Chicken Green Chili for Tyler Florence Fridays

Last weekend I re-stocked my freezer with chicken stock by making two large batches in my slow cooker using a two-pack of Costco organic, free-range chickens. Since I used the whole chickens with some veggies, parsley and a little vinegar, I ended up with a lot of chicken meat along with my many quarts of delicious stock. I found this Tyler recipe for Chicken Green Chili from How to Boil Water on the Food Network and since my chicken and broth were already made, it was quick and easy to throw together for this week's TFF. Tyler's recipe was written without beans, just the shredded chicken and poblano chilies, but since I like beans in my chili and they are a healthy choice as they add some good fiber, I threw in a couple of cans of no-salt cannellini beans. I also amped up the spices a lot and made a couple of other changes in red below. 

Tyler recommends serving this with a Smoky Chili Cornbread (the recipe for both the chili and cornbread can be found here), but I decided I have been indulging a bit too much this week and I didn't need the extra fat and calories, so I served my chili with some baked tortilla chips and a small green salad for a filling and healthy dinner.

Chicken Green Chili

How to Boil Water, Tyler Florence

(Makes 6-8 Servings)

1 chicken, about 3 1/2 pounds
1 large onion, peeled
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1/4 bunch fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
4 poblano chiles
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin (used 1 Tbsp)
1 teaspoon ground coriander (used 1 Tbsp)
1 teaspoon dried oregano (used 1 Tbsp)

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup finely ground tortilla chips (ground in a food processor) (Used a baked chili-lime tortilla chip)

2 cans no salt cannellini beans 
salt (& black pepper)
leaves from 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped

For garnish:
Shredded jack cheese (used crumbled cotija cheese)
Chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Lime wedges

Remove the giblets from the chicken. Discard the liver (it makes the broth bitter) and hold onto everything else. Rinse the chicken with cool water. Put the chicken, onion, and giblets in a large stockpot. Pour in enough cold water just to cover by 1 inch (about 3 quarts). Toss in the garlic and herbs and allow the water to slowly come to a boil over medium heat. Skim off the foam then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 1 hour, uncovered, until the chicken is cooked through. Skim any impurities that rise to the surface; add more water if necessary to keep the chicken covered.

Carefully remove the chicken to a cutting board and let it cool. With a slotted spoon, remove the vegetables, giblets, thyme and bay leaf from the pot and discard. Reserve chicken broth. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, discard the skin and bones; shred the meat by hand.

Meanwhile, seed, core, and thinly slice the poblano peppers.

Heat a 2-count of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Dust the vegetables with the ground cumin, coriander, and oregano, and stir; cook 1 minute. Stir in the ground tortillas. Pour in the reserved chicken broth, season with salt and cook 20 minutes. Now add the shredded chicken and chiles, and the cilantro and cook 5 more minutes. Taste for seasoning.


To serve, ladle the chili into big bowls and garnish with grated cheese, cilantro, and a wedge of lime.

Notes/Results: Healthy, filling and good, this was a unique chili with the poblanos, which I have not cooked a lot with. Since poblanos are a large, relatively mild chili and I wanted more of a flavor punch, I upped the amount of all of the spices and also added some cayenne pepper. Between the extra spices, the crushed baked chili-lime tortilla chips and the homemade stock, it gave the chili a lot of good flavor. The crushed tortilla chips add a nice thickness and good texture and the beans made the chili hearty but not too heavy, so I would use both of them again. Since I had salty, crumbly cotija cheese on hand I topped mine with it and I would provide extra lime wedges as it brightens the chili up nicely. A good recipe that I would make again. 

You can see what the other TFF participants selected to make and find out what they thought of their recipes by going to the TFF site here. 

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