I did make something amazing last week though.
We eat a lot of Mexican food, and usually it's prepared more or less the same way- rice, beans, some sauteed veggies, and chicken spiced with cumin and peppers and topped with cheese. The base of rice and beans is cheap, filling, and healthy, and by shredding the chicken we stretch it out longer for days longer than eating a breast each for dinner. As much as I like it, I was getting tired of it. Epicurious.com is my go-to website for finding new recipes when I'm not sure exactly what I want to fix, but I now I want something different (and Cooks Illustrated is my go-to when I know exactly what I want). My parents gave me and my husband early Christmas presents of iPhones and I've been using the epicurious app a LOT in the kitchen- I don't have to print out any recipes I find and I can double check the ingredient list in the grocery store.
I found a Chicken with Tomatillo Sauce and Braised Fruit recipe that is AMAZING and unlike any other Mexican dish I have prepared at home. By using a few substitutions, I had nearly everything on hand. The only "special ingredients" I had to buy were pears and tomatillos. I substituted dried cranberries for dried cherries, ground cinnamon for the stick, ignored the epazote leaves and green onions per the comments, and completely forgot to buy tomatillos. I was really disappointed in myself for forgetting the tomatillos, but I discovered that in some recipes, green tomatoes and a bit of lime can be substituted for tomatillos. Since my tomato plants decided to produce some late harvest tomatoes that would never have time to ripen before the first frost, I went out and gathered up all the remaining tomatoes I could find. From what I understand, green tomatoes have a similar tartness to the tomatillos (but not a crispness) and don't cook down like ripe tomatoes. This recipe definitely tastes like fall/winter goodness because of the pear, but it was published in a June 2007 magazine - possibly because that's when tomatillos are in season.
I'm salivating just seeing this picture |
ingredients
- 1 (3-pound) chicken, quartered
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 large onion, halved, thinly sliced crosswise
- 4 large garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 tablespoons minced chipotle chiles (from canned chipotles in adobo)* (or a cayenne pepper)
- 2 pounds tomatillos, husked, rinsed, quartered (or green tomatoes cut into bite size pieces)
- 1 cinnamon stick (or a generous helping of ground cinnamon)
- 1 pound pears, peeled, cored, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 4 ounces dried apricots (about 2/3 cup)
- 3 ounces dried cherries or cranberries (about 1/2 cup packed)
- Warm tortillas
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