Chilorio recipe, Sinaloa's shredded pork in chile

Chilorio is Sinaloa's way of making a pig last the week: pork shoulder cooked twice, first in water and then in a guajillo chile puree, until it shreds into a dense, deep red filling that keeps in the fridge for days.

This version follows the method served at Mely Restaurante in Mocorito, the small Sinaloan town regarded as the dish's birthplace, where cook Victoria Eugenia González prepared it for chef Pati Jinich's public television series Pati's Mexican Table. The technique matters more than any single ingredient here: the double cooking and the vinegar in the sauce are what let chilorio outlast fresher braises.

Ingredients

The vinegar isn't a detail: it's what makes this dish last the week.

• 700g pork shoulder, cut into large chunks
• 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
• 475ml water
• 6 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 pinch ground cumin
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 75g white onion, finely chopped
• 1 fresh Anaheim or poblano chile, seeded and chopped
• 2 ripe tomatoes, chopped

Method

1. Heat a heavy pot over medium-high, add the pork and the salt, and cook for 10 minutes, stirring, until browned on most sides. Browning first builds flavour that plain simmering never reaches on its own.
2. Add the water, cover, reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hour, until the pork is tender enough to fall apart with a fork.
3. Meanwhile, put the guajillo chiles, bay leaf and garlic in a small pot, cover with water and simmer for 10 to 12 minutes, until the chiles are completely soft. Properly rehydrated chiles blend into a smooth sauce instead of a grainy one.
4. Drain the chiles, reserving a cup of their cooking liquid. Blend the chiles with the garlic, bay leaf, the reserved liquid, oregano, coriander seeds, black pepper, cumin and vinegar until completely smooth. The vinegar cuts the chile's sweetness and is the old trick that helped this dish keep before refrigeration.
5. Pour the chile puree over the cooked pork and simmer, partly covered, for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The meat should start to break apart in the sauce on its own; chilorio is meant to shred as it cooks, not to be shredded beforehand.
6. Let the pork cool slightly, then drain off the excess fat, keeping a spoonful for the next step.
7. Heat the reserved fat in a clean pan over medium heat and cook the onion, fresh chile and tomatoes for 8 to 9 minutes, until softened. Stir the shredded pork back in and cook for 10 more minutes, until the two mixtures fold into one dense filling.

How to serve chilorio

Serve it in warm corn or flour tortillas, fold it into quesadillas or sincronizadas, or fry a spoonful with scrambled eggs for a Sinaloan breakfast. Leftovers keep in the fridge for up to a week, tightly covered, and taste better on the second day, once the chile has had time to settle into the meat.

For another dish built on patience, try our recipe for fricandó, the Catalan veal braise with wild mushrooms.