See that? That's a bowl of goodness. Right down to the very core of the meaning of the word goodness. That's like a massive ice cream cone on a 95+° day. That's like a Plymouth martini, straight up, extra dry, olives. That, my friends, is perfection.
You know, I never thought I'd grow up and hate snow days. Yet. Here I am. 30 years old (on the verge of 31), on March 2, 2009, coming to the realization that I, yes, I, hate snow days. But only because I am not at home enjoying it as Julie is. I'm sure if you're a teacher or some other sort of public school official, today pretty much rules for you. Honestly though Joel Klein? Come on. It's barely icy out there, there's no real snow in the city, and the subways are running. Did you really need a three-day weekend?
Which brings me to my second point. As I mentioned before, it's March 2. But, like, it's snowing and a gazillion degrees below freezing with the wind-chill. Well, maybe not that cold, but wow. I suppose this is the time when some jackass will quip "March! In like a lion out like a lamb!" You know what, jackass? Next time you say that? I'm gonna throw you to the fucking lions and see if you're so goddamn cheerful anymore. You think Daniel had it rough? You're not even going to get off as easily as Roy did. (Or was that Siegfried?).
Have you ever tried playing Jenga with cornbread? Let me tell you buddy; don't. How do you think one of my cats lost an eye? Yeah. Just don't.
I suppose, however, I should get to the food eventually right? Instead of spiting half the world and swearing a blue streak? I guess you guys deserve that. Especially when I hyped up this post with the caption for the first photo. Especially when this might have been the best chili that I've ever made and it doesn't contain neither tomatoes nor beef nor lamb. Did I mention this chili was fucking awesome? I don't know if I've successfully driven this point home enough yet. THIS CHILI WAS AWESOME!
But why this chili? Why this time? And why no beef nor lamb nor tomatoes? Ah! You see, the idea was, well, the idea was, "I've got some chicken in the freezer, I should use it to make something instead of buying more meat." So, I made a menu for the week including a green chicken chili on it for Sunday night (more on the color later) and then I went off to the store to buy food for the week.
Has anyone noticed what I left out in that last paragraph? Lets look at the facts: 1. Chicken in the freezer on Saturday. 2. Chicken Chili for dinner on Sunday. 3. Going to the store to get food. Wait?! Where's the part where you take the chicken out of the freezer so it can thaw before you cook it? Well, that's where it gets difficult. See. I forgot to do this. So I had to buy some chicken thighs. This was OK with me since they're pretty cheap, and lets face it, I was going to have to buy more chicken sometime soon. So chicken thighs are obtained (and I still have a chicken in the freezer that I need to take out tonight).
So back to the chili program here. Note that I said green chicken chili, but if you look at the photo there isn't much green about it. Well, that wasn't for the lack of trying. And then giving up. But mostly not for the lack of trying. But, all being said and done, this was the best chili I've ever made. And now I will tell you why. Resting. Oh. And gelatin. Lots of gelatin from the thighs dissolving into the chili. The rest allowed the gelatin to thicken, so, I guess, if you were to press me on the one reason that this chili was awesome it would be gelatin, but like, hey, resting also had something to do with it.
I also took a very easy way out and did all the chopping of the veggies in the food processor which released a lot of liquid that subsequently reduced adding an intense fresh chili taste and a moderate amount of heat which worked out super well.
"Green" Chicken Chili
- 6 chicken thighs, trimmed of excess skin and fat, but still with skin and on the bone.
- 2 cups chicken stock. Homemade please!
- 1 delicious beer. Homemade if you got it, suckers!
- 1 red pepper (reason number 2 this wasn't so green)
- 1 yellow pepper (reason number 3 this wasn't so green)
- 1 lbs tomatillos (why it was supposed to be green) peeled and rinsed.
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1/2 head of cilantro, cleaned and leaves picked off
- the juice of one lime
- 3 jalapeños, stem removed. Seeds removed if you don't like heat.
- 3 poblano chilis, same as above
- 2 serrano chilis, same as above
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 medium onion
- 3 massive handfuls tortilla chips, crushed
- 2 dried ancho chilis
- 2 dried chipotle chilis
- 2 dried mulato chilis
- 2 tbls cumino seed
- 1 tbls corriander seed
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tbls smoked paprika
For the chili powder:
- Put everything but the oregano and paprika in a skillet on the stove and toast over medium heat until fragrant. Cool on a plate and grind in an old coffee grinder, mortar and pestle, whatever. Add the paprika and oregano.
- Place the peppers, chilies, onion and garlic in the food processor and pulse about six or seven times until everything is finely chopped, but not liquified.
- Place the tomatillos, lime juice, sugar and cilantro in the food processor and turn on until it's liquified.
- Turn your oven on to 250° F and place an oven safe dutch oven over medium heat on the stove.
- Season chicken on both sides well with salt and pepper.
- When the pan is hot, add a tbls of olive oil and spread it around, raise the heat to medium high and add the chicken skin side down.
- Brown the chicken well on the skin side for about five to six minutes, then flip and do the same on the other side.
- Vacate the chicken from the pan and if there's too much rendered fat, pour it off and save it or wipe it out; you only need about 1 tbls. When youv'e done this, add the veggies, a good pinch of salt and lower the heat to medium.
- Sweat the veggies for about 10-15 minutes or until they're like a soft paste. Clear a spot in the pan and add the chili powder (add about half now and wait until later to see if you need more.). Let the chili powder cook in the pan for a minute or so and then mix well into the vegetables.
- When you've mixed it all together, add the tomatillo puree, 12 oz of beer and the chicken (with accumulated juices) back to the pot. Not enough liquid? Add chicken stock until there is. (You want the chicken covered with liquid).
- Raise the heat to high and bring to a boil.
- When it's boiling give it a good stir and place in the oven for 4 hours, stirring every 30 minutes or so.
- 3 hours in, add the corn chips and stir them well.
- When its' done the chicken should be entirely separated from the bones (it should pretty much shred itself) so fish out the bones and whatever skin you can find (it'll be rubbery if it's whole) and let rest for at least 1 hour.
- Bring back to a quick boil before serving over cumin-scented rice.
Cumin-scented rice
I totally stole this from my dad- 1 tbls cumin seed
- 1 cup rice
- 2 cups water
- 1 tbls olive oil
- Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a pot on the stove, add the cumin and toast for a minute or two until it's fragrant.
- Add the rice and toast the rice, stirring frequently, for another minute or two until it smells "toasty"
- Add the water, cover and bring to a boil
- Reduce to the lowest heat (electric stove owners, you should have another burner pre-heated to it's lowest setting prior to this) and let simmer for 15 minutes, tightly covered.
- Turn off the heat and let sit for 15 minutes. (Electric stove overs, move to either a trivet or a cold, turned off burner).
- Eat
Cornbread!
- 1/2 cup AP flour
- 1 1/2 cups course cornmeal
- 1 1/4 cup buttermilk (or 1 1/4 cup milk and 1 tbls white vinegar mixed and left to sit for 3-4 minutes)
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbls butter or olive oil (or bacon drippins, add the crumbled bacon to the batter)
- 1 tbls sugar (more for sweeter corn bread). 2 tbls honey would be good here too.
- 1 can creamed corn (if you have it)
- Pre-heat the oven to 375°F
- Mix the dry ingredients together, and beat the egg into the milk.
- Heat up an oven proof pan on the stove top (cast iron skillets rule here) and add the butter to melt it.
- When the butter is melted, pour the batter into the pan and place in the oven for 40 minutes or until done.
I'm no chef. I'm barely a cook. And certainly not in the professional sense. I work in mobile for a living, but I enjoy cooking almost as much as I love 
