Carne Adovada, pork marinated in red chili, is one of my all time favorite dishes. You can eat it topped with a fried egg for breakfast (or dinner for that matter), in a burrito, on corn tortillas, smothered in cheese with a side of sour cream, or, my personal favorite, stuffed into a sopapilla and drowning in red chili sauce. If you ever find yourself in Albuquerque I would recommend stopping by the Frontier restaurant for breakfast (order the number one with carne adovada) and then have dinner at el Patio (get yourself a stuffed sopa with red). This is not a dish for the faint of heart, but it doesn't have to burn you on both ends either. There are a ton of variations on making adovada that range from mostly canned to the totally-labor-intensive-but absolutely-worth-the-work version. After the jump I'll spell out a couple of fairly easy ways to make this delicious dinner or breakfast if that's what sets your hair on fire.

For the easiest take on this dish that I've ever made you'll need:

~3 lbs pork shoulder or boston butt roast (bone in = a good thing)
1 can of red chili sauce (I've used both Los Palmas chili sauce and enchilada sauce to good effect, although if I'm forced to use canned sauces I try to find those that contain as few ingredients as possible, you're essentially looking for something with chilis, garlic, spices, and citric acid. Old El Paso tends to add a bunch of chemicals and sugar which is a total turn off in my book), OR if you're lucky enough to have access to bueno or Abq Tortilla Factory frozen red chili sauce you should use that...
3 cloves of garlic, crushed and rough chopped
1 tbs ground cumin (more or less, you decide)
2 tsp oregano
3/4-1 tsp salt ---> red chilies can have an overpowering bitterness, a fair bit of salt cuts the bitterness and enhances the delicious earthy, spicy flavor
cracked black pepper to taste

Method: Combine everything in a dish that will allow red chili sauce to completely cover the pork roast (I usually just dump everything into the ceramic dish from my crock pot) and marinade overnight. If you're using a crock pot, set to low and cook all day while you're at work, dinner will be done when you get home. If you're roasting in the oven, throw the roast into a pan and smother with marinade, set temperature to 300˚(ish) and roast slowly. The roast is done when the meat falls away from the bone and shreds easily (once again, I tend to cook to an internal temp of 160˚, but this is a to taste kind of thing). A slightly faster way to cook this is to cut the roast into 2 inch cubes before marinading.

Slightly more difficult method using powdered chili. You'll need:

2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons New Mexico chili powder
2-1/2 cups warm water
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 teaspoons dried oregano, divided
2 teaspoons ground cumin, or more if you're into that sort of thing
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (if you want to BAM it up a notch!ONE!)
3/4-1 teaspoon salt
~3 pounds pork shoulder butt, cubed if you want

Method: Put on a kettle of water to boil. In a skillet or frying pan, heat oil over medium heat. Whisk in 3 tablespoons of flour and brown until light golden brown. Blend in 4 tablespoons of chile powder. Slowly add water, whisking until lumps are removed. Add garlic, 2 teaspoons oregano, cumin, cayenne pepper and salt. Simmer on medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and let cool. Put meat in a gallon sized ziplock (or your crock pot dish) and cover with cooled red chili sauce. Marinade over night, roast / cook as above

For the advanced version, worth every bit of blood, sweat, and tears, you'll need:

20 or so Dried New Mexico red chili pods (I find medium to be plenty spicy enough, thankyouverymuch)
4-5 cloves garlic, smashed
1 tbs cumin
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
black pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil or pork fat (BAM!) in the form of lard
~3 pounds pork shoulder or boston butt

Method: clean chili pods by removing stems and seeds checking for bugs and gross bits. If you want to cut down on the spice you can remove the white veins re-hydrating. Throw all pods into a pot and cover with water keeping in mind that the pods will float you'll need to place a plate or some such on top of the chilies. Bring the water to a boil and remove from heat. Let the pods steep in the hot water for 10 minutes or so. Toss 4-5 pods at a time into your blender with a clove or two of garlic, add a little water and liquify the pods, add enough water to achieve a syrup-ish consistency. Pour the liquid through a fine mesh strainer. At this point you're removing seeds and the outer skin, which isn't digestible and ruins the texture of the sauce. Repeat until you've blended and strained all the pods. Add dry spices and olive oil to the liquid in a sauce pan and bring to a slow boil, simmer for 20 minutes to marry all the flavors. After the sauce cools, pour over the pork roast and marinade overnight. Cook as above.

Blending your own lets you control the texture and spiciness of the sauce. The powder method can be a bit gritty at time, and the canned version is often a bit runny. When I make homemade red chili I'm looking for a sauce that is velvety smooth and rich.

You can serve this spicy, delicious pork with any number of side dishes including pintos, calabacitas, fried eggs (nothing beats a warm corn tortilla with red chili sauce and adovada with a fried egg on top...mmmmmmmm), hash browns, really anything you want. You can serve adovada on corn or flour tortillas, or take it down atkins style.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXWI8uFTNis