How to Make Chilorio: Mexican Recipes

Exploring Mexican recipes in your own kitchen is a great way to discover new dishes and expand your palate. One of the best Mexican pork recipes is chilorio tacos. Every state in Mexico is famous for its own dishes, and chilorio pork comes from Sinaloa. On the west coast, chilorio Sinaloa style is a popular dish, but it has spread around the country, served everywhere from at luxury resorts to street taco stands. Learning how to make chilorio pork will give you a unique dinner with your family and possibly remind you of your Mexico vacation. An authentic homemade chilorio recipe will take you a little over an hour to make, but the soft and spicy meat is worth the effort.

What is Chilorio?

While most people are familiar with guacamole and enchiladas, many will ask you “what is chilorio?” Like most Mexican pork recipes, it’s a shredded pork dish that is then fried in lard and cooked in a chile sauce. To make chilorio tacos, simply spoon some of the meat onto a soft tortilla and top it with salsa, cilantro, onion, or beans.

Follow this video to get started making your own Chilorio Tacos.

A true chilorio Sinaloa recipe requires you to boil the meat for an hour, the most time-consuming part of most Mexican pork recipes, but while the meat cooks, you can prep the marinade and salsa. For homemade chilorio recipe, you’ll need guajillo and ancho chiles, and while they’re common staples in Mexican grocery stores, you may have to do a little searching to find them at home. With their bold flavors, there’s nothing that can truly be substituted for them in a homemade chilorio recipe. Dried chiles won’t go bad, so if you find them, take enough for a couple Mexican recipes.

To serve chilorio Sinaloa tacos, you’ll need flour tortillas. You can also top them with extra cilantro, onion, or beans, so it’s good to have those on hand as well. Once you get the hang of making it for your family, save the recipe to be used at a later date when you can impress friends with your authentic Mexican meal. The minute your guests taste it, they will be asking, “What is chilorio and how can I make it?”

How to Make Chilorio Pork

Pork and Marinade

½ kilo of pork
4 guajillo chiles
1 chile ancho
¼ onion
1 pinch of dried oregano
1 pinch of cumin
2 bay leaves
2 garlic cloves
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp of vinegar
1 tbsp of lard

Salsa

4 green tomatoes
¼ of an onion
1 garlic clove
White vinegar
Salt
Cilantro
Green chile (optional)

Cook the pork, onion, garlic, and bay leaves fully submerged in water for one hour.
While your meat is cooking, create the marinade. Clean the seeds and inner veins from the chiles and wash them. Boil them in water with garlic and onion.
For the salsa to serve with the chilorio, boil the green tomatoes, onion, and the green chile (if using) in water. Once the water has boiled for a minute and the tomates’ skin has started to peel, transfer the mixture into a blender, and combine with the remaining ingredients. Remove the salsa from the blender to cool.
Once the chiles for the marinade have softened, pour the mixture into a blender and add in the other spices, salt, and vinegar. Blend together, and remove.
Once the pork has cooked for an hour, move it to a cutting board and shred it.
In a pan, melt the lard to fry the pork for a minute or two. Then, stir in the marinade, and let it simmer covered for a few minutes.

For chilorio tacos, simply serve the steaming meat on a flour tortilla. Top with the green salsa, cilantro, onion, or beans.

Traditional Mexican recipes take time to fully prepare, and you may have to do some searching for authentic ingredients, but nothing compares with the rich flavor of chilorio pork. Taking the time to learn how to make chilorio will make dinnertime with your family extra special, and if you’re looking to host a dinner, it’s a unique dish that will amaze your guests.