Chile Verde con Pollo

Poblanos, the large dark green triangular and generally mild peppers originating from Puebla, Mexico, are my favorite peppers. One of my most favorite ways to eat them is mixed with tomatillos in the stew called chile verde, a hearty and delicious northern Mexican and New Mexican stew. Chile verde is the opposite of chile colorado, so-called "colored" chile made with dried red chiles. I love both, but my answer to the question "Red or green?" is almost always green.

Chile Verde con Pollo

While chile verde is typically made with pork, I also like it made with chicken thighs. In this version, I poached chicken thighs in water for three hours, then picked the meat from the bones and returned the meat to the chicken stock before adding the remaining ingredients and cooking for another hour.

Chile Verde Ingredients

To the chicken stock and chicken, I add chopped yellow onion, poblanos, green onions, cilantro, minced garlic, and tomatillos. Sometimes I roast the onions, poblanos, garlic, and tomatillos before making the stew. Sometimes not. Chile verde is a soup/stew of infinite variation, for example, sometimes I add hominy (posole) and call it posole verde.

In the summer when working with fresh tomatillos, I would husk them and put them on a sheet tray in the oven and roast them until the skins start to brown. In the off-months, I use canned tomatillos. Because so many packers add additional acid to the tomatillos as a preservative, I drain and rinse them to prevent the sauce from becoming too acidic. Then, I put the tomatillos back in the can, add water or stock, and blitz them with the immersion blender.  You do not have to do this. With sufficient cooking, they will fall apart on their own.