Chilorio is a pork dish (often used as a filling for tacos or burritos) from the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The pork is fried in chile sauce until tender and usually flavored with onions, cumin, oregano, garlic and salt. Chilorio is still rarely found in the United States, but is becoming increasingly popular and is served in several Texas restaurants.
Some food scholars claim that chilorio is a precursor to the state dish of Texas, chile con carne.
Wikipedia: Chilorio
Chilorio is a pork dish from the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Chilorio is generally made from pork fried in chile sauce. It is not similar to the Mexican dish carnitas.
In making chilorio, pork is slow-simmered for hours until it falls apart. It is then broken into bite size pieces, fried in lard, and cooked in a chile sauce made from re-hydrated dried chiles. The sauce is usually flavored with onions, cumin and garlic.
Wikipedia: Sinaloa
Sinaloa is one of the 31 states of Mexico.
Geography
Sinaloa is bordered to the north by Sonora and Chihuahua; to the south, by Nayarit; to the east by Durango, and to the west, across the Gulf of California, Baja California Sur. The eighteen municipios of Sinaloa are home to approximately 2,425,675 inhabitants. The coastal plain is a narrow strip of land that stretches along the length of the state and lies between the ocean and the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental Range, which dominates the eastern part of the state. Sinaloa is traversed by many rivers, which carve broad valleys into the foothills. The largest of these rivers are the Culiacán, Fuerte, and Sinaloa.
Gourmet Sleuth—Dictionary of Mexican Cooking Terms
chilorio A specialty of Sinaloa, Mexico, chilorio is a pork dish that is also used a filling for tacos, burritos, tamales or empanadas.
A gringo’s guide to mexican food terms
Chilorio - tender pork fried for a long time in chile sauce.
About.com: Mexican Food
Chilorio- Pork with Chile Sauce from Sinaloa
By Chelsie Kenyon, About.com
Chilorio is a pork dish from Sinaloa. It is also sometimes made with beef or chicken. Chilorio is made by cooking the meat in water and fat and then frying it with chiles and spices. It makes a great filling for tacos, burritos and tamales. You can also serve it as a main dish.
Ingredients:
2 pounds boneless pork
4-5 cups water or vegetable broth
1/2 cup lard (oil can be subsitituted with different results)
3-4 dried ancho chiles (or other similar chile)
1/2 of an onion
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon oregano
3 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon salt (...)
Curra’s Grill (Austin, TX)
TACOS CHILORIO PLATE
Pulled seasoned pork. 6.59
La Serenata Restaurants (Los Angeles, CA)
Chilorio $14.95
Ground pork and beef combined, marinated in a special sauce
Pompano Taqueria (New York, NY)
CHILORIO
~ Mexican style pulled pork / flour tortilla $2.75
6 December 1984, Chicago (IL) Tribune, “Pressure cooker helps pack zest in traditional Mexican chilorio,” pg. F17:
CHILORIO IS a traditional Mexican dish also known as pork with green pepper sauce. It has just the right texture to be served inside taco shells or burritos.
New York (NY) Times
DINING OUT; A FRESH TASTE OF MEXICO
By PATRICIA BROOKS
Published: May 25, 1986
(...)
Aside from a fiery salsa verde served with tortilla chips when you arrive, the seasoning is modulated on most dishes. An exception is a pleasingly incendiary dish called chilorio, consisting of peppery pork chunks mixed with green peppers and kidney beans, trimmed with a lattice of red pepper strips, with two steamed, homemade flour tortillas alongside for dipping or filling.
Google Books
Gastronomía Mexicana: Mexican Gastronomy
By Bertha Zavala
Published by Ediciones Berticel
1991
Pg. 1”
... in earthenware bowls from Queretaro, chilorio from Sonora…
23 March 1995, Los Angeles (CA) Times, “Pressure Cooking: The Cooker’s Range,” pg. H4:
I ran across this recipe for chilorio, a spicy, cumin-seasoned chopped pork stew, in a cookbook published by Presto, the Eau Claire, Wis., company that manufactures pressure cookers. I couldn’t resist trying it; it’s rare to run across chilorio in California, much less Wisconsin. After an hour in the pressure cooker, the meat becomes flavorful and so tender it literally falls apart. The tasters in The Times Test Kitchen couldn’t get enough.
21 January 1996, Los Angeles (CA)
Chilorio here is thin slabs of marinated beef and pork in a sauce of finely chopped pork simmered with peppers and tomatoes.
Google Groups: it.hobby.cucina
Newsgroups: it.hobby.cucina
From:
Date: 1997/05/29
Subject: Cucina MESSICANA
Chilorio- Shredded pork with chile & spices. Common in Sinaloa.
Google Books
The Essential Cuisines of Mexico:
Revised and Updated Throughout, with More Than 30 New Recipes
By Diana Kennedy
Contributor Craig Claiborne
Published by Clarkson Potter
2000
Pg. 18:
CHILORIO Chile-Seasoned Pork
Everything2
chilorio
by baffo
Sat May 06 2000 at 20:15:59
This traditional Northern Mexican food is made of shredded pork meat cooked in fat with chile pasilla.
It normally comes in cans, and it is guaranteed to torpedo your diet. Why diet, when you could be eating Mexican food? I mean, there is no comparison.
Anyway, chilorio goes from the can to a pan, where you fry it in its own fatty fat for some minutes. Drain the fat, serve hot with flour tortillas, eat in tacos. Accompanied, for the healthy touch, by refried beans.
Google Books
Webster’s New World Dictionary of Culinary Arts
By Steven Labensky, Gaye G. Ingram, Sarah R. Labensky
Published by Prentice Hall
2001
Pg. 99:
chilorio (che-loh-ree-oh) A Mexican dish consisting of shredded pork with chiles and spices.
Austin (TX) Chronicle (July 19, 2002)
El Mesón Taqueria
5808 Burleson Rd., 416-0749
(...)
After that auspicious beginning, we considered the lunch menu that offers the option of ordering plates of 10 different entrées or simply requesting tacos made from the meats featured in the entrées. In order to try more dishes at one seating, we chose tacos: tinga-chicken shredded in a spicy chipotle sauce; cochinita pibil—the achiote-marinated baked pork garnished with tangy red onions; desebrada—shredded beef in a sauce of dark morita peppers; and chilorio—shredded pork in a mild, smoky ancho pepper sauce. Wrapped in fresh tortillas, each was delicious, but the tinga and cochinita pibil were my favorites.
Google Groups: alt.food.mexican-cooking
Newsgroups: alt.food.mexican-cooking
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Jay P Francis)
Date: 28 Sep 2003 04:47:55 GMT
Local: Sat, Sep 27 2003 11:47 pm
Subject: Re: The origins of Texas style chili
Let’s not forget that two chili like dished exist and may have pre-dated Texas chili, in Northern Mexico.
I’m too lazy to type out the recipes but they are both available in the Mexico The Beautiful cookbook.
Sinaloa- Chilorio is a chile seasoned pork dish including ancho chiles and cumin.
Sonora- Carne Con Chile is a chile seasoned pork dish with ancho chiles and cumin.
Google Books
Food Culture in Mexico
By Long Towell Long, Janet Long-Solis, Luis Alberto Vargas and Janet Long
Published by Greenwood Publishing Group
2005
Pg. 99:
Pork dishes include pozole and mochomos, made with finely shredded pork or beef and fried, and chilorio, a chile-seasoned pork, served in tacos.
Fresno Foodie
Friday, July 27, 2007
Aye Chilorio!
This canned Mexican pork product was once reserved for the most reverent of occasion… for Chilorio was a food that had to traverse a great and treacherous journey to get to the tables of select homes in California (I know a guy who is a produce broker who used to mule it across the border for me from Sinoloa).
But today is a new day and we are free to eat Chilorio whenever our hearts desire! It’s stocked on the shelves of our local Fiesta Foods (Tulare and First). Chata is the brand and it is amazing. Open the can and let it fry for about 10 minutes in its own fat to get lots of crispy bits. Then eat. I recommend for breakfast with a fried egg on top (something about when more than one animal fat comes together is like heaven) or simple street tacos with steamed corn tortillas, cilantro, onion, chile, and lime (I did this for a potluck today… I looked like a Goddess).
Google Groups: alt.food.mexican-cooking
Newsgroups: alt.food.mexican-cooking
From: “Gunner”
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 11:27:09 -0800
Local: Thurs, Mar 6 2008 2:27 pm
Subject: Chilorio and Carnitas
CHILORIO
2-3 pounds pork (shoulder or butt)
4-5 cups water or vegetable broth
1/2 cup lard oil for frying
3-4 dried ancho chiles (or prefered chiles)
1 onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
3 cloves of garlic
salt and pepper to taste
In a large pot, simmer the pork in the water or broth, covered, for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. During the last 20 minutes of cooking time, ladle out enough liquid to cover the dried chiles in a bowl. Let the chiles soak in the liquid until they are soft then remove the stems and seeds.
When the pork is done simmering, drain off the liquid, but reserve 1 cup.
Pull the pork into bite-sized chunks Heat lard in a large pan until melted.
Fry the pork in the lard until browned. Remove the pork and set aside. Then cook the onions in the lard until translucent. Remove them from the pan and set aside to cool.
In a blender, add the chiles, onions, spices and reserved liquid. Blend until smooth. Drain most of the lard from the pan and put the pork into the pan with the blended chile sauce and simmer for 10 minutes to thicken the sauce and bring the flavors together.
Mexican Food Musings
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Chilorio: Sinfully Delicious Mexican Pork Stew
There are many ways to get your meat stewed, some tastier than others. I don’t usually like stuff made from pork, it creeps me out, except for maybe ham, and pepperoni, salami, prosciutto, pork chops, chorizo and.. gosh, who am I kidding, maybe pork just gets a bad wrap !
Chilorio is usually made out of good ol fashioned pork, however one can find Turkey Chilorio as well.
Our featured culinary starlet today comes from the state of Sinaloa in Mexico, the state best known for the lovely port of Mazatlan, Tomato farms and Narco-corridos (scratch that last thing from the record !). It came about as many other traditional dishes all over the world did, as a cooking method intended to extend the life of an otherwise perishable dish, sort of like sausages, or kimchi. Back when refrigerators didn’t exist, the very spices and condiments used in Chilorio helped it stay fresh and tasty for a longer period of time.
Chilorio basically consists in meat that is stewed and afterwards fried with Chili (usually the chocolatey and full flavored chile pasilla) and spices like cumin, oregano and garlic. The end result is tasty tender beef that is perfect as the centerpiece of a dish or stuffing for a baguette or even as a condiment for refried beans.
eGullet Forums
Jay Francis
May 4 2008, 12:50 PM
Does chile con carne have its roots in the chilorio of Sonora?
Austin—Chowhound
An update: I returned to El Mesón for lunch today after being reminded of it in this new thread about their hours (http://www.chowhound.com/topics/521880 ). Everything is just as good as I remember, especially the chicken en mole pipian. This dish consists of moist, large pieces of chicken in that slow-building, complexly-spiced, light-green mole sauce. The corn tortillas are better than I remembered, though smaller: They weren’t gummy at all on this visit. Frankly, I don’t know why people even order the flour tortillas. And for some reason, several people today were ordering beef fajitas. In my experience, their guisados [stewed fillings] are better than their grilled ones, but to each his or her own.
They were out of al pastor this afternoon, so I tried the chilorio instead. Chilorio is a dish from the Mexican state of Sinaloa that’s usually made from pork that’s been slow-simmered until meltingly tender and then fried—kind of like carnitas up to this point—and simmered again in a dried-red-chile-based sauce (usually chiles pasillas). Its also seasoned with the usual suspects (onions, cumin, garlic). To me, EM’s version tasted relatively slow-simmered but not fried. I thought their chilorio wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great, either. It was very tender, but it was a little on the bland and one-dimensional side, especially in comparison to the mole. I’d like it if they used a fattier cut of pork, too, but at least EM’s version didn’t taste like it came from a can.
I’m still not in love with either of their fairly hot salsas, though I prefer the red to the alarmingly day-glo orange one. Even though the red one is weak—as in watery—and needs more roasted tomato and chile flavor, it’s about as good as some of the much-hyped salsas at more “mainstream” places in town (like El Gringo and its ilk.) I’ve never paid for an order of chips at EM, but I did notice that they were frying up large batches of them on-site. That’s usually a good sign.
MPH May 23, 2008 06:36PM
flickr
chilorio (pulled pork) taco @ pampano taqueria
Uploaded on October 9, 2008
by bionicgrrrl