Apple and Ale Pulled Pork Chili
This Pulled Pork Chili uses fresh ingredients to give it a sweet and spicy flavor. You'd never guess it was an apple chili!
For the love of chili
With as much as Tim and I love chili, you would think we would have entered a chili cook off by now. We always seem to hear about them once the tasting part comes around, but not soon enough to actually enter. Which is quite tasty, don't get me wrong, but it would be fun to enter the competition some time.
That means that today is our first ever entry into a chili cook off, and the exciting thing is you get to be the judge!
This week the Sunday Supper crew is facing off in a friendly competition of winter's hearty fare. We are pulling out all the stops from beef to vegetarian, chicken to seafood. There is some serious creativity going on this week. (And, a lot of chili recipes that we really want to try!) (UPDATED -- The judging for the cook off has ended. But, you can still enjoy a tasty chili recipe.)
An ale and apple chili
I couldn't get the combo of apples and red ale out of my mind while we were brainstorming for today's chili, so we decided to run with it. Apples and pork are a natural pair, and braising the pork in red ale before shredding it for the chili adds a layer of bright hops to the meat and the broth that becomes the base for this chili.
As we sat down to feast on our chili, we realized with some surprise that we hadn't added any chili powder, which is typically our go-to flavoring for a spicy chili. Does that mean this isn't a chili? We don't think so.
Our apple and ale pulled pork chili
Instead of chili powder, we used fresh chilies: a Poblano and two Serrano. While chili powder gives deep, earthy heat to a chili, using the fresh chilies gives a heat and a bright flavor that pairs so well here with the beer and mingles perfectly with the sweetness from the apples and sweet red pepper.
You can adjust the heat to your family's preference by simmering the chili for longer to reduce the heat in the dish, or by adding more Serrano chilies to punch the heat up a notch or two.
As is stands, we found our apple chili to have just enough heat to be a warming chili, but not one that left our mouths on fire.
Apple and Ale Pulled Pork Chili
Ingredients
- 1 lb pork loin
- 1 teaspoon salted butter
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 garlic clove, minced, or ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 (12 oz) bottles red ale
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 (16 oz) can kidney beans or 2 c cooked kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 poblano pepper or small green bell pepper, diced
- 2 serrano peppers or jalapeno, diced
- 2 sweet apples (like Gala), diced
- 1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
Instructions
- Heat a large Dutch Oven or thick bottomed soup pot over high heat. Add pork and sear on all sides, roughly 30 seconds a side. Remove pork from pot to a plate and set aside.
- Reduce the heat to medium and butter to the pot. Once the butter has melted, add onion and garlic. Sauté 3-5 minutes until golden.
- Add the beer and bay leaf, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to loosen any stuck bits of meat or onions.
- Return meat to the pot, cover and simmer over low heat for 1- 1 ½ hours.
- Remove pork loin from the broth to a plate and shred it with two forks. Return shredded meat to the pot.
- Add beans, hot peppers, apples, and tomato paste. Simmer, covered, over low heat for 1-2 hours.
- Fifteen minutes before serving, add red pepper and vinegar to the chili. Stir to mix and simmer for an additional 15 minutes.
Nutrition
This is one of the recipes from the early days of Curious Cuisiniere. We've updated our pictures since we first made it, but we've left the original images here as a fun throwback and shout out to how far we've come. Enjoy!
Sarah founded Curious in 2010 as a way to save her recipe creations and share culinary experiences. Her love for cultural cuisines was instilled early by her French Canadian Grandmother. Her experience in the kitchen and in recipe development comes from over 10 years working in professional kitchens. She has traveled extensively and enjoys bringing the flavors of her travels back to create easy-to-make recipes.
It was not great it was not bad but not what I had hoped for. As written it lacked any seasoning other then the garlic. Needs salt at the very least. Would probably not make it again.
Hi Nancy. Thanks for sharing your experience making this chili. I hope you didn't leave out all the peppers, onion, and bay, because then it would indeed have very little to season it! The flavor of this chili also depends heavily on the flavor of your red ale and the flavor of the apples you choose. So, if your red ale wasn't anything stellar and your apples didn't have good flavor, I could see how your chili would be a bit unimpressive. Salt is definitely a personal taste, and often canned beans have plenty of salt added for our tastes, which is why we don't include it in the recipe. We really appreciate your comments and are glad you gave it a try!
You are a genius! Apples and pork go perfect together. I can't wait to give this a try 🙂
Great idea to add the apples! yum!
I love apples and pork together and combining them in chili was a fabulous idea. I'm definitely going to have to try chili with ale too! The husband would love it!
Oh my Sarah...your chili looks great...I might even be coaxed to pair it with a bottle of red ale;-)
real chilis and port -- yum!
Wow! I'm so not normally a fan of pulled pork but you have totally convinced me!
What a lovely combination of apples and pork!! So creative and I love the gorgeous color you've got in your chili!! Yum. 🙂
This looks fantastic! I love the pulled pork part. 🙂
Such a wonderful marriage of flavours in this dish.
I love pulled pork…add that to chili and I am 'over the moon' ecstatic!!
I really think there's a big difference in taste between fresh chili and powdered chilis, to me it's not as an extreme heat, much smoother. Love your take on chili.
We've been trying to work more with fresh ingredients, and shifting to fresh chilis vs powder has been really eye opening. It really does become more about the flavor and less about extreme heat. Thanks!
What a great twist on a traditional chili - LOVE that you didn't use chili powder and used fresh instead!