History of Green Chile Pork

There is little information on the web (or at least the first few pages of Google) that speak directly to the history of green chile pork. That said, please bear with me as I try to hodgepodge nuggets of Wikipedian and bloggerian knowledge together, which means it’s also good to take everything I say here with a grain of salt.

Green chile pork is a dish that originated in Mexico. It’s known by a number of names including puerco con chile verde, chile verde con cerdo, cerdo en salsa verde, and carne de puerco en salsa verde. Some say it has close ties to dishes like guisado (stew) and cerdo en verdolagas (pork in purslane).

One thing that can be said for certain is that there are many variations of this dish that are impacted by the accessibility of ingredients in respective regions. In southern regions such as the Peninsula of Yucatan, the recipe uses a more mild pepper. Whereas on the east coast and central Mexico, spicier chilies like serrano and jalapeno peppers are used. The actual chile verde originated in northern Mexico and is known in the US as the Anaheim pepper. Other types of chiles that may be used are chipotle chiles and chilaca chiles, as well as a green fruit called tomatillos (think tomato-cucumber hybrids), which is a staple in Mexican cuisine.

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