JJ and son!!! pic by Joseph Webb
Guest contributor!!!JJ Gonson from Boston competed in the recent Boston Chili Takedown, and contributes her now famous recipe for you to peruse! Please enjoy!! Oo and know this: JJ is a big proponent of sustainable urban agriculture and locally grown food- check out her wicked awesome blog!
Chicken Chili Verde with White Beans
By JJ Gonson for Cuisine en Locale
Chili comes in all kinds of colors. My personal favorite is green. Traditionally chili verde is made with tomatillos, but in late spring/early summer, unripe (green) tomatoes will do the trick just as well. You may find you need to boost the acidity a bit, but a little lime juice and salt can do wonders for transforming a lowly unripe tomato into a base for a fantastic chili verde. Play with the proportions to suit your tastes and make it your own.
4 poblano chilies
2 jalapeno chilies
1 large roasting chicken, about six pounds roughly cut up. You can also use pieces.
3-4 lbs of green tomatoes or tomatillos
1 large white onions, or several smaller ones
1 bunch of cilantro
1 whole bulb of garlic, or the equivalent of garlic and garlic scapes
Juice of 2 large limes (or more)
1/4 c. cumin
1 t each sea salt and freshly ground pepper, more to taste
2 T sugar or honey (or traditionalists might use a couple of T of orange juice concentrate!)
Chicken or vegetable stock as needed
About 3 cups of cooked white beans, canned or presoaked and boiled until soft
In the oven, roast the peppers and chilies at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, or until the skins are bubbly and browning. Place the peppers aside in a sealed bag or a covered bowl and allow to sit until cool. When they are no longer too hot to handle peel the skins off as much as possible. Remove the stems and seeds. If you want your chili very spicy retain some of the jalapeno seeds- that is where their heat lives.
Remove the stems from the cilantro, chunk the remaining vegetables (the onions, tomatoes and the garlic) and puree all of them in a food processor. Add the chilies and continue until they are a pureed sauce. Stir in the lime juice, cumin and salt and pepper and sugar (or honey or OJ) and place in a sauce pot on the stove. Heat the sauce until it is simmering then submerge the chicken in it, adding stock if needed to cover.
Continue to cook at a bare simmer until the chicken is falling off the bone- about 1 hour on a stove top. Or, if you wish to cook in a crock pot, heat the sauce first and then pour over the chicken in the crock pot and cook for 4 hours on high.
When the chicken is done remove it from the sauce and allow it to cool until you can handle it, then remove the skin and bones and pull the meat into little pieces before stirring it back into the finished chili along with the cooked beans. Heat through before serving.
Top with fresh lime and cilantro and serve with rice
