Spicy Pollo Verde Soup
Three of the three tiny humans in my house have been sick this week. And all the mamas said '“Ughhhh.” I know well enough by now that sickness is inevitable with public school and young children, and while I haven’t cracked the code on how to keep us healthy all the time, I have decided that chicken stock is one of my best weapons in the fight. I was craving a flavorful broth with a twist this week, so I whipped up this riff on pozole verde. This is NOT pozole (no hominy for me!), but it certainly feels similar. As far as meals go, this is a pretty easy one to whip up. You start by broiling a bunch of peppers and onions, and then sear the chicken in a large dutch oven. Blitz up your delicious, crispy roasty-toasty peppers and dump it in with the chicken. Add stock and then let it simmer to perfection. That’s it!
I know a lot of you will hate it when I say this because you want exact directions, but you can really use any combination of peppers for this (promise). I went with jalapeños, poblanos, bell peppers and Anaheim chiles, but whatever you can get your hands on will be just fine. If you are nervous about how spicy this will be, remove some of the seeds before blitzing. Overall though, when this came together, I would rate it a 2.5/5 on the spice scale. Really not too hot at all, but of course each pepper is different. Reminder that the heat comes from the ribs and seeds, so just remove some before moving forward and you’ll be good to go. You will need a food processor for this or an immersion blender as a second choice.
SPICY POLLO VERDE SOUP
Yields 4-6 servings, 20 minute prep time, 1-3 hour simmer time
INGREDIENTS:
Olive oil
4 boneless skin-on chicken thighs
3-4 jalapeño peppers, depending on size
1 green bell pepper
3 poblano peppers
1 Anaheim Chile pepper
1 white onion
6 cloves garlic
6 tomatillos
6 cups chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste
Large handful cilantro
Cilantro, lime, tortilla chips to garnish
DIRECTIONS:
1.) Drizzle olive oil in a large dutch oven and turn to high heat. Generously salt and pepper the chicken thighs, then sear each side in the hot pan. Lower the heat once you have a golden brown crust on each side, and set the chicken aside.
2.) While the chicken is searing, very roughly chop the peppers, onion and garlic. Place them plus the whole husked tomatillos on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. Broil on high for 2-4 minutes, depending on your oven. You want these to be black and charred, but not burnt-burnt. Pay attention if your broiler is sassy and keep your eyes on things! Toss them around the pan and broil the opposite side.
3.) Add all of the peppers, onion and garlic to a food processor and pulse until everything is finely minced. Do this in two batches if necessary. Remove the whole tomatillos and toss them into the dutch oven. Allow the tomatillos to continue searing and browning. Stir to avoid burning.
4.) Pour your gorgeous sofrito verde in your dutch oven and cover with chicken stock. Scrape up the chicken bits from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon, and mix in all of the delicious chicken fond. Nestle the chicken thighs in, cover with a lid, and simmer on low until you’re ready to eat. The chicken will finish cooking through within 15 minutes, but the longer the better as far as flavor goes. I recommend letting the soup simmer for a couple of hours if you’re able to. Shred the chicken with two forks upon serving and add salt and pepper to taste.
5.) Garnish with fresh lime wedges, cilantro, avocado, sharp cheddar, radish, chopped onion, tortilla strips, or any combination of those!
