Tomatillo Chicken Stew

September is tomatillo season around here. Little green lanterns hang from our tomatillo plants like ornaments on a well decorated Xmas tree.

Do you ever cook with tomatillos? They look like smallish green tomatoes, and are even called “tomate verde” in Mexico, and are used for making salsa verde and chile verde.

Tomatillos are typically boiled with some chiles to make the green salsa, but roasting them, as I’ve done in this recipe, will bring out more flavor. If you don’t have access to fresh tomatillos, you can use canned salsa verde for the sauce (sort of like using canned tomatoes versus fresh).

I experimented with the jalapeños; it’s so easy to misjudge how much heat you’ll need. The first time I made this I carefully seeded one chile and the result was that I couldn’t even taste the heat or the chile. The second time I used two jalapeños and kept all the seeds.

Woo boy, big difference.

It was perfectly hot for my father, and I needed a little sour cream to cool it down enough for me. Now both of the chiles were from our garden, and were not overly picante.

If you are working with chiles with lots of striations, check the hotness first. If a tiny bite sets you running for a fire extinguisher, don’t use as much.

Tomatillo Chicken Stew Recipe

You can make this recipe with fresh tomatillos, or you can use canned chile verde tomatillo salsa as a substitute for the tomatillo sauce.

Ingredients

Tomatillo Sauce

• 1 1/2 lbs tomatillos
• 1-2 jalapeño chile peppers, or 2-3 serrano chili peppers (include the seeds if you want the heat, remove them if you don't want the heat), stems discarded, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tbsp lime (or lemon) juice
• Pinch of sugar

Stew

• 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts, trimmed of excess fat, cut into 1-inch cubes
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil
• 2 yellow onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 2 cups tomatillo sauce
• 1 teaspoon dry oregano or 1 tablespoon fresh, chopped
• 1/2 cup packed chopped cilantro (about one bunch, rinsed and chopped, stems and leaves)

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