Tomatillos add tanginess to this satisfying, slightly spicy braise/stew. Recipe below.
THE FRIDGE WAS SUDDENLY FULL OF THINGS NEEDING TO BE USED. There were habaneros from our garden, for instance. Impulse-bought tomatillos. Chicken thighs and cilantro not getting any fresher. Likewise bacon. At times like this, curiosity can be a valuable trait.
I consider myself a good cook—by no stretch, a great cook. But I am curious. Our shared curiosity is what drives a lot of what Marion and I cook here at Blue Kitchen. New-to-us ingredients in markets and specialty shops, things seen on restaurant menus, food magazines and emails, and even random passages in novels can all spark something we cook.
That curiosity led me to search for things to do with chicken and tomatillos, which led me in turn to a dish called Tomatillo Chicken. A braise/stew, it is nominally a traditional Mexican dish. I say nominally because ingredients vary even more widely from recipe to recipe than with most traditional dishes. They all contain tomatillos—it’s in the name. Similarly, they all include chicken, but some thighs only, some thighs and drumsticks, some an entire chicken—and skin on or off. They all include onions and some kind of peppers—mostly jalapeño, some canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce.
Then recipes jump all over the place—hominy, radishes, tortillas, potatoes… So we did what we always do when there are variations in so-called traditional dishes: we picked what we liked in a number of dishes—and in this case, what we had in our fridge—and made it our own.
Tomatillo Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs—good-sized ones
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3/4 – 1 pound tomatillos
- 2 large white potatoes
- 1 medium onion
- 2 large cloves garlic, minced
- 1 habanero pepper (or jalapeño or canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce—see Kitchen Notes)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish
- 4 strips bacon (optional—see Kitchen Notes)
- olive oil
- 1 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch, if needed
Instructions
- Season chicken generously with salt and pepper and set aside while you prep the vegetables.
- Peel husks from tomatillos and rinse them under warm water to remove sticky residue. Cut tomatillos into 1/2-inch pieces (or thereabouts—they’re spheres, after all).
- Rinse potatoes. You can peel them or not, depending on how thick the skin is, then dice into 1/2-inch pieces (same caveat about non-square shape of potatoes).
- Peel and chop onion.
- Chop the habanero or other pepper. Remove the seeds for the habanero—they’re hot—and chop finely. If you’re using a jalapeño, you can remove as much of the seeds and ribs as you like. For the canned chipotle, chop the whole thing. NOTE: whatever pepper you’re using, wash your hands multiple times and don’t rub your eyes.
- Put the bacon in a large, cold lidded sauté pan. Turn the heat to medium-high and cook, turning frequently, until crisp. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate. (You’ll only use 2 strips of cooked bacon in the dish, but you want the bacon fat. You can reserve the other 2 cooked strips for a “future use”—in our house, that means eating it now.)
- If the bacon doesn’t create enough fat—ours didn’t—drizzle in a little olive oil to barely coat the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken, skin side down, and cook until nicely browned, at least 6 minutes. Turn the chicken, reduce the heat to medium, and cook for 4 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate and set aside.
- Add onion, garlic and pepper (not the canned chipotle, if using) to the pan and cook, stirring for 1 minute.
- Add tomatillo to pan, stir to combine everything and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add potato, canned chipotle (if using) and 1/4-cup of cilantro to pan and stir to combine.
- Add broth, water and oregano to pan. Crumble up the bacon and add that, if using. Stir and scrape up any browned bits. Bring to a boil over high heat, then nestle in chicken pieces, reduce to a simmer and cook, partially covered, for 25 to 30 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and potatoes are quite tender. If the sauce cooks down too much, stir in a little water.
- Conversely, if the sauce remains too watery, thicken it slightly with cornstarch: remove the chicken to a plate, then mix 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 1 tablespoon cold water in a small bowl. Spoon a little of the sauce into the cornstarch bowl and stir it in. Do this a few times; you are warming the cornstarch mixture so it doesn’t clot up. Gradually stir it into the pan to completely combine and cook for 2 to 3 minutes to allow it to thicken the sauce.
- Serve. Spoon the tomatillo/potato mixture into shallow soup bowls. Top with a piece of chicken, then scatter chopped cilantro over as a garnish. Besides a knife and fork, make sure everyone has a spoon to scoop up all the sauce!
Some of my best meals have been made from little bits of stuff I had in the refrigerator. This look quite good — some serious flavor. Fun, creative dish — thanks.
Ooh, thanks Terry! I just put this recipe on my desktop so I don’t forget to make it.
Do they have canned tomatillos?
John, that’s often a fun challenge, figuring out what to do with what you have in the fridge and pantry.
Susie, I’m not sure if tomatillos come canned, but fresh are so good and so easy to work with. There in Southern California, I’m sure you’ll find beautiful fresh ones!
This sounds like a wonderfully flavorful dish.
Thanks, Terry!
Hi Terry and Marion, I wanted to drop by to say we’ve just posted our last blog post. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your blog, and I’ll still be visiting (after all, you guys are some of my oldest blogging friends!). But we’ve got a lot of activities lined up that will be occupying my time, so my visits will be much more sporadic in the future. Best wishes to you.
Marion saw that you announced your farewell (I was negotiating Cincinnati’s hilly, non-gridded streets at the time, so she had to tell me as I drove). I absolutely understand, but we will miss your wonderful recipes and great writing and fabulous cocktail histories. Enjoy what comes next, John.