Well, it’s been a while since we have had a request to do a homemade sauce review, so were pleased as punch to hear from Julie B. with an offer to try some of her pork green sauce that she makes which she sells to friends and family. A pork green sauce? That was a new one on me, I must admit…but the more she told me, the more I was inclined to give it a try. Here is some of what Julie had to say about her sauce:

We have played around a lot with this sauce and I think it has really turned out good with a great aroma especially when heated first. This pork green sauce is slow cooked for 3 1/2 hours before it is packaged. We offer both a mild & hot sauce. It is great smothered over burritos, etc. I have used it when I have grilled shrimp & fish by adding a little sauce to the shrimp & fish while I am cooking and also when I have grilled chicken. Also, if you take a little velvet cheese and heat it with the sauce, it makes a good dipping sauce for tortilla chips. We have taken hamburgers and smothered them with sauce & cheese.

So, this sauce arrived in two medium-size mason jars, complete with a no-nonsense label that simply laid out what was in these sauces. This is:

Ingredients: green chilies, tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, habaneros, pork loin, almond extract, garlic, broths, spices & more

Admittedly, I’ve not had many green chile sauces that were made with pork. I’ve tried my fair share of ones made to use with pork dishes, but not where the pork was made with the sauce itself. Taking some of Julie’s advice, I set about the task of trying the milder sauce by first pouring it out into my saute pot to heat up a little. Here’s a look at it as it warms on our stove:

Even without having tasted a molecule of it, the aroma is pretty darn good. It just smells rich and savory, with its mix of three kinds of chiles (with the green being the dominant) and a smattering of spices in with the pork loin and broth. One of my intended uses for this simmer sauce was…pork, if you can believe it. Going overboard with the “other white meat” was not what I set out to do, but we had some lean pork chops that just seemed like they would go well with this sauce. After heating the chops on the grill, I added a layer of sauteed onions and peppers, then lathered on a little of the Hooties mild sauce on top to make my smothered pork chops complete. Here’s a look at the finished product:

Bursting with flavor, the sauce made the meal. Despite the “medium” moniker on this jar, this sauce carries some tangible heat if you eat enough of it. Despite the presence of more powerful-tasting peppers such as jalapenos and habaneros, it really is the green chiles that shine through with the taste, which is outstanding. The sauce is indeed thick, rich, and full of flavor and enough heat to keep you wanting a little more. Other than thinking that the sauce could use a touch or two of salt, it went as well as I could have hoped with this dish.

Besides this one dish, this sauce made for a good “gravy” for veggies, noodles, and whatever else could be dunked into it or have this sauce poured over it. Again, I liked the flavor and heat that this sauce provided, especially with the consistency of the sauce that made it stick-to-your-ribs kinda eating. I didn’t have any burritos or other Mexican fare to try with this one, so I saved that duty for the Hot version of this sauce.

Typically, I savor the opportunity to move up from mild to hot on any line of sauces and thought this would be no different. I heated up some of the Hot sauce to do a little taste-testing with some chips and other dip-ables, but was surprised to find out that the Hot sauce didn’t seem too much hotter to me than the Medium version. While it still maintained the same taste profile that I really dug from the Medium, the heat wasn’t ratcheted up as much as I expected.

I saved the burritos for the big finish, but in the meantime I gave this sauce a go with some grilled chicken. Seen below with the Hot sauce as a side dish/pourable:

Either poured over or dipped into, this sauce was also fabulous with chicken as well. Again, it really made my meal so much more enjoyable. This sauce seemed a little thicker and more pork-laden than the medium, but that didn’t have an adverse affect on any of the dishes I used it upon. With a heat level that I would say is a notch above a medium simmer (perhaps 6.5/10 or so), this one is still pretty user-friendly to wide audience with a manageable heat to go along with the flavor.

At last, my gastronomic coup d’etat was some rather mundane burritos that emerged from the freezer to give themselves up for my dinner one evening. Without any other condiment addition, such as cheese, sour cream, or guacamole, I poured the Hot sauce over the burritos with reckless abandon. Upon tasting, I wish I had saved a little more than I had used because this was fan-freakin-tastic! Not much to say different than what I’ve said already, but just lots more kudos for this as a good addition to Mexican fare.

Overall recommendation: Julie, you’ve done yourself proud with these two pork chile green sauce creations from out of your kitchen. Full of great, rich taste of green chiles and other peppers, both sauces carry enough heat to make most chileheads pretty pleased with the mix of heat and flavor. I would have liked to see the Hot sauce be a little bit more hot as compared to the Medium, but that is just my own heat craving doing the talking there. Whether you use this sauce for burritos or any other dish where you would consider a simmer/cooking sauce, these would be worth your while to try. Keep making these sauce, Julie. Hopefully, someday you will reach a wider audience with these tasty creations. Thanks!

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