it’s getting hot in here
Recipe: carne adovada
I didn’t always like to make food from scratch, you know. I was perfectly happy living in So Cal and paying for truly excellent food over 15 years ago. It was authentic, delicious, and cheap. When I moved away from So Cal to go to graduate school, I moved away from great ethnic food. So I began learning to make it myself. By the time we returned to So Cal, I viewed food differently than before. I tasted everything we ate with a running mental analysis of the flavors, the ingredients, the preparation, and how I could make it at home. At some point, I had crossed the barrier that always led me to believe a dish was out of my reach. No longer!
Now that we’ve moved to a small mountain town, I’m stuck craving those fantastic ethnic foods again. But now, I am eager to try making them at home, and perfecting them.
When my in-laws lived in New Mexico, we used to visit and drop by El Modelo for amazing New Mexican fare. One of my favorites was their carne adovada. I mean, how can I not love pork – I’m Chinese and I grew up in the South, so there is a double whammy right there!
my second-favorite product of new mexico: red chiles
my favorite being jeremy
Over the years, I have collected a few Mexican cookbooks, and when I say Mexican, I really mean New Mexican. There is a difference. You should have seen the way Jeremy’s eyes lit up when I told him I was going to make carne adovada. [Oh, but his eyes light up like that when I make anything with chocolate or coffee too.] It is one of his favorites from his home state.
bake and deseed the pods
soak in boiling hot water
The directions said to bake the chile pods for a few minutes and warned against breathing in the fumes. No kidding! I ran the exhaust fan just to be safe. And just the voice of experience here… it helps to wear gloves when handling the chiles unless you want to wash your hands repeatedly and then scratch your nostril and then experience the sensation of Burning Nostril for the next hour.
garlic, oregano, salt, chiles, some chile water
this purée is sheer beauty
Carne adovada is a spicy dish. I guess the spiciness depends on how spicy your chiles are. Now, I love spicy, as in “mouth on fire” spicy (I’m Chinese, what can I say!). This spicy isn’t that hot as opposed to full of spice – it tastes like chiles. Does that make sense? I love how the flavor infiltrates every bite of tender pork.
cut the pork intro strips
I used pork loin because the recipe said to use a tender cut. My brain was on vacay, because if you bake any cut for 4 hours, it’s going to become tender whether it was to begin with or not. If you like white meat, go for the pork loin. Me – I prefer the juicy dark meat. I love a hunk of pork shoulder cooked for hours on end, rendered “fall apart” tender. It has so much more flavor, in my opinion. I’ll make a note to do that in the future. The recipe actually takes 2 days because the pork marinates in the chile purée for 24 hours. Don’t skimp on the time – it’s worth it to let it go for 24 hours.
ready to bake
When the pork came out of the oven, I shredded it with two forks. Can’t help it, it’s the Southerner in me. Jeremy would like to mention that you can also cut it into chunks. Shred. I like the shred.
that’s the ticket
I’m actually reserving most of the carne adovada for tamales, to be blogged at a later date. However, we couldn’t resist having some for lunch today with warm tortillas, cheddar, and avocado. Typically it should be smothered with red sauce, but I didn’t make any and the carne adovada was amazing without it anyway.
pure joy
Carne Adovada
modified from Santa Fe Recipe (The Shed)
16 dried, red chile pods
3 tsp salt
4 cloves garlic
2 tsp oregano
5 pounds pork (any tender cut) (*jen’s note, use pork shoulder)
Preheat oven to 325F. Remove stems from the chile pods. Place pods in a pan and bake for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until chiles are lightly roasted. Leave oven door open (I didn’t do this). Don’t breathe the fumes! I shook the seeds out of the pods and discarded them. Place pods in a medium bowl and cover them with boiling water. Let them sit for 30 minutes. Drain the water from the chile pods, but reserve about 2 cups for the purée. Place pods in a food processor or blender. Add the salt, garlic, and oregano. Cover the mixture with the chile water. Blend well for 2 minutes or until the skins disappear. Cut the pork into 2×4 inch strips. Place the pork in a ziploc bag and add the sauce. Thoroughly coat the pork. Refrigerate for 24 hours. Preheat oven to 325F. Place pork and sauce in a baking dish. Cover and bake for 4 hours or until meat is tender. Shred or chop meat.
October 29th, 2007 at 1:21 am
That looks great, and I have some chiles in the cabinet right now. We didn’t make it to the Shed when in Santa Fe, but we did enjoy the enchiladas and sopaipillas at Tomasitas!
October 29th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
I’ve never heard of this before. It sounds like heaven. :)
October 29th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Hi Looks great, would it work for chicken as well
October 29th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
I love New Mexican food – such an underrated cuisine, I feel. I’ve never had this dish but I hope to try this soon. By the way, what kind of chilies did you use?
October 30th, 2007 at 5:10 am
[...] made yet. In fact I’ve never tasted it. But you can tell by reading and looking that this Carne Adovada is a knockout. It’s a New Mexican dish of pork loin marinated in a chilis, oregano and [...]
October 30th, 2007 at 7:17 am
Alice – I’ve actually never been to The Shed, but my Santa Fe Recipe book is a collection of recipes from several restaurants in SFe. But honestly, I could spend a month eating my way through New Mexico ;)
Wendy – oh honey, it’s gooooood stuff! I hope you’ll give it a try.
Paula – Yup, I’ve seen it on menus in New Mexico where they have chicken adovada. I’m sure it’s fantastic too!
Holybasil – The chiles are New Mexican Red Chiles. I think they are Hatch chiles that are dried. Let me know if you can’t find any and I’ll send you some :)
October 31st, 2007 at 1:55 am
That looks extremely good…can you suggest me a chicken/beef alternative? Which cut of meat would work best if using those two? Thanks a lot for the recipe….it looks absolutely amazing!
October 31st, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Nabeela – Oh yes, I think you can definitely substitute beef or chicken. I prefer dark meat (despite using pork loin here) so I would probably use chicken thighs or chicken drums, but you could certainly use chicken breast if you prefer white or leaner meat. For the beef… I’ve done shredded beef tacos before and I used beef chuck or brisket with good results. Good luck and I hope you like it!!
November 1st, 2007 at 5:27 pm
This does look wonderful. I’ll mark it as tagged!
November 4th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
[...] ate well: bright pink prickly pear margaritas, warm sopaipillas with honey, posole, carne adovado, and assorted sauces featuring local chilies. [...]
November 5th, 2007 at 9:06 am
I made the pork and it is fantastic!!
Thanks for the step by step photos:)
Amy
November 5th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
how pretty and how tempting! i have a whole bag of dried chiles in my drawer, about time i used them! that’s just the thing… thanks for the inspiration!
November 6th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Megan – great, give it a try (but I think dark meat will yield a more tender carne adovada)
Amy – you are so welcome!!
Johanna – perfect! You are all set to make some carne adovada. I hope you’ll post about it!
November 8th, 2007 at 7:21 am
Always great to find someone who truly appreciates the foods found here in New Mexico. I am bound to this land by my stomach !!!!
I’m happy to lend info to anyone here regarding New Mexican food preparation.
November 8th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Yay, a New Mexican! That food is a big draw :)
December 6th, 2007 at 3:29 am
Great recipe and fantastic pictures. However I just want to point out that “adobada” is spelled with “b”. Same goes for adobo, adobado et al.
Cheers
December 8th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Francisco – you’ll have to take that up with the authors of the book and the owners of the restaurant! :)
December 30th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Francisco – as a New Mexican, I can certainly tell you that around here, it’s usually “adovada”. Just like chile is spelled “chile” as opposed to “chilie”, “chili”, “chilli”, etc. :)
And carne adovada is one of the best dishes!
January 11th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Great carne red chili best dishes!
April 15th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
I love making carnitas and this looks like another great choice. I so can’t wait to try this! (Oh, and by the way, the storm is starting to blow in here in Utah, so it is probably headed your way next).
April 16th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Holly – yup! We’re due for some snow tomorrow :)
April 16th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
My sister-in-law is from Albuquerque (my bro and her met at UNM), and when her parents come out to visit here in Florida, they bring more chile bags than she knows what to do with, so (lucky me!) I usually inherit one.
This looks seriously tasty. Gets me in the mood for red chiles.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:36 am
Seriously, my favorite recipe of all time. It’s now my go-to for company, super easy, super tasty. Thanks for sharing!
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Peter – sweet! That’s a good connection to have. Looks like you have what you need to make a batch :)
Rachel – I’m so with you on that. It’s delicious!
May 15th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Great presentation on the web. I need some vegetables to go with this over above beans ans rice. My pork is marinating right now. The ingredient I wasn’t aware on before today was oregano. i’m going to try it in a crockpot tomorrow to keep from heating the house. wish me luck.
May 17th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Gary – good luck with it! I hope it works out. I love my crock pot and have never tried it that way. Lemme know how it goes :)
October 24th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I have tried a similar recipe for the sauce. The recipe is from a place in Marfa, TX and is almost identical to your recipe although you use dried ancho chiles. I have come soooo close to nailing it and it smells incredible but tastes really bitter (too bitter to eat)!! Maybe seeds or skins? Wonderin if you may know what is making it bitter? Anyhow, I love your recipes.
October 25th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Quintan – sorry, these aren’t ancho chiles, they are New Mexican chiles. I de-seed the pods, but leave the skins. If you can find New Mexican chiles, you’ll have much better luck. Thanks!
January 11th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Had carne adovada the other night. Living in New Mexico 26 years I’ve found that I prefer a mixture of half new mexico and half guajillo chiles. I lightly pass them over a gas flame to toast them before soaking. The perfume is wonderful. Great photos and recipe (that would make great breakfast burritos!
January 19th, 2009 at 10:08 am
wing – thanks.
April 20th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Hey, this looks so good. How do you think it would do in the crockpot? and if i did that, should I marinate for the full 24 hours?
April 21st, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Shea – I’m not sure about crock-potting. It’s kinda dry and I’ve never tried crock-potting this one before. I would still marinate for 24 hours, but… let me know if you try it!
April 21st, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Thanks, I intend on trying in the next few days. One more question….my husband likes well seasoned BUT not fiery spicy (however I like it when I feel my tongue is on fire, but I have to compromise), so do you have any suggestions about adjusting the amount of chiles in this recipe? I made your shredded beef tacos and they were perfect :)
April 25th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Shea – Hmmm, I guess that depends on the chiles you use? Definitely leave the seeds out if you want to mellow it. I don’t find these to be fiery hot, so you may want to go with the recipe as is (just make sure you take the seeds out). The shredded beef tacos rock, don’t they? :) I love that recipe.
April 26th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I made it today; the only change I made was leaving out a few chiles. It was great, very very tender and not too spicy at all. Ok, last question! I have a ton left and I would love to hear your thoughts on how to use the leftovers. I saw where you made tamales, but I my kids aren’t big on those. I may just split it up and freeze. If you have any ideas, let me know! Thanks. :)
April 28th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Shea – hurray! You can also make chimichangas, but those are kinda indulgent (grease). Or enchiladas (I like stacked enchiladas). Both of those are on the recipes page. Crunchy tacos, nachos – lots of things. I tend to make a big batch and freeze into smaller batches since it’s quite a bit of work to make this.
June 19th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I love your whole site although I usually focus on cooking my way through your Chinese stuff since my sweetie is ABC. In spite of this, I am the one with the high spice tolerance and he is the wimp, and since I, too love New Mexican food (and Sichuan food, and Thai food and Desi food) I have experimented with a lot of ways of getting chili pepper flavor into food without the heat, or with less heat. My current solution is to use powdered kimchi chilies. THis has the added advantage of being incredibly cheap. If you’re in new Mexico, you can pick up cheap dried Hatch peppers, but where we are in Atlanta, those suckers are expensive. Korean red pepper is amazingly cheap, we have to buy it by the pound, and a pound lasts a year if we don’t make kimchi. And korean pepper has that awesome sweet-bitterness that is what chili flavor is all about.
In any case, you guys don’t personally sound like you have any problems downing spicy food, but unless you get a mild year of NM chilies, the hatches are really too hot for mere American mortals, and this is a workable solution for us at least.
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Jenny – good to know. Thanks for the tips.
August 5th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Thanks so much for this recipe. I had Carne Adovada in a burrito with red sauce and it was truly amazing. It was served with wonderfully spiced rice and the best beans I have ever had and warm sopaipillas! The place serving it was MONICA’S EL PORTAL ALBUQUERQUE NM and I highly recommend it!
August 9th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Rene – that sounds phenomenal. Thanks for the tip!!
August 30th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Leave the seeds in the chile pod to increase the heat ! No real resaon to prebake the chile pods, just fill sthe air with chokinf fumes – just put the chile pods into a pot of boiling water and simmer until soft, then purree I like to run the purree through a food strainer as though making red chile sauce.
Runny nose, watery eyes, and a swollen tongue – now that’s eating!
February 12th, 2010 at 10:27 am
I am going to be attempting to make this recipe this weekend, only using a pork shoulder roast. Doesn’t look like this has been commented on in quite a while, but I figured I would post anyway.
I am going to attempt to do the roast, cut in the 2×4, in a slow cooker, and then shred it up.
Me and my fiance just moved to New Mexico 2 years ago, it took us a while to eat New Mexican food, but now we can’t get enough.
We get Twisters Grill alot and I am addicted to their Carne Adovado Burritos smothered in Green Chile.
Will post back and let everyone know how this worked out.
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:07 am
I made this two weekends ago for my brothers birthday party, he wanted all Mexican food. OMG it was fantastic!! I am going to be making it again this weekend for my sister in laws birthday but will be using chicken instead of pork.
September 5th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Wow, I found this recipe a few months ago and have made it 2 or three times, I had printed it out, but recently lost it, so I googled till I found it again, I am so thankful. I am originally from the southwest, and took the New Mexican food for granted…moved to South Carolina 5 years ago. The Mexican food out here is way different, more authentic from Mexico, which is bland compared to NM food, so I have been forced to make stuff myself, and while I have always made a few good dishes on my own, some things I have missed and this is one of them. Excellent recipe and is recommended. You have to be the type cook that is patient and does things right, it is worth the time. Everyone I work with loves my New Mexican dishes! Thanks so much for posting this recipe!