Chicken Tomatillo Chili-An Unlikely Contest Winner
That’s right, I won a chili cook off with the most unlikely recipe…Chicken Tomatillo Chili. I was going to re-create this awesome chipotle chili that I made on a recent ski trip but decided to go out on a limb and try something totally different. I figured people would either love it or hate it. One of these days these experimental recipes are going to back fired but for now I have a pretty good track record!
Since everyone was going to go with a traditional beef chili (some with beans) I decided to make something with chicken and without tomatoes as there seem to be a growing population of tomato haters. I have seen many new recipes using tomatillos and thinking back to my love of salsa verde, I decided to take a stab at these little guys. Tomatillos look like little green tomatoes with these weird paper like husks on them. I found them in the tomato section but they are not related, I think I heard they are related to gooseberries but I could be making that up. To prep them, remove the husk and give them a rinse as they are a little tacky on the surface. I roasted mine in a 425 degree oven until they burst and started to blacken a bit. I also used some canned tomatillos because my Harris Teeter didn’t have many fresh ones (I needed about 4 pounds all together) but I think this worked well because they are already softened.
I sort of combined a couple recipes to come to this one, and then added to random stuff which makes it difficult to recreate when people ask for a recipe 
This chili got RAVE reviews, seriously I was blown away by how many people liked it. After I was awarded first place all of the guests were told to go eat all the leftovers, well there was none left of mine This is a mild to medium chili but you could add more poblanos or even some canned green chilis to kick up the spice level. This chili has a really fresh flavor to it which I really liked. The texture is nothing like traditional chili, the tomatillos have seeds much like tomatoes so a few people commented on that. This is also a pretty healthy chili and it reheats really well, which is good because this makes a big pot full!
Award Winning Chicken Tomatillo Chili
4 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 pounds of tomatillos, canned or fresh ones that are roasted
3 poblano peppers
2 cups chicken stock
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste
1. Place the poblanos on a foil lined baking sheet and place under broiler until skins are blackened. Turn peppers to allow all side to blacken. When completely black, remove from oven, place peppers in bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
2. In a large dutch oven, heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat. Brown the chicken thighs in batches (mine too about 3 batches). Remove all thighs to a plate.
3. In the dutch oven, add a bit of oil if necessary and add onions and garlic, cook until soft. When soft, add chicken, tomatillos, stock, cumin and salt and pepper. When it starts to bubble, reduce heat to medium low.
4. Remove poblanos from bowl and peel off blackened skin, stem and seeds. Finely chop peppers and add to chili.
5. Allow chili to simmer about 45 minutes so as to allow it to thicken. The chicken will get tender and I would go in with some forks and shred the chicken a bit so you don’t have huge chunks of chicken. If you find it too thick, you can add more stock or water. The tomatillos have a lot of pectin in them so you will notice it does tighten up.
6. Serve with cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice, if desired.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!