Name: Pork Chile Rojo
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 9 h
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 1 (4 pound) boneless pork shoulder roast, trimmed; 3 tablespoons chili powder; 1 cup chopped onions; 4 cups water; 2 (16 ounce) jars salsa; 2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained

Pork Chile Rojo

"My grandmother called this recipe 'Pork Chili Verde' when she originally told me about it. But...it's red, not green. I'm not sure if she saw a recipe that called for green salsa and she put in the red or if it was really called something else. Whatever the story, I've made it a couple of times now and absolutely love it. It gets better every time! Slow cooking the roast in an oven roasting bag makes the meat so tender! Serve the pork with tortillas or hard taco shells."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients

Why it works: Onion and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pork Chile Rojo

8 servings

Prep15 min

Cook9 hr

Ingredients

1 (4 pound) boneless pork shoulder roast, trimmed
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 cup chopped onions
4 cups water
2 (16 ounce) jars salsa
2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

316Calories

30 gProtein

15 gFat

16 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Water	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, onion):

Potatofits better
Chivefits about as well
Mustardfits about as well
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.