Haleiwa Chile Verde Pork Plate

Served up by LANI, the Stewardess with all the world’s recipes.

Prep: 25 min · Cook: about 2½ hours (mostly hands-off) · Serves: 5-6

Why surfers love it: Swell's gone flat and the crew's hungry. Get the pot going after the morning check, wax boards while it braises, and eat a big protein-and-carb plate that refills everything a long session burned.

Ingredients

• 3 lb boneless pork shoulder, trimmed and cut in 1½-inch chunks
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1½ lb tomatillos, husked and rinsed
• 2 poblano peppers and 2 jalapeños (seed the jalapeños for less heat)
• 1 white onion, quartered, and 6 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 big bunch cilantro, plus more to serve
• Juice of 1 lime, plus wedges
• To serve: cooked rice, black beans, warm corn or flour tortillas, sliced radish, crumbled cotija

Method

1. Heat the broiler. Spread the tomatillos, poblanos, jalapeños, onion and garlic on a sheet pan and broil 8-10 minutes, turning once, until blistered and charred in spots.
2. Drop the poblanos into a bowl, cover for 10 minutes, then peel and seed them. Peel the garlic.
3. Meanwhile, season the pork well with salt and pepper and brown it in batches in a heavy pot with the oil over medium-high heat, about 3 minutes a side. Set aside.
4. Blend all the roasted vegetables with the cumin, oregano, 1 cup broth and the cilantro until mostly smooth.
5. Pour the sauce into the pot, scraping up the browned bits, then add the pork and the rest of the broth. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook on low for 2-2½ hours, until the pork breaks apart with a spoon.
6. Uncover for the last 15 minutes if the sauce is thin. Stir in the lime juice and season with salt.
7. Serve over rice with black beans, warm tortillas, radish, cotija, cilantro and lime wedges.

Tip: Tastes even better the next day. Cool it fast, keep it in the fridge up to 4 days, and reheat leftovers to 165°F before stacking them in a beach-day burrito.

Where to eat it

Jorge's Mexican Restaurant & Bar, Haleiwa, Oahu, Hawaii. A family Mexican restaurant and bar in Haleiwa on Oahu's North Shore. KITV reported that chef-owner Luis Jorge Silva moved to the North Shore to surf in 1991 and was sponsored by Hurley for a long time before opening the restaurant. This recipe is an original home-cook version inspired by the spot. It is not their recipe, and we have no affiliation with them. Go eat the real thing.