Sunday, March 28, 2010

Chile Verde de Pollo Sopa






On our very first date, my wife invited me over to her place where she cooked for me Green Chile Chicken Soup. Matter of fact, that may have been the last time she cooked it, as she has mostly retired from the cooking game. She did make her crab cakes yesterday, though, but as I said, she is only mostly retired. I, on the other hand, have cooked this soup many times since. Pa White introduced the dish to her, but I do not know where he first ate the soup or where he found the recipe. Of course, I have tweaked that original recipe some, but the basic form of the soup remains the same.

First you start with the chicken. A few weeks ago, I bought several packages of locally grown chicken legs and thighs. I had thighs left, so that's what I used. I cooked them in a little olive oil and garlic for a bit, and then I added two quarts of chicken broth. Now for the spices, and the list today is impressive: cumin, coriander, Salt, a mixture of tellicherry pepper, cayenne, brown sugar, fennel, ancho chile and paprika, basic chile powder, and a little Rogan Josh. I have no Mexican oregano today, so I just used Pasta Sprinkle from Penzey's, which is a more-than-fair substitute.

The greatest alteration I have made in the soup, though, comes in the type of peppers used. The original recipe calls for canned jalapenos, which are super expensive. I concluded that if I roasted the peppers myself, I would save a bunch of money, not to mention adding a better flavor. This time I used poblanos, which are not very spicy, if spicy at all, but with a nice taste. They roasted awhile in the oven, and then I de-skinned and de-seeded them before giving them a rough chop, and into the pot they went.

The soup has a good kick to it right now as those spices are blooming in the heat of the pot. As soon as the chicken thighs begin to fall apart, I will add a little butter and flour roux to give it a bit of thickness. The original recipe states to add milk to the soup, but adding milk to a very hot pot of soup can have undesired consequences. If that soup is even slightly more than barely boiling, the milk will break immediately. I do not want the soup to break, so today I plan to add a little cream at the end to mellow the heat. Very nice. Served with a few tortilla cheeps, Green Chile Chicken Soup is perfect on a day like today here in central North Carolina, with a cloudy sky and rain falling through the slightly cool air.

2 comments:

kimberly said...

This sounds scrumptious!! I swear, we should be getting money from Penzey's every time we mention them in our blog posts!!! :) Or at least a free spice per month.

J.S. Booterbaugh said...

I see in their catalogs articles people have written about cooking with P's spices, so we should submit.