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You are here: Home » Recipes » Pork

Asado de Puerco Recipe

Published: Dec 15, 2008 · Updated: Aug 15, 2019 by Mely Martínez

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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

Pork Stew Asado de Puerco Nuevo Leon, uno de los platillos más representativos de Nuevo León.

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.

Asado de Puerco Pork Stew Nuevo Leon, quick and easy

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

JUMP TO FULL INSTRUCTIONS

Pork Stew Asado de Puerco Nuevo Leon, step by step
  •  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.
Pork Stew, sauce
  • 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.
Pork Stew, I hope you enjoy this delicious recipe

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.

Asado de puerco recipe, pork stew

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 chile colorado Mexican recipe

Asado de Puerco Recipe

Mely Martínez
Asado de Puerco, a pork stew 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. 
4.80 from 34 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 mins
Cook Time 45 mins
Total Time 1 hr
Course Main Course, Pork
Cuisine Mexican
Servings 6
Calories 320 kcal

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.

Serve with rice and corn tortillas

    Notes

    • If you don’t have the avocado seed, you can skip using it. I’ve found it gives a little thickness to the sauce beside a little bit of tart flavor. And some people believe it helps relives the acidity of the dish.
    • This stew requires about 1 ½ hr. of cooking, so take your time when planning to make it.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 6servingsCalories: 320kcalCarbohydrates: 18gProtein: 36gFat: 11gSaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 90mgSodium: 106mgPotassium: 1064mgFiber: 7gSugar: 10gVitamin A: 6800IUVitamin C: 8.5mgCalcium: 28mgIron: 3.3mg
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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    1. Leticia Soria

      June 24, 2022 at 11:08 am

      5 stars
      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.

      Reply
    2. Steve Terry

      October 20, 2021 at 11:57 am

      3 stars
      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?

      Reply
      • Mely Martínez

        October 20, 2021 at 5:26 pm

        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.

        Reply
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    Hi, I'm Mely Martinez, a former Mexican school teacher, home cook, and food blogger. I moved to the United States about ten years ago, after living in Mexico my whole life. Now I love to share home-style recipes for authentic Mexican food.
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