Asado de Puerco, Mexican pork stew in a red sauce made using dried peppers. The first time I tried this dish was at the house of one of my aunts; she cooked it for New Year’s and served with flour tortillas. After a while, I was living in the South of Mexico, and I started to recreate the recipe as I remember the flavors and aroma of the stew. It wasn’t until I went to live in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon when I found out what local cooks added to the recipe.
Pork Stew Nuevo León Style / Asado de Puerco
People from that region use a type of oregano that is found growing wild in the semi-arid soil of the area; this gives a very distinctive flavor to the Asado de Puerco or Mexican pork stew in red sauce. One of the ladies that used to help me at home told me that her mom always added a small piece of dried orange peel to the sauce. I’ve tried that as well, and it changes the flavor a lot.
This is not a spicy (hot) pork stew, the spices in this red sauce add flavor but aren’t too overpowering. You can add a little bit more, however, if that’s your preference. Since this recipe is a bit time consuming, making a double batch is a wise option; simply freeze the extra for another occasion and enjoy.
How to make Asado de Puerco Recipe
- In a heavy pot, cover the pork with water, and cook over medium/high heat until the meat is tender and water has evaporated. This will take about 45-50 minutes. Once the meat is tender, add the oil or lard and keep cooking until the meat is just browned and tender. (Please check the ingredients list below)
Sauce:
- While the pork is cooking, use your kitchen scissors to slice open the peppers. Remove the seeds, veins, and then slightly roast them for a few seconds on each side in a warm skillet, but do not allow them to burn.
Cover with hot water and leave to soak for about 20 minutes. Drain thoroughly.
- Put ¾ cups of soaking water into the blender, a few of the peppers, garlic, cumin, oregano, peppercorns, bay leaves, cloves, thyme, cinnamon and the little piece of avocado seed, and blend for at least 1 minute.
- Add a ½ cup of the water and blend for a few more seconds to mix thoroughly. Add the rest of the chilies a little at a time and blend until smooth, adding more water as needed to mix thoroughly.
- Pass the sauce through a strainer and add to the pot with the meat. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes stirring frequently to prevent sticking. Add more water as needed, salt to taste, and keep stirring until the sauce thickens to the consistency of thick gravy.
Mexican Pork Stew in Red Sauce Nuevo Leon Style - Asado de Puerco Estilo Nuevo León
Serve with rice and corn tortillas.
Note: If you don't want to add the avocado seed piece, that is OK, I had found it thickens a little bit the stew, and some people believe it helps relieves any acidity from the dish.
Provecho!
Mely Martinez,
Maybe you will like the short version of this recipe: Easy Guajillo Pork-Stew or Chile Colorado
For the recipe in Spanish: follow this link: Asado de Puerco Estilo Nuevo Leon.
Did you like the recipe? Please let me know in the comments section, do you have questions, or share the link with your friends. I hope you have an incredible time cooking!
This recipe for Mexican pork stew in red sauce "Asado de Puerco" was originally published December 14th, 2008, it was my first post on this blog. Check the quality of the picture!
Thank you for visiting Mexico in my Kitchen.
📖 Recipe
Asado de Puerco Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless pork shoulder cut into 1 ½ inch cubes
- 2 tbs. vegetable oil
- Water as needed
For the sauce:
- 4 ancho peppers
- 4 guajillo Peppers
- ⅛ avocado pit Optional*
- 3 garlic cloves
- 8 peppercorns
- 1 tsp. dried oregano Mexican oregano
- 2 whole cloves (the spice)
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ tsp. cumin seeds
- ½ inch cinnamon stick
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- Salt to season
Instructions
- In a heavy pot, cover the pork with water, and cook over medium/high heat until the meat is tender and water has evaporated. This will take about 45-50 minutes. If the meat is still not soft and tender, add more water and keep cooking. Once the meat is tender, add the oil or lard and keep cooking until the meat is just browned and tender.
Sauce:
- While the pork is cooking, use your kitchen scissors to slice open the peppers. Remove the seeds, veins, and then slightly roast them for a few seconds on each side on a warm skillet, but do not allow them to burn.
- Cover with hot water and leave to soak for about 20 minutes. Drain thoroughly.
- Put ¾ cups of water into the blender, a few of the chilies, garlic, cumin, oregano, peppercorns, bay leaves, cloves, thyme, cinnamon and the little piece of avocado seed, and blend for at least 1 minute.
- Add a ½ cup of the soaking water and blend for a few more seconds to mix thoroughly. Add the rest of the chilies a little at a time and blend until smooth, adding more water as needed to mix thoroughly. If you have one of those modern blenders with higher capacity and more power, then you can process the salsa in just one step, pouring 2 cups of the soaking water in the blender with the peppers and spices and blending until you have a very smooth sauce.
- Pass the sauce through a strainer and add to the pot with the meat. Cook over medium heat for 10 more minutes and stir frequently to prevent sticking. Add more water as needed, salt to taste, and keep stirring until the sauce thickens to the consistency of thick gravy. This will take about 15 minutes.
Leticia Soria
Maybe add a poached tomato to the blender. I dilute mole and other chile sauces with freshly poached tomato to mellow the intensity of chile.
Steve Terry
Mely,
I think I need help with this. First let me say that I found a restaurant in Houston named Taqueria Allende about 6 years ago. they advertise Nuevo Leon style cuisine.
Their menu is awesome. So I picked the first thing on the menu and it was Asado de Puerco. It was incredible. I went back twice more and they have amazing food.
When I saw your recipe for Asado de Puerco I jumped on it.
It took a while but I found all the ingredients. The pork butt was 4 lbs trimmed boneless. So I doubled the recipe. The sauce was really intense. I thought that with the meat added it would be thinned out.....nope. It was just too much flavor and it had a bit of bitterness to it. We eventually separated the sauce from the meat and it was quite good though we still needed to blend it with rice and such.
Where did I go wrong? The blender I have is one of the powerful ones so when i strained it, there was nothing for it to catch. Should I have taken the bay leaves out before blending? I used all the water used for soaking the peppers.
Where did I go wrong?
On another note. It's obvious that this uses different peppers than the restaurant.
Any suggestions for alternative peppers?
Mely Martínez
Hello Steve,
The bitter taste could be two different things, or you over roasted/toasted the peppers or they were just old peppers.
You need to soak the pepper for at least 30 minutes for them to soften, blend, and use a strainer to add to the meat.
Maybe they use fewer peppers. every cook has their own recipe. But, you can also use only guajillo peppers for a less intense flavor. I have a recipe very similar to Asado de Puerco here in the blog that only uses guajillo pepper.