West

Senior
I love anything with tomatillos. My favorite Mexican dish is also Salsa Verde Carnitas.


I post a link for those that don't know this wonderful fruit.

I grew it from seed for two years back in 2008-09. Now it grows wild all over our homestead. The birds love what you don't eat and they plant it threw out the property. Plus they keep volunteering every year in the gardens and those get water and fruit most excellent.

Good stuff Millright, thanks for sharing.
 

Melodi

Disaster Cat
It is very close to what Hispanic work colleagues in Denver taught me, except for no Whistershire sauce (I'm not too fond of the stuff anyway) and often no tomato anything (but that varies with whose abulla's recipe you are using). I just ordered some tomatillos from the Mexican shop in Dublin. I might try something like this next time my housemate is away for a few hours.
 
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