Tomatillo Chicken Stew

Tomatillo Chicken Stew and Acorn Squash Quesadillas

Tonight's dinner was inspired by the fact that I bought 2lbs of tomatillos from our community produce coop and needed to do something with them!  The recipe was taken from simplyrecipes.com - with a few adjustments for our taste.

Tomatillo Sauce
2 lbs tomatillos
1 - 2 jalapeno chile peppers (include seeds if you want heat, remove them for mild flavor).  We used 1 jalapeno, no seeds and it was very mild
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp lime juice
pinch of sugar


Stew
1 - 1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces ( I used 2 of the frozen chicken breasts)
salt and pepper
olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 cup chicken stock
1 15oz can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
2 cups of tomatillo sauce
1 tsp dry oregano or 1 Tbsp fresh, chopped
advocado or guacamole - optional
sour cream - optional
tortilla chips - optional
Cilantro *** the original recipe calls for 1/2 cup cilantro - I think this is too much... plus I have a cilantro hater in the family, so none on ours.  I had some on hand to add at the table, but I liked it without it.  If you love cilantro, you may want to add some at very end of cooking time.


Method:
1 Make the tomatillo sauce.  Remove the papery husks from tomatillos and rinse will.  Cut the tomatillos in half and place them cut side down on aluminum foil lined rimmed cookie sheet.  Broil 7 minutes - skin will be blackened in spots.  Let cool to handle.  Place them along with any juice they released, jalapenos, garlic, salt, lime juice and sugar in a blender and pulse until well blended.  Refrigerate until ready to use (if made ahead of time).

2.  Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a large pot on medium -high heat until very hot.  Pat dry the chicken pieces with a paper towel.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Place chicken pieces into hot oil - don't let the chicken pieces touch - you want to brown them, not steam them).  You will probably have to do this in batches, adding olive oil as needed.  Let pieces brown on one side, then turn them over and let them brown on other side.  The chicken will not be done - just browned.  When they are browned, remove them to a bowl.

3 Turn heat down to medium.  Add onions to the pan, picking up the browned bits from the chicken that are sticking to bottom of pan.  Add cumin and coriander and cook a few minutes, stirring and getting all the browned bits up.  Add garlic and cook 30 seconds.

4.  Add browned chicken, tomatillo sauce, chicken stock, kidney beans and oregano to pan.  Stir to combine.  Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and simmer for 20 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

5. Enjoy!  This may be served over rice since the soup is quite thin.  Because Paul and I do not eat many grains, we add avocado or guacamole at the table to make soup creamier.  You may also add sour cream , cilantro, and tortilla chips.  ( I also bet corn would be delicious in this soup, but Paul can not have corn, so we haven't tried it that way).

You will have leftover tomatillo sauce - it is a delicious salsa verde and can be eaten with chips or on top of heuvos rancheros, beans, burritos, enchiladas, chicken....gosh I think you could add this to just about anything it is so good!

Our daughters - ages 9 and 6 had Acorn Cheese Quesadillas with their stew.  See the next post for that recipe!