Paleo Chili Verde recipe - Whole30 compliant. (2024)

Recipe

Easy Paleo Chili Verde recipe with roasted tomatillos, garlic, onion, and tender pieces of pork that melt in your mouth! it’s Gluten Free and Whole30.

Paleo Chili Verde

Have you ever cooked with tomatillos? I hadn’t until after we moved Stateside, I’d heard of them but I don’t believe I’d ever seen one in the UK.

They look a lot like green tomatoesbut they come with a paper husk around them, I’ve been able to find them easily in my local grocery store near my home in Mississippi.

They hail from Mexico and are a staple part of the cuisine there, I think they are also used a lot for salsa verde but I’ve yet to use them for that. Anyway, they make a fantastic sauce for this tasty paleo chili verde.

This recipe is made with country style pork ribs cut into pieces.

You could takea porkshoulder and cut it up and that’s what a lot of similar recipes use,but y’all I’m just too tired to start chopping huge chunks of meat so I chosebonelesscountry style ribsinstead and they worked really well.

I think using a cut of pork with some fat on it is really key to getting fall apart tender chunks of meat that are not dry. If you are counting calories then by all means use a pork tenderloin and adjust the cooking time down, but it won’t be quite the same.

Anyway, read on for a few step by step directions in order to make the sauce.

1. 1. You will need to roast the Anaheim Peppers over a gas flame (pic 1.) to blacken the skin like you see in the image above. if you don’t have a gas stove then you can do this under the broiler. You want the skin to blacken and blister like you see in the image, use tongs to keep turning it like that a few times.Once blackened you can put them in a bowl with cling wrap over the top of the bowl and the steam will help the blackened skin to peel off.Once you have peeled them remove the seeds and stem and add them to your food processor or blender.
   2. Peel the tomatillos and if they are sticky you can rinse each one a little bit.
      Half the tomatillos and place them into a large bowl with the onion slices and garlic, toss with about a tablespoon of olive oil so that they are coated and place on a baking sheet (pic 2.)I lined mine with parchment for easy clean up and so that they don’t stick.
   3. cook under the broiler for ten minutes or more until they get a little toasted on top (pic 3.)you will need to watch closely so that they don’t burn, you don’t want them blackened like the chili!Add the broiled tomatillos, onions and garlic into your food processor or blender with the peeled and chopped Anaheim peppers and blend to make the chili verde sauce.You’ll find the whole recipe and the rest of the directions further down the page.

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As a Brit I prefer to serve my chili over rice but that probably isn’t authentic so you can serve it however you prefer.

When my kidshear the word ‘chili’ that inevitably means they’re going to slather the whole thing in shredded cheese and sour cream, but honestly I think this particular chili is better without all that added stuff.

It freezes really well and is great made the day before you plan to serve it to allowthe flavors to develop.

Anaheim Pepper Substitutions for this Recipe

Anaheim Peppers are a regional variety of mild chili pepper that sometimes can be hard to find depending on where you live. Sometimes they are simply labeled ‘green chilies’, or New Mexico Peppers, though I understand that New Mexico Peppers are technically a different pepper altogether.

The best substitute for Anaheim Peppers would be Poblano Peppers, they are much more common in the grocery store and relatively easy to find, and have a similar taste and mild heat.

Poblanos look more like regular green Bell Peppers, but they have a much closer taste and mild heat levels to Anaheim Peppers, so that’s what I would look for.