Late January.
It’s far enough past the hustle, bustle and hangover of the holidays that one morning you wake up and find numbing routine knocking on the door once again.
The pristine freshness of winter’s first snows has long faded; fantasies of wet wading, summer caddis hatches and bikini tops in the drift boat rule the day.
Thoughts of high summer fishing are soon followed by visions of summer food – ribeyes and thick-cut, bone-in (what the hell, let’s brine those puppies too) pork chops on the grill. Brisket, ribs and pork shoulders humming in the smoker. Cold beer in the cooler and the blender making boat drinks.
Oh damn. It’s still late January.
Here’s something that will take a bit of winter’s edge off – a old friend in South Texas (thanks Eric) suggested these Salsa Verde Chicken Thighs a few weeks ago.
I was at first a bit hesitant about the canned salsa verde, but when fresh tomatillas to make a salsa verde were nowhere to be found – we sampled several canned versions and found them all, with appropriate libations and good chips, quite passible and dammit, even good.
This is a cinch to throw together, can all be done right in the kitchen so there’s no frostbite risk at the grill and taste particularly good with last week’s Tamarind Margaritas.
8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. butter
1-2 tsp. coarse salt
1-2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1 poblano chile, sliced into rings
2 carrots, chopped medium
2 celery stalks, chopped medium
1 onion, chopped medium
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 bay leaves
6 small (7-ounce) cans salsa verde (yep, the cans)
2-3 cups chicken stock
4 tbsp. fresh cilantro leaves; reserve and chop the stems
Preheat the oven to 300.
Brown those thighs. In your lidded dutch oven or large, heavy roaster heat the olive oil and butter over medium-high heat to nearly smoking. Dust the thighs with salt and pepper and place skin side down to brown (4-7 minutes). Turn and brown the other side; remove the thighs.
Caramelize. Now add the carrot, celery, onion, garlic, poblano rings and the bay leaves. Cook until the vegetables soften and begin to color a bit.
Now for the good stuff. Add the thighs back to the pot, nestling them into the vegetables. Pour in the salsa verde, add the chopped cilantro stems and enough stock to nearly cover the thighs. Stir it up, bring to a boil, shut off the burner heat and cover.
Braise for an hour. Pop into the oven (covered) and braise for an hour; check then to see if the chicken is cooked through and tender. Add time as needed.
Thicken it up. If needed, pop back onto a burner on the stove and simmer to thicken the sauce (we usually don’t have to).
Serve it hot, ladled into a bowl, sprinkled with the cilantro leaves, with a big spoon of Mexican rice and homemade corn tortillas. And cold cerveza.
Enjoy.
