Southwestern Braised Chicken Thighs

When it comes to chicken, I've always grilled, fried or roasted it. Braising was something I hadn't done that often. With bone-in thighs on sale recently, I decided that it was time to get my braise-on and throw together a platter of Southwestern-style chicken.

The main reason I don't opt for cooking chicken in braises or steam, is the skin. I love it crispy! There is so much flavor there. I've been guilty of picking the skin off entire pieces of chicken and leaving what's rest for someone else to finish. A habit that would give me a great shot at employee of the month if I worked at Kentucky Fried Chicken!

What I found after preparing this dish was searing the chicken in a hot pan to start with was the secret. The brown crust provided texture on the skin and the fond on the bottom of the pan added yummy-goodness to the tomato-poblano sauce the chicken was braised in.

The braising liquid featured poblano pepper, tomatoes and cumin. This complimented the chicken, gave the rice plenty of flavor to absorb and was the real binder to the recipe's overall flavor.

In the end, I was really surprised by the absolute decadence of this dish. I would make it again for just about any occasion. And here is the best part: The cost of the entire dish – less than $7! (That's with the thighs on sale for 98¢ a pound.)

BEHIND THIS BITE
I haven't been posting as much since I moved last fall, but I have been cooking more than any other time in my life. Now that I'm starting to settle into my new location, I'm finding more time not only to cook but also prepare posts. In an effort to share more, I'm going to be doing a lot more posts that feature just a nice artsy picture or two of the dish. I'm still going to be doing my signature-style recipe graphics, but I want to share more of what I'm doing in the kitchen and I can do a post like this in less than an hour, a recipe graphic takes between 6 and 10!

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE
Serves 4, 1 hour
3 lbs Chicken Thighs
2 Poblano peppers, diced
1 Red Onion, diced
4 Garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbs Cumin
2 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Red Pepper flakes
1 Can Diced Tomatoes (14.5 oz)
1 C Chicken broth
1 1/2 Rice
3 C water

Brown Chicken
Season chicken with salt and pepper to taste. Heat a little oil in a large skillet over medium high heat, brown chicken on both sides. 4 to 6 minutes per side. Remove to paper-towel lined plate.

Make sauce
In hot drippings, saute onion and poblano pepper until soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Add cumin, oregano, red pepper flakes and garlic. Stir and cook until fragrant. 1 to 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and chicken broth, scrape browned bits from bottom of pan and bring to a simmer.

Braise chicken, cook rice
Add chicken to pan, once mixture returns to simmer, cover, reduce heat to medium and let cook 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Stir occasionally. Add rice and water to sauce pan or pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes. Turn off heat, keep covered for 10 minutes more. Remove lid and fluff

Serve
Make a bed of rice on a large platter, spoon half of sauce on rice. Arrange chicken thighs on top. Spoon other half of sauce onto chicken, then serve.

Southwest Grilled Cheese

Printable version

I made this sandwich to go with my spicy chipotle tomato soup. It needed balance and a grilled cheese is perfect for that. The soup included poblano pepper in the mirepoix and I thought it would be nice to tie the sandwich to the soup by including poblano in a relish to go on the sandwich.

Along with the pepper, the relish also features caramelized onions, corn, lime and cilantro, which combine to provide the southwestern element to the grilled cheese. The relish would be a nice accompaniment to a steak or make a nice side dish in general. I use shredded Monterrey jack cheese rather than slices so that the relish and cheese would melt together like pizza toppings inside the sandwich. I’m sure slices would been just fine, but I knew the shredded cheese would guarantee the gooey binder I was looking for.

This was the first time I had tried a relish mixture inside of a grilled cheese. Overall it worked really well, adding flavor and giving extra texture to the sandwich. I dipped this into the soup and gobbled down two by myself, which probably suggests that I liked the final product.

BEHIND THIS BITE

Southwest Grilled Cheese

I have been reluctant to do sandwiches for the blog out of pure laziness. The layer by layer breakdown is a lot of work to create, so initially I tend to grimace when I think of creating a sandwich here, but in this case I absolutely had to. The tomato soup needed a grilled cheese to complete its culinary destiny. I could find a simpler way to present it, but to stay true to the overall style and presentation of my recipes, the layer by layer stack is the most effective to present a grilled cheese.

This is the best layer by layer presentation so far. My best effort before this was a patty melt back in April. After putting this together I realized it wasn’t as much work as I had thought, so I hope to do unique sandwiches here at the blog a little more often.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE

Southwest Grilled Cheese

Makes 8 sandwiches; 45 minutes
1 C Red onion diced
1 C Poblano pepper, seeded, diced
1 can Sweet corn, seeded, diced
Juice of 1 Lime
2 Tbs Fresh cilantro
1/2 C Mayo
16 slices Bread
4 C Monterrey jack cheese, shredded

Make relish
In a sauté pan over medium heat cook onions in a little olive oil until soft and caramelized, stirring occasionally, 15 to 20 minutes. Add corn and poblano pepper, cook until pepper is soft and corn is heated through, 4 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and let cool. Stir in lime juice and cilantro.

Make sandwiches
Spread a thin layer of mayo on sides of bread to be grilled. Layer shredded cheese, scoop of relish, more shredded cheese and top piece of bread. Repeat 8 times. Grill sandwiches until bread is golden brown and cheese is melted, flipping half way through. Then serve.

Grilled Tomato Poblano Salsa

Printable version

The garden vegetable frenzy has begun. Last week my Dad canned a dozen and a half quarts of green beans – the first bounty taken from the garden in 2013. Cucumbers, peppers, corn, tomatoes and a number of homegrown treats will soon follow. It won’t be long before enough has been canned for the winter and there is plenty of fresh vegetables for every meal.

Huge bowls of tomatoes will sit on the counters attracting little black flying bugs. Spoiled vegetables will start to litter the garden floor and then the inevitable: Teenagers will find the rotten leftovers and start chucking them at passing vehicles and unsuspecting bystanders. It’s my annual duty to produce recipes to help rid the garden of these potential hazards.

For this recipe, I grill up a mess of fresh veggies from the garden. I then blitz them in a food processor, creating a fire roasted salsa. It’s perfect for an August snack and an easy way to keep the garden floor clear of any would-be projectiles.

BEHIND THIS BITE

Yummy grilled salsa!

This is the first garden-centric recipe this summer. For the next couple of months I’ll do a bunch of these from ingredients that is grown in either my Dad’s garden or some other relative or neighbor who has more bounty than they can handle.

It starts with tomatoes, beans and cucumbers and will end with the winter squash. It’s hard to believe it’s August already and the gardens are producing. Before you know it, the leaves will be changing and football will be in full swing - and so will the tailgating!

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE

Salsa nestled in tortilla chips

Makes 2 cups; 45 minutes
5 Roma tomatoes whole
2 Poblano peppers whole
1 Onion quartered
4 cloves Garlic
1/2 C Cilantro
2 Tbs White vinegar
1 Tbs Sugar
1 bag Tortilla chips
for dipping

Grill vegetables, clean
On a grill over medium heat cook tomato, poblano, onion and garlic for 10 to 12 minutes, turning to sear on all sides. Remove vegetables and let cool for handling. Remove skins from tomato, stems and seeds from poblano peppers.

Process
In a food processor place tomatoes, poblano, onion, garlic, vinegar, sugar and cilantro. Pulse to combine and chop to desired consistency. Serve with tortilla chips.