There's a bonus feature to this recipe, that that's a quick side note about making chicken stock from the chicken bones. Most of the ingredients necessary to make the soup are also necessary to make chicken stock, which can then be frozen for future use. You can make six to eight cups of chicken stock for just a little more than the cost of one can of store bought stock, but healthier since you can control the sodium content, oil, and other factors. Piggy backing cooking efforts like this saves time and save a lot of money in the long run. I don't think I've had to buy chicken broth in over 6 months since I started this practice.
I made this soup back in October, so I had access to fresh chile which I roasted on my grill and chopped up in large meaty chunks. If you can buy whole chiles in the can, just do a rough chop so you get nice hearty chunks of chile in the soup. First, though, let's look at the recipe.
Chicken Chile Verde
1 chicken, roasted, boned, and chopped
5 cups chicken broth
1 cup chopped green chile
10-12 smallish tomatillos cut into bite-sized chunks.
3-4 celery stalks, chopped
1 medium white or yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely diced (or run through a garlic masher)
2 TBSP coconut oil (or olive oil, or butter)
1 TBSP dried oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt (or more, depending on your preferences)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
In a large soup pot over medium-high heat, add the coconut oil. When the oil is hot (but not smoking) add the celery, onion, and garlic. Sautee until the onions are getting translucent and the celery is bright green. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add the oregano, cumin, salt, and pepper, followed by the green chile, chicken, and tomatillos. Simmer for no less than 30 minutes, or as long as 2 hours (keeping an eye on the moisture level in the pot).
This would also work in a crockpot by omiting the oil and sauteeing step and just adding all the ingredients into the crockpot. Turn the crockpot on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-6 hours.
Serve topped with freshly chopped red onion and cilantro leaves.
Chicken Broth
8 cups of water
Bones from the chicken
The remaining celery stocks chopped into large pieces
1 large onion (or 2 medium onions) chopped into large pieces
6-8 cloves of garlic - peeled or unpeeled makes no difference
3-4 whole bay leaves
2 whole cloves
2 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
Add everything together in a large stock pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a low simmer, cover and let simmer for no less than 1 hour. The longer it simmers the stronger the broth will be, but with boiling comes evaporation/reduction which produces a smaller yield, too. Strain the broth through a very fine mesh sieve, or through a cheese cloth. The broth will be cloudy and delicious. It can be saved in the refrigerator for 1 week, or frozen.
5 cups chicken broth
1 cup chopped green chile
10-12 smallish tomatillos cut into bite-sized chunks.
3-4 celery stalks, chopped
1 medium white or yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely diced (or run through a garlic masher)
2 TBSP coconut oil (or olive oil, or butter)
1 TBSP dried oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt (or more, depending on your preferences)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
In a large soup pot over medium-high heat, add the coconut oil. When the oil is hot (but not smoking) add the celery, onion, and garlic. Sautee until the onions are getting translucent and the celery is bright green. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Add the oregano, cumin, salt, and pepper, followed by the green chile, chicken, and tomatillos. Simmer for no less than 30 minutes, or as long as 2 hours (keeping an eye on the moisture level in the pot).
This would also work in a crockpot by omiting the oil and sauteeing step and just adding all the ingredients into the crockpot. Turn the crockpot on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-6 hours.
Serve topped with freshly chopped red onion and cilantro leaves.
Chicken Broth
8 cups of water
Bones from the chicken
The remaining celery stocks chopped into large pieces
1 large onion (or 2 medium onions) chopped into large pieces
6-8 cloves of garlic - peeled or unpeeled makes no difference
3-4 whole bay leaves
2 whole cloves
2 tsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground pepper
Add everything together in a large stock pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a low simmer, cover and let simmer for no less than 1 hour. The longer it simmers the stronger the broth will be, but with boiling comes evaporation/reduction which produces a smaller yield, too. Strain the broth through a very fine mesh sieve, or through a cheese cloth. The broth will be cloudy and delicious. It can be saved in the refrigerator for 1 week, or frozen.
My grocery budget isn't infinite, so more often than not, I'll buy a whole, raw chicken and roast it in the oven, since it usually a few bucks cheaper than buying a rotisserie chicken from the deli. That said, a rotisserie chicken from the deli would work in exactly the same way as I'm about to describe with the raw chicken.
I don't want the chicken to fall apart in the cooking process which means I'm going to truss it up. I also don't have any cooking twine so I'll use the chicken itself to serve as the binding tool. In the flap of skin along the gaping chicken hole between the breast and leg, I'm going to pierce with a knife enough to push the chicken leg through it.
Viola! Trussed chicken. Granted, this leaves the wings unattended, but my pan is small enough to keep the wings pinned in place. I sprayed my 9"x9" glass pan with cooking spray and put the chicken there in.
I dusted the chicken with some salt, pepper, and put it in the oven at 325F for 2.5 hours. For a moister chicken that doesn't have the lovely golden skin, cover it for the same cooking duration. This is where my available time to document things and life conflict, so the only picture I have of the completed chicken is this one, after it had been refrigerated for 24 hours.
Obtain your soup and stock pots
Skin and debone the chicken. Toss the bones into your larger stock pot for making chicken stock and rough chop the chicken meat and set it aside.
Since the goal is to make broth and soup in this exercise, let's get the rest of our basic ingredients together: celery, onion, and garlic.
Here is where you, the cooker, have two options. You can cook your stock fresh and use it to make your soup, OR, you can use chicken stock you already have on hand. This all depends on your available time. In my case, I had stock already in the freezer so I was doing these activities in tandem. Because the stock takes longer I got that working first. In the stock pot where the chicken bones rested I added the rough chopped celery, large onion, and whole unpeeled garlic, along with the other spices listed in the above recipe, and started it to simmering.
While the chicken stock simmered, I did the rest of my chopping and gathering of spices.
Then, with great fanfare and with the delicious smell of simmering chicken stock to motivate me, I began to sauté the onions, garlic, and celery.
To this I added my chicken stock, green chile, and spices.
And, to that I added the chicken.
I like using both the light and dark meat of the chicken. Partly so I'm not wasting food, and partly because I can fish out the dark meat pieces which my children are more willing to eat, saving me the hastle (and bad habit) of cooking them food that is separate from the general evening meal.
OOO! Lookie! Simmering chicken broth!
Here's the part when everything is going along nicely and I grab my ears and yank in alarm because I have very nearly forgotten to add the tomatillos to the soup. These are very important. Don't forget the tomatillos.
Peel and chop these little veggies up and add them to the soup.
Let the soup simmer for no less than 30 minutes, but obviously, the longer it can stew together the better the overall taste will be.
I served this soup up paleo style, thusly.
But, if you're clean eating, gluten free, or otherwise able to consume dairy you could also top it with sharp cheddar and/or sour cream. Matthew and I ate a leisurely dinner, or as leisurely as Matthew ever eats. I cleaned up my kitchen and put the kids to bed all the while the chicken stock simmered. Ultimately, my stock cooked for 4 hours before I strained it.
I got this sieve at IKEA (where else?) for less than $20 and it works very well for this purpose. The resulting broth yielded 6 cups of stock that I froze in 1 cup increments.
Try this. It's really not much extra work if you're already messing around with the foundational ingredients of chicken, celery, onion, and garlic.
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