Red Chili Pork and Beans
- Prep Time: 1 hour + 50 mins
- Overnight Soak Method: 40 mins (+ overnight soak)
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours
Description
Its time to get ready for fall! This hearty pork and bean stew is packed with comforting spices, rich flavours and will be perfect for those crisp autumn evenings.
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 cup dried black beans, soaked
- 1 dried mulato chili
- 1 dried pasilla chili
- 2 dried guajillo chilies
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tsp mexican oregano
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
- 6 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1/2 tsp salt
- *1 1/2 cups chili soaking liquid
- 1 kg boneless pork loin
- 2 or 3 tbsp veg oil
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 large onion
- 1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 cup water
- juice of one to two limes (taste after the first lime and adjust according to taste)
- 1 bunch of cilantro, chopped
Instructions
- Either soak the black beans overnight and drain in the morning OR do a quick soak. To quick soak, cover the dried beans in a pot, cover with cold water by a few inches (at least 2 cups should do it), bring to a boil, boil for 2 minutes, cover the pot and remove from the heat and let sit for an hour. Drain and set aside.
- Heat a heavy pan (I use my cast iron skillet) over medium heat. Put the dried chilis in the dry pan and toast them for a minute, flipping and pressing down with a spatula just until really fragrant. Be careful not to burn them so it’s not going to take much longer than 2 minutes, tops. Take them out of the pan and remove the seeds and the stems and then put them in a small pot, discarding those seeds and stems. Cover them completely with water, bring to a boil on med high heat, let boil for a minute, cover the pot, remove from the heat and let sit for at least 20 minutes.
- After the 20 or 30 minutes, remove the chilies from the water and chop them, setting them aside and reserving the soaking liquid.
- I use my bullet but a blender or an immersion blender does a similar job to make the chili paste. Put the chopped chilis, 1 1/2 cups of the soaking liquid, the smoked paprika, cumin, oregano, vinegar, honey, garlic and salt in the blender and blitz until its smoothly pureed. Set aside.
- Heat a heavy pot (I use my 5.3 litre/5.5 quart le creuset enamelled cast iron dutch oven) over med to med high heat to brown the pork. Add a tbls of veg oil and start browning the pork in batches. I do it in three batches, salt and peppering each batch individually after I add it to the pan. You don’t want to crowd the meat in there at all or it will steam more than brown and you won’t get as nice of a sear on the pork. Let the meat sit, undisturbed, for a good minute before you start moving it around. It will take about 5 minutes per addition to brown nicely. Remove the browned pork to a bowl and add the next batch, adding another tbls of oil if needed.
- Once all of the pork is browned, throw the onion into the pan and add about 1/4 of water (if there is any soaking liquid leftover from the chilis use that) and stir up the fond from the bottom and cook the onion, stirring often, for about 3 minutes before you add in the chopped jalapeno to cook it one more minute.
- Add the pork back into the pot with the drained black beans and the chili paste and stir that around in the pot for a minute. Now add in the chicken stock, the bay leaves and using about 1/4 cup of water, rinse out the container that you pureed the chilis in and add that.
- Bring this mixture to a boil, partially cover and adjust the heat so that you can maintain a light simmer and cook for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. The meat should be tender but not totally falling apart and the beans should also be tender. I begin to check it after about an hour and a half every half hour and add water, 1/3 cup at a time as needed. I usually end up adding up to 1 more cup of liquid (you can use water, chicken stock or even beer would work too)
- As soon as you take it off the heat, add in the lime juice and a big handful of the cilantro (reserving a handful of cilantro to scatter over the top of each bowl)
- As with all dishes of this nature, it only gets better the longer it sits so if you can make this a day or two in advance, great. When I do reheat it, I often throw in a bit of beer or chicken stock as it tends to thicken up after a long rest in the fridge.
