Playing around with my new pressure cooker, I came up with this easy version of chicken in tomatillo salsa.
It's sort of like the cilantro chicken I had one time in Ixtapa, but with more accent on tomatillos. In this recipe I used tomatillos milperos (above). These are smaller than ordinary tomatillos, imported from Mexico and easy to find at Latino markets where I live. If you can't get them, you can substitute regular tomatillos.
Using a pressure cooker makes this dish so easy. It's done in just 9 minutes, and I'm guessing I could cut that to 8 minutes.
These are the ingredients, apart from the chicken.
This is the sautéed mixture of onion, garlic, jalapeño and tomatillos.
The chicken goes on top of the vegetables and is then cooked at high pressure.
Here is how it looks after 9 minutes of pressure cooking. The chicken is then removed and the vegetables are pureed with a hand blender.
The seeds you notice on the chicken are the tiny seeds from the tomatillos.
The recipe makes a lot of sauce, which is intentional, because it's so good mixed with rice. If you want more chicken and less sauce, you could add two more chicken thighs, making a total of six, as I did here, without changing the cooking time.
TOMATILLO CHICKEN
1 pound tomatillos milperos
1 tablespoon oil
1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small jalapeño chile, seeded, quartered lengthwise
1 cup chicken stock
1/3 cup cilantro leaves, plus additional for garnishing
Salt to taste
4 bone-in chicken thighs, skinned
Remove the papery husks of the tomatillos. Wash them, then cut each in half, or in quarters if large.
Heat the oil in the pot of a pressure cooker. Add the onion, garlic and jalapeño and saute, stirring constantly, 2 minutes.
Add the tomatillos and saute, stirring, another minute.
Add the chicken stock and cilantro and stir to combine. Add a dash salt if wanted. If stock is salty, omit.
Place the chicken thighs on top of the vegetables. Close the pot and lock securely.
Bring to pressure over high heat. When pressure is reached, set a timer for 9 minutes. Lower the heat to a level that will maintain pressure.
After 9 minutes, turn off the heat, or remove the pot to an unheated burner if using an electric range. Do a quick release. When the pressure is gone, unlock and remove the lid, making sure it faces away from you.
Remove the chicken thighs to a plate and keep warm. With a hand blender, puree the vegetables and stock. Spoon the pureed sauce over each serving of chicken and garnish with cilantro.
Makes 4 servings.
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