One of my all-time favorite recipes that reminds of Mom and home are costillas de puerco en chile colorado. These country style boneless ribs are seared and browned at high heat and then braised in a homemade chile ancho sauce for a few hours. The results are a tender, moist and flavorful rib.
Many of my recipes are inspired by the dishes mom prepared all of the time
I don’t think Mom ever used the boneless version of the country style ribs, but I find them to be economical and you don’t have to worry about any small, sharp bones. In a pinch, you can use that chopped pork for tamales!
Don’t forget to check out my recipe for tamales at the end of this post!!
My inspiration for wanting to cook these ribs, was that I wanted to prepare a special batch of pork tamales for my good friend Olivia. She used to help me prep for hours in the early mornings when I was cooking a Mexican lunch in one of the local towns. Prep work can be tedious and not everyone has the patience for it. I often say that it’s my “kitchen therapy”. I wanted to surprise her on our upcoming visit with these tamales. This was the fastest batch of tamales I ever prepared, LOL!
Chile Ancho has to be one of my most favorite of the dried chile peppers!!
There are several other dried chile pods that are popular for preparing a red sauce, such as guajillo, California and New Mexico. All delicious in their own way.
Once you prepare you chile colorado sauce for the costillas de puerco from this recipe, reserve 1/2 cup of the sauce. This will be the sauce you add to the masa for tamales.
The color of the finished sauce will vary depending on how old the dried pepper is. The older they are, the darker the sauce will be.
Investing in a few oven proof skillets and pans comes in handy when you have recipes that require you to brown and braise the meat.
If you are planning to use this recipe to prepare the pork filling for tamales, I would suggest adding 35 to 45 minutes cooking time, just so the pork is extra tender and easy to shred.
Costillas de Puerco en Chile Colorado(Pork Ribs in Chile Ancho)
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 10 chile ancho stems and seeds removed
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds toasted and crushed
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/2 onion
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon Maggi Sauce optional
- salt to taste
You will also need
- 2 1/2 pounds boneless pork country style ribs
- salt
- pepper
- garlic powder
- 2 more cups pork or chicken broth
- Grapeseed or canola oil
Instructions
Directions
- Cover the chile ancho with water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cook for 10 minutes. While chiles cook toast the cumin seeds in a hot skillet just until they become aromatic. Crush the seeds using a mortar and pestle. Drain the liquid and transfer to the blender. To the chiles, add 2 cups broth, cumin seeds, garlic, onion, oregano, pepper, and salt to taste. Blend on high until smooth. Set aside.
- Season the pork with salt, pepper and garlic powder on both sides. In a deep skillet, add 4 tablespoons of oil. Preheat to medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the pork to hot pan and brown on all sides, turning as needed.
- Add the sauce from blender and 2 remaining cups of chicken broth to the ribs in pan. Stir to combine, reduce heat. Cover and cook on the stove top at a low simmer for 1 1/2 hours or until ribs are tender. You could also finish cooking it in a 350 degree oven for the same amount of time. If finishing in the oven, cover them with foil the first 90 minutes, uncover the last 30 minutes. If the chile sauce gets too thick, add a little more water or broth as it cooks.
Notes
Chile Colorado Pork Tamales
Ingredients
Masa For Tamales
- 4 cups masa harina
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup chile ancho sauce, at room temperature
- 3 1/2 cups warm chicken broth, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups pork manteca or shortening
You Will Also Need
- 30 to 40 cornhusk for tamales
- 4 full cups of cooled pork filling finely chopped
Instructions
- I would suggest you soak the cornhusk overnight in some really hot water. The next day, drain the water and cover with more hot water before using.
- Mix the dry ingredients. Mix in the warm broth and chile sauce until dough forms. Gradually mix in the manteca or shortening until well incorporated. Taste for salt, cover and let set for 30 minutes.
- Set up your assembly station with cornhusk, masa and filling. Take a cornhusk, shake off excess water and spread with masa on the bottom half, about 3 tablespoons of masa. Fill down the center with 2 tablespoons of pork filling. Fold in the sides to close, then fold down top flap. Place seam side down onto tray until you are done filling.
- Fill the bottom of a steamer pot with water. Place the filled tamales, open side up, in a steamer pot. Bring to a quick boil on high heat, Lower the temperature to medium and steam for a good hour and 15 minutes. I like to set my timer for every 30 minutes and fill steamer with 2 more cups of hot water. You never want to run out of water when steaming the tamales. It’s best to have a little too much than run out.
- When time is up, just shut off the heat and let tamales set up in the pot for 30 minutes or more. To test a tamal right away, pull one out and let it cool slightly. The husk should pull away from the tamal easily. The cooler they get the more firm they will become. This recipe yields 30 good size tamales. * I prepared only half of the tamales on this day and left the rest for another day. That’s why the steamer pot was not full.
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Can’t tell you how happy I am to read all of your posts especially one like this! My father and his family are from Monterrey Nuevo Leon Mexico, I grew up with many of their foods however I was never taught how to make them. I look forward to all of your posts and the recipes you provide. I am very excited about trying this one, can’t wait. I love the fact that you are going to posted how to make tamales in a small batch, very excited!
Oh good Jessica! So happy you found my blog. This recipe is right up ther with my Mom’s tamales as my favorites. Looking forward to chatting with you again. Thanks! Posting the tamale recipe this week!
Jessica, I just added the recipe for the tamales if you would like to check it out. Enjoy!
I must try this recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Let me know how you like it Tony. Thanks!!
I love your recipes thank you for sharing
Thank you for following along Virgie!
What is Maggie Sauce? I wanna make this tonight but just a little confused what it is. I tried searching the blog. Thanks
Maggi sauce is like worcestershire and soy sauce. If you can’t find Maggi sauce, you can just add a little Worcestershire sauce.
Love your recipes but I need some help. I just moved to Mexico (Ajijic, Jalisco) and am having trouble with meat cuts in the carnecerías. I have yet to be able to ask for country style ribs and get what I am expecting! I’d love ot if all your recipes had Mexican equivalents for meat cuts, but I’ll settle for how to ask for country style ribs. Muchas gracias.
It’s not a bad idea Barbara, but I take so much time in creating each blog post, that I don’t always remember those extra things. I think what I will do is find a site that list all the cuts in Spanish and then just link it to my meat recipes.In Monterrey, the ribs could be referred to as tiras de costilla de puerco. I always knew them as costillas de puerco.
Thank you! A link to the names of the cuts in Spanish would be fantastic. I had a bunch of sauce left over, so I mixed with ground meat the next day. And extended those leftovers with some black beans the following day. Good to the last bite!
Yummy! Sounds delicious Barbara!
Hello! I would love to try this recipe but only have Chií cascavel could I use these instead of Chile ancho?
Hi Sandy, you could use cascabel. You will have to make sure you have enough cascabel to cover the recipe. Cascabel may have a little more heat than an ancho pepper, so make sure taste once you blend the sauce. You could also use chile guajillo combined with cascabel.