Tomatillo chili with roasted pork shoulder.

I'm posting this here mostly so that I have somewhere to point people when they say they don't know what to cook. If you see this and decide to give it a try, you are making an excellent decision. This recipe is sort of involved, but... well, it's the best thing I've ever made, and one of my favorite things I've ever eaten.

I'm a believer in the idea that meat shouldn't be eaten on autopilot. If you're packing a lunch for tomorrow, just skip the lunchmeat you won't enjoy and make an avocado sandwich instead. Et cetera. Don't forget that a thing died for the sake of this meal. This road of reasoning would take a lot of folks down the completely reasonable path of veganism. But I am a selfish product of evolution whose principles are validated by social consensus, so roasted pork shoulder it is.

The pork shoulder component of this recipe was largely influenced by my buddy Pete (@sorryeveryone). I am in his debt forever.

TOOLS OF NOTE

- A large pot or bucket

- A blender/food processor

- A roasting rack (not absolutely necessary, but nice)

- An oven with a broiling rack (again, nice)

INGREDIENTS/INSTRUCTIONS

The meat:

- Bone-in Boston butt (these generally range between 6 and 8 pounds, and run for $12-16 at grocery stores around here. Remember: you want bone-in, not boneless.)

The brine:

- 1 cup sugar

- 2 cups table salt

- 4 cups orange juice

- 1 head garlic

- Cold water

In the pot/bucket, mix the orange juice, sugar, and salt with 4 cups water until dissolved. Separate the cloves of garlic, but don't bother peeling them. Crush them (one whack with a meat tenderizer would do nicely) and throw them in.

With the end of your knife, punch a few incisions into the meat -- maybe about 3/4" deep, five or six, evenly spaced, per side. Set it in the pot, and then add as much water as it takes for the meat to be able to get the meat completely submerged when you hold it to the bottom (it will probably float otherwise, and that's fine). Remove the meat for a moment, mix the brine one last time, and set it back in. Cover, refrigerate, and leave it for 12 to 24 hours -- the longer, the better.

The paste:

- 1 head garlic

- 6 tbsp. orange juice

- 2 tbsp. olive oil

- 2 tbsp. white vinegar

- 2 tbsp. dried oregano

- 1 tbsp. cumin

- 1 tbsp. chili powder

- 1 tbsp. salt

- 2 tsp. black pepper

Separate, peel, and roughly chop the garlic. Throw it in the blender with the cumin, chili powder, oregano, salt and pepper, and hit it with a series of 1-second pulses until it becomes a coarse paste. Blend in the orange juice, olive oil, and vinegar.

Preheat the oven to 325°. When the meat is ready, remove it from the brine and pat it dry with paper towels. Smear the paste evenly all over it, and try to stuff some into the incisions you cut. Set it in the oven -- on top of a roasting rack is best, but if necessary you can use a foil-lined cookie sheet and upturn the edges so that it keeps in the drippings.

The general rule is to keep it in there for an hour per pound. Flip the meat over halfway through. If the crust begins to blacken, tent it with some foil. You do want the tough bark on the outside, but you don't want it charred if you can help it.

While you have the oven going, get the chili together.

The chili:

- 2 lb. fresh tomatillos

- 3 medium/large green tomatoes

- 1 red bell pepper

- 1 green bell pepper

- 1 large white onion

- 1 tbsp olive oil

- 1 small (6-ounce) can tomato paste

- 1/4 cup brown mustard

- 1 cup dark beer (i.e., a dunkel)

- 1 cup strong coffee

- 1 tbsp. cumin

- 1 tbsp. chili powder

- 1 tsp. table salt

- 1 tsp. black pepper

Remove the husks from the tomatillos, rinse them, and halve them. Apply some olive oil to a baking sheet, set them skin up, and place them in the broiling rack. (If you don't have one, just place them on a rack beneath the meat.) Remove them once the skin begins to blacken (probably 5-10 minutes), and let them cool. Now halve the green tomatoes and keep them in there until the skin begins to blacken (probably closer to 15-20 minutes for these, but keep a close watch). Remove them from heat, and lastly, halve the peppers (removing the seeds first) and do the same.

Dice the onion, mince the garlic, and throw it in the pot with the olive oil on low heat.

When the tomatillos and green tomatoes are cool enough to handle, remove as much skin as you can, blend them in batches, and throw them in the pot. Remove the skin from the peppers, dice them up, and throw them in as well. Add the rest of the ingredients, stir thoroughly, and bring to a boil. Then set the heat as low as possible and allow it to simmer -- one hour covered, one uncovered. Stir occasionally.

When the meat is done, remove it from heat and let it sit at room temperature for an hour. A FULL HOUR. DO NOT BULLSHIT THIS STEP! Now pull out the bone, take two forks, and shred it up -- it should fall right apart.

Serve a healthy amount of the meat in a bowl with some chili, and crumble in some tortilla chips if you'd like.

Unless you're serving 10 hungry people, you should have a ton of leftovers -- that's sort of the point of this whole enterprise. Store the meat and chili separately. I know that cooking, let alone storing, the chili and meat separately runs afoul of several definitions of chili, but you want to do this, because it will retain the texture of the meat this way. Reheat the meat by crisping it up in a skillet, and it will be just about as good as it was the day you roasted it.

God this is so good.