Mexico · 75 min · Meat · Main course · For beginners
Pollo en Salsa Verde
In German: Hähnchen in grüner Chilisauce · In English: Chicken Chile Verde
For 8 servings · US units
Chicken braised in a salsa verde of roasted tomatillos, poblanos and jalapeños
This dish is all about the green sauce: tomatillos and chiles go under the heat until their skins blister, which gives them a smoky, bright, tangy depth. The chicken simmers in it for a good half hour until it's beautifully tender, and if you cooked it in whole pieces, it pulls apart easily with two forks. Finished with lime and plenty of cilantro, it tastes like summer and easily feeds a big table.
Ingredients
- 2½ lbchickenthigh or breast meat, in chunks or whole depending on cooking method
- 1⅛ lbhusked, rinsed and roasted; about 10–12 piecesA green, tomato-like fruit wrapped in a papery husk, firm and distinctly tart, and the base of many green salsas.Substitute: Unripe green tomatoes with a little lime juice come closest in acidity and colour, but the flavour is flatter and less fruity, and the sauce turns out more watery. Physalis are too sweet to serve as a substitute.Read more
- 3stemmed, adjust to desired heatMedium-sized green chilli from Mexico, thick-fleshed and juicy, with a fresh, moderate heat.Substitute: Other fresh green chillies of medium heat work well, such as serrano, which is somewhat hotter, or sturdy green chillies from an Asian grocer used more sparingly. Mild Turkish long green peppers give a similar freshness but little heat.Read more
- 2roasted, peeled, seededA large, dark green, heart-shaped Mexican chili with thick walls, usually mild to medium hot and almost always roasted and peeled before use.Substitute: Anaheim or Hatch chilies come closest, being similarly mild and fleshy, though with somewhat thinner walls. A green bell pepper, roasted and peeled, holds its shape for stuffing but tastes sweeter and flatter; adding a jalapeño restores the heat, but not the earthy depth of the poblano.Read more
- 1for extra heat, roasted with the other chiles (optional)A small, slender green chile from Mexico, crisp and fresh-tasting, noticeably hotter than a jalapeño.Substitute: Jalapeños come closest in flavour but are milder and thicker-walled, so use about twice as many and expect a slightly juicier result. Small green chiles from an Asian or Turkish grocer match the heat but taste less grassy and can be considerably hotter, so add them cautiously.Read more
- 1onionwhite or yellow, roughly cut for the sauce
- 4 clovesgarlicpeeled, for the sauce
- 2 tbspoilolive oil or lard, for frying
- 2 tspOreganodried, to season the sauce
- 1 tspcuminground (optional)
- 2 tspsaltadjust to taste at the end
- 1 cupwaterto thin the sauce while braising (optional)
- 1limejuice for finishing or squeezing over
- 1 bunchchopped, partly blended into the sauce, partly stirred in at the endThe fresh leaves of the coriander plant, with a bright, citrusy and slightly peppery taste.Substitute: There is no true substitute. Flat-leaf parsley, perhaps with a little lime zest, adds colour and green freshness but not cilantro's distinctive citrusy note.Read more
Method
- Prep the tomatillos and chilesPull the husks off the tomatillos and rinse them well until they're no longer sticky. Stem the jalapeños, the poblano peppers and, if you're using it, the serrano chile.
- Roast the vegetablesSpread the tomatillos and chiles out on a baking sheet and roast them under the broiler or in a very hot oven, turning them once, until the skins are blistered all over and charred in spots.
- Peel and seed the chilesCover the roasted vegetables and let them rest for a few minutes so they steam. Then peel the skins off the poblano peppers and seed them; seed the jalapeños too if you want less heat.
- Blend the green saucePut the tomatillos, chiles, roughly cut onion and peeled garlic in a blender, add some of the cilantro if you like, and blend until smooth.
- Brown the chickenHeat the oil or lard in a large Dutch oven and brown the chicken well on all sides, in chunks or whole, as you prefer.
- Add the sauce and simmerPour the sauce into the pot, thinning it with a little water if needed, and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom. Season with the oregano, ideally Mexican oregano, the cumin if you're using it, and a little salt, then cover and simmer gently for about 30 minutes.
- Shred the chickenIf you cooked the chicken in whole pieces, lift it out now, shred it with two forks and return it to the sauce.
- Finish and seasonFinally, stir in the lime juice and the rest of the chopped cilantro, and season with salt to taste.
Tips and variations
Short on time? Use store-bought salsa verde, season it with garlic powder and onion powder, and let everything cook in a slow cooker for 2.5 to 5 hours or in a pressure cooker for 25 minutes. Chicken breast can skip the pot altogether: brine it first and roast it in the oven alongside the vegetables instead of browning and braising it, then shred it and stir it into the sauce. For a heartier version, use chicken thighs cut into chunks: brown them, braise them in the sauce and serve them just like that, with no shredding at the end. Our serving tip: turn it into tostadas – spread a crisp tostada shell with refried beans, pile on the chicken, scatter over cheese and cilantro, and finish with a squeeze of lime.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
