Tomatillos had me the first time I laid eyes on them. Who can resist their appearance, with the papery covering on each one, like a gift ready to be unwrapped? And once unwrapped, they add a delicious tangy taste to sauces
and stews. As soon as I saw a pile of them at the grocery store, I decided to make this stew. The original recipe calls for pork loin, but I decided to use boneless chicken thighs that I had on hand instead. The resulting stew was delicious and comforting, improving as it aged, so it's the type of dish that can be made a day ahead and will taste better. It's low in fat, filling, and full of healthy veggies. It also has cumin in it, one of my favorite spices. But, we'll call it an herb this week, to qualify for Weekend Herb Blogging, created by the fabulous Kalyn at Kalyn's Kitchen, but hosted this week by the very talented Pille at Nami Nami. She will have a round-up of herby recipes posted on Monday, so don't forget to check out her site.
Cumin has such a distinctive taste, and I can't imagine certain types of food, such as Mexican, or Middle-Eastern, made without it. I keep cumin seed and ground cumin on hand at all times. I can't resist the sweet smokey taste it lends to food and usually get heavy handed with it. It certainly tasted good in this stew. There is a mystery to this recipe. The pictures of it in Food & Wine, show a stew with a pale green sauce. My stew used the requisite amount of tomatillos, but turned out bright red. Food & Wine's picture? Nary a trace of red. I'm wondering if the magazine left out the large amount of red tomatoes, for the appearance of the dish? How can you add that many tomatoes and not have a red sauce? I'm just saying.
And any dish that gives you an opportunity to eat tortilla chips is just fine by me.
Chicken And Tomatillo Stew
(Food & Wine)
Note: The original recipe uses pork loin, cut into pieces. You can replace the chicken with the pork, if you wish.)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken thighs, cut into 3-inch chunks
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 large celery ribs, finely diced
1 small red onion, finely diced
1 Anaheim chile, seeded and finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons mild chile powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin (I used a bit more)
Pinch of dried oregano
2 cups chicken stock or low-sodium broth
1 cup 1/2-inch-diced carrots
Two 6-ounce russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
One 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 pound tomatillos—husked, rinsed and cut into 1-inch dice
Hot sauce
Chopped cilantro, for garnish
Corn tortilla chips, for serving
directions
In a medium casserole or Dutch oven, heat the oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and cook over high heat until browned on 2 sides, about 2 minutes per side. Add the celery and onion and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 7 minutes. Add the diced chile, garlic, chile powder, cumin and oregano and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add the carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and tomatillos, cover and simmer over low heat until the chicken is cooked through, about 25 minutes.
Transfer the chicken to a plate and shred with two forks. Meanwhile, simmer the stew over moderate heat until thickened, about 10 minutes. Stir the shredded chicken into the stew and season with salt, pepper and hot sauce. Ladle the stew into bowls, garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with a few tortilla chips.
This looks delicious!!!
Posted by: Deborah | October 23, 2007 at 11:28 AM
I like red - I like this soup. Time to go to the spice shop to find cumin...
Tomatillos are darling; but those I know I won't find... Time to check my substitution bible...
Posted by: Katie | October 23, 2007 at 12:22 PM
Ummm...very odd indeed. I would think red would cancel green from that ingredient list. Maybe they didn't use the red tomatoes or maybe they used PhotoShop.
Anyway, yours looks lovely, I'll have a bowl and lots of chips please!
Posted by: MyKitchenInHalfCups | October 23, 2007 at 12:45 PM
Food and Wine's green picture? I have no idea. But I love dishes that are really better when they're made ahead. It's nice to have something you can make for the next day's meal.
Posted by: Julie | October 23, 2007 at 01:18 PM
This stew is just my kind of thing! And your photo of the tomatillos is beautiful.
Posted by: Lydia | October 23, 2007 at 02:04 PM
That looks really good and sounds tasty. I just discovered tomatillos recently and enjoyed them in a chili verde.
Posted by: Kevin | October 23, 2007 at 04:58 PM
Delicious!!!!!!! I too love the photo of tomatillos. They are rare in Australia (wonder why) so I can't try your recipe as yet. But I am VERY keen!
Posted by: Anh | October 23, 2007 at 05:08 PM
Very delicious. I love tomatillos. Very funny about the photo colors being different. I wonder if they made it differently than the recipe they posted, not realizing it!
Posted by: Kalyn | October 23, 2007 at 05:15 PM
This looks very warming as it's c-c-c-cold tonight...may I have seconds?
Posted by: Peter | October 23, 2007 at 05:30 PM
This looks and sounds delicious.
Posted by: Gretchen Noelle | October 24, 2007 at 07:00 AM
Sher, a mystery indeed. I also thought usually when using tomatillos, one naturally used less tomatoes, but what do I know? My girlfriend planted some and they were tiny about the size of your pinky nail!
Posted by: Callipygia | October 24, 2007 at 04:10 PM
Yummm! Tomatillos brighten the flavor in any dish! I've never tried it in a stew though....a lot of the blogs have been posting mexican stews with tomatillas...so I might need to give it a try soon to see for myself how it tastes :)
Posted by: Nabeela | October 25, 2007 at 09:44 PM
My God! That is SO my kind of food. Tagging immediately for future reference!
Posted by: Lisa | October 27, 2007 at 04:59 AM
Oh my goodness! This looks sooooo delicious. And I've got tomatillos growing in the greenhouse. Got to make me some of this! Thanks Sher.
Posted by: Christine | October 27, 2007 at 06:41 PM
Thank you for taking part at the WHB! I've come to love cumin over the last few years, using it quite frequently in our kitchen - a lovely warm spice!
Posted by: Pille | October 28, 2007 at 02:51 PM
Made this last night, finally! Delicious, and so easy--will definitely be a regular in the house. Thanks for sharing!
Posted by: Elle | July 02, 2008 at 06:31 AM
i love this spontaneous style of cokiong - it's so me. the fall flavours are so what i am in the mood for.i tried you new mexican baked potatoes as a sunday dinner with the whole extended family - went over very well. i can't say i followed the recipe exactly, as i am prone to improvisation, but thanks for the inspiration, which you continually provide!
Posted by: Talita | July 03, 2012 at 04:13 PM