This dish is sort of a mash-up of Chicken Tortilla Soup and Chile Verde. I experimented by taking ideas from a few different recipes, and ditching the measuring cups and spoons.
Ingredients:
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into small pieces (you can use chicken thighs if you want to impart more flavor, moisture, and fat)
- 1 chopped onion
- 3-6 cloves chopped garlic
- 2 diced anaheim chiles (or poblano/pasilla chiles)
- 10 tomatillos - husked and chopped
- 1/2 or 1 Bell pepper (I like red for contrast and flavor, green works well too in keeping it verde. If you feel bold, go with yellow or orange)
- 4 cups or so chicken broth
- Olive oil
- Oregano
- Chili powder
- Cumin
- Paprika
- Salt
- Pepper
- Cinnamon (2 sticks preferred, but a few dashes of ground cinnamon is fine too)
- 1-3 zucchinis (depends on size)
- Cilantro
- Tortilla chips (or Fritos)
Cooking instructions:
- Chop everything in advance, except for the zucchini (that comes at the end)
- Season the chicken with olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Heat a wok or skillet on high heat with olive oil.
- Add chicken and toss and stir for a couple minutes. This is to give the chicken some color. You may want to do this in two batches to get good color - don't crowd the pan.
- Transfer to a slow cooker, crock pot, or cooking pot [hereby called the "chicken pot"]
- Add more oil to the pan and add chopped onion and garlic for a few minutes, then transfer to the chicken pot.
- Add more oil to the pan and add bell peppers and chiles and saute for a few minutes, then transfer to the chicken pot.
- Add the tomatillos and chicken broth to the chicken pot along with oregano, chili powder, cumin, paprika, additional salt and pepper.
- Stir everything around in the chicken pot to mix in the seasoning and various ingredients. If you are using ground cinnamon, put a few dashes of that in before stirring, if you are using cinnamon sticks, add that in after stirring and submerge it in the mixture.
- Slow cook that bad boy
- If slow cooking or crock potting, set it on low and slow for at least 4 hours. If you have a high setting, maybe 2.5 hours is enough, but generally longer and lower the better.
- You can alternatively simmer over the stove for a couple hours, stirring occasionally.
- If you're pressed for time, just bring it to a boil then set on medium for 15-20 minutes.
- Add chopped zucchini with about 30 minutes remaining to avoid getting it too mushy.
- Serve in a bowl with cilantro and crushed tortilla chips.
Some other tasty tips:
- Add canned corn at some point for extra goodness and color.
- Since I use a slow cooker and am a firm believer in low-and-slow, I like to do steps 1-9 the night before and throw it in the fridge. In the morning, I put it in the slow cooker and set it for the maximum 9-hours so its ready when I get home.
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