Slow Cooker Sweet Tomatillo Chipotle Pork

Offseason is a lie. There's no off. There's just a different kind of on — quieter, slower, built around weight rooms and film and the long work of turning sixteen-year-olds into something that resembles a football team by August. Monday through Thursday I'm at the school by six-thirty, running the guys who show up through lifts and conditioning. Friday I review film from last season, which Lisa says is like rewatching a movie where you already know the ending is bad. She's not wrong. But the ending is only bad if you don't fix the things that made it bad, and that's what January is for.

Diego asked me this week if he could come to the weight room. He's nine. He can't come to the weight room. But I ran him through footwork drills in the backyard on Saturday — ladder work, cone drills, the same stuff I run my receivers through, scaled down for a kid whose legs are about two feet long. He was terrible and enthusiastic, which is exactly the right combination at nine. Sofia watched from the back door and asked why Diego gets to do drills. I said she could do them too. She said no thank you and went back to her book. She's seven years old and already knows exactly who she is. I respect that enormously.

Wednesday I made posole — the red kind, with pork and hominy in a broth built from dried red chile pods. This is a pot that feeds an army, and since my army currently consists of two adults, four kids, and whatever coaches stop by during the week, I always make too much. The trick is the chile — you stem and seed the dried pods, toast them quickly in a dry pan until they're fragrant but not burned, then soak them in hot water and blend until smooth. It's the same process Gloria uses. It's the same process her mother used. The red broth simmers with pork shoulder until the meat shreds and the hominy softens and the whole kitchen smells like Las Cruces in December.

Lisa came home from a twelve-hour shift on Thursday and ate posole standing at the counter with her eyes half closed and said, "This is the only reason I come home." I said, "I thought it was the children." She said, "I said what I said." This is what twenty-three years of marriage sounds like when you're both too tired to be anything but honest.

Feed your people. The game is won at the table.

Lisa’s half-asleep honesty at the counter Thursday night reminded me why I keep coming back to recipes like this one—food that does the talking when everyone’s too worn down to. The posole fed the soul, but this slow cooker sweet tomatillo chipotle pork is what I had going all day Friday, filling the house with that same low, patient warmth while the week finished unraveling. If you’re feeding an army or just two people who need something waiting for them, here’s how I made it.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 8 hours | Total Time: 8 hours 20 minutes | Servings: 8–10

Ingredients

3 1/2 to 4 lbs bone-in pork shoulder (or boneless), trimmed of excess fat
1 lb fresh tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and halved
3–4 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons adobo sauce (from the can)
2 tablespoons honey
1 medium yellow onion, quartered
5 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano (Mexican oregano preferred)
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon neutral oil (for optional sear)
Warm tortillas, rice, or hominy, for serving
Optional toppings: sliced radishes, fresh cilantro, crumbled cotija, lime wedges, sour cream

Instructions

Blend the sauce. Combine tomatillos, chipotle chiles, adobo sauce, honey, onion, garlic, chicken broth, cumin, oregano, salt, and pepper in a blender. Blend until smooth, about 45 seconds. Taste and adjust salt if needed.
Sear the pork (optional but recommended). Pat the pork shoulder dry. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sear the pork on all sides until deeply browned, 3–4 minutes per side. This builds fond and deepens the final flavor. Skip this step if time is short — it still works.
Load the slow cooker. Place the seared pork in the slow cooker. Pour the tomatillo-chipotle sauce over and around the meat, making sure the bottom is well coated.
Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 7–9 hours, or on HIGH for 4–5 hours, until the pork is completely tender and pulls apart easily with two forks.
Shred and finish. Transfer the pork to a cutting board and shred with two forks, discarding any large pieces of fat or bone. Return the shredded meat to the slow cooker and stir it into the sauce. Let it rest on WARM for 10–15 minutes to absorb the liquid. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Serve. Pile into bowls over rice or warm hominy, or spoon into tortillas. Set out toppings and let people build their own. The sauce in the pot is the thing — don’t leave it behind.

Nutrition (per serving)

Slow Cooker Sweet Tomatillo Chipotle Pork — The Pot That Keeps the Coaches Coming Back