Chicken Pozole

Ingredients

• 1 tsp. olive oil (we used extra-virgin olive oil)
• 1 lb. boneless chicken breasts and thighs, cubed (we cut ours into 1-inch cubes)
• 3 Tbsp. ancho chile powder, divided
• Salt and pepper to taste (we used Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper)
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 jalapeños chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 8 cups chicken broth (we used reduced-sodium chicken broth)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 (25-ounce) can hominy (we used Juanita’s Mexican Style Hominy)
• 2 Tbsp. ancho paste
  • 5 dried anchos*
  • 1 Tbsp. olive oil (we used extra-virgin olive oil)
  • 1/4 cups chopped yellow onions
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • Salt to taste (we used table salt)
• 3 ounces tomato paste
• Lime wedges, for serving
• Cotija cheese**, cilantro and sliced roasted jalapeños (we took out the ribs and seeds before roasting) *** for garnish

Directions

1. Start off by making the ancho paste:
   1. Take a large skillet out and set the heat to medium, adding the anchos in afterwards. Cook the peppers for a few minutes on each side or until they become fragrant (our peppers puffed up while toasting). Place the anchos in a large bowl and top with boiling water (we actually just put our peppers in the saucepan with the boiling water and turned off the heat). Cover the bowl (or saucepan in our case) and let them sit for roughly 20 minutes to soften.
   2. Take the anchos out of the water. Remove the stems and then slice them open so you can get all the seeds out. Place the stemmed and seeded peppers in a food processor and puree them afterwards.
   3. Take a skillet out (we used the same one the anchos got toasted in) and pour the tablespoon of olive oil in, setting the heat to medium. Once the oil’s hot, add in the ¼ cup of onions, stirring constantly for 3 to 4 minutes or until softened.
   4. Add the chopped clove of garlic into the skillet, continuing to cook for one additional minute, stirring occasionally (we kept stirring constantly). Take the skillet off the heat and add the onions and garlic to the food processor, add in a pinch of salt as well and puree until a thick paste forms.
2. Take a large pot out and pour the teaspoon of olive oil in, setting the heat to medium.
3. Season the cubed chicken with 1 teaspoon of the ancho chile powder as well as salt and pepper. Sear the chicken for a few minutes until they get browned.
4. Add the onions and pepper into the pot, cooking for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the garlic in and stir constantly for 1 minute.
5. Add in the following ingredients, stirring to combine: broth, bay leaf, thyme, cumin, remaining chile powder, hominy, ancho paste and tomato paste. Turn the heat down to low and let the soup simmer for 30 minutes or longer (30 minutes did it for us).
6. Serve in bowl with lime juice squeezed over the top and add the garnishes on afterwards.

*Ancho chile peppers are actually just dried poblanos. If you’ve never seen one before, this is what they look:

**We got our Cotija cheese to break apart by using a fork as seen here:

***We roasted our jalapeños at 400 degrees for roughly 26 minutes but honestly, leaving the jalapeño raw might be just as good since they’d add a nice crunch to the dish which is missing otherwise.

Overall this was a great dish but for ourselves, we prefer Bush’s hominy over this brand. The soup tastes good before even adding the lime juice but afterwards it adds a nice touch of acidity and brightness to the soup ! Surprisingly, this was not a spicy dish and our 2 jalapeños (which we left the ribs and seeds in) that we chopped up were both 4 ¼-inches long !

We know that plating is not our strong point….yet ! But this is tasty and we’ll be making it many more times in the future.

We got this recipe from Chile Pepper magazine.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Juanita’s, Bush’s, or Chile Pepper magazine.

Take care everybody !

Sticky Orange-Glazed Chicken Thighs

Ingredients

• 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
• Coarse salt and pepper (we used Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper)
• 1 cup thawed orange juice concentrate (we used pulp-free orange juice concentrate)
• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons light-brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons white-wine vinegar
• 4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons hot sauce (we used Sriracha)

Directions

1. Move your oven rack into the upper third (we just moved our rack up one from the middle) and preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Take a rimmed baking sheet out (we lined ours with aluminum foil) and place the chicken on it, skin side down. Season the thighs with salt and pepper and stick the baking sheet in the oven for 45 to 50 minutes (we cooked ours for 50 minutes) or until the chicken’s fully cooked, flipping halfway through.
2. While the chicken’s cooking, take a medium saucepan out and add 1 teaspoon of salt, the orange juice concentrate, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, Worcestershire and the hot sauce, stirring to combine. Turn the heat up just enough for the mixture to simmer and let it cook for 18 to 20 minutes or until the mixture has thickened up.
3. Heat the broiler. Place the chicken in a large bowl, pouring the glaze mixture over it, tossing to coat. Drain off the fat from the baking sheet before returning the chicken to it (we placed the chicken facing skin side up on the sheet and spooned the leftover glaze from the bowl over the chicken afterwards). Stick the chicken in the oven for 1 to 2 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and the chicken looks dark brown in spots.

This was a delicious dish. We did run into some trouble flipping the chicken over with some of the skin sticking to the foil but skin or no skin, it still came out great.

Recipe source unknown.

Take care everybody !

Mall Chicken Teriyaki

Ingredients

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into small chunks
• 3 ½ tablespoons mirin
• 3 ½ tablespoons soy sauce (we used low-sodium soy sauce)
• 1 ½ teaspoons dark soy sauce (we didn’t find any bottles in our town that mentioned their soy sauce was dark so we just used more regular low-sodium soy sauce)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• 1 ½ teaspoons sesame oil (we used toasted sesame oil)
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons oil
• Steamed rice, to serve

Directions

1. Get a large mixing bowl out and add everything to it (excluding the 2 tablespoons of oil and steamed rice).
2. Stir everything in the mixing bowl until the marinade looks thoroughly combined and the chicken is thoroughly coated in the marinade. Stick the bowl in the refrigerator while the chicken marinates for 2 hours.
3. Now that the 2 hours have passed, take a wok or large skillet out (we went with a skillet) and pour the two tablespoons of oil into it, turning the heat up to medium-high. Once the oil’s hot, take the chicken out of the mixing bowl (leave the marinade in the bowl for now) and add it to the skillet, making sure the chicken is kept in a single layer (so everything gets cooked equally) and don’t stir it for a minute so that it can get a nice sear on that side touching the skillet.
4. After that minute passes, start stirring the chicken around constantly for an additional minute before pouring the marinade in, turning the heat down to medium afterwards. Let the sauce simmer, continuing to stir the chicken around in the skillet. Once the sauce looks thicker and is coating the chicken, take the skillet off the heat and serve immediately over that steamed rice.

As soon as you take a bite of the chicken, it really does take you back to eating teriyaki chicken in the mall. The chicken is juicy and tender, and as far as the sauce goes, it has some sweetness to it but it’s not overwhelmingly sweet and it creates a sticky texture once it coats the chicken.

We got this recipe from Woks of Life.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Woks of Life.

Take care everybody !

Slow Cooker Indian Chicken Stew

Ingredients

• Nonstick cooking spray
• 2 lbs. skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
• ½ cup chopped onion (1 medium)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 teaspoons curry powder
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon salt (we used kosher salt)
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper and/or cayenne pepper (we used ¼ tsp. of cayenne)
• 2 (15 oz. each) cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained
• 2 (14.5 oz. each) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 bay leaf (we used 2)
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 (9-oz.) package fresh spinach
• 4 cups hot cooked rice (optional) (we used it)

Directions

1. Take a 6-quart slow cooker out and lightly spray the inside of it with the cooking spray. First add in the chicken, onion, and garlic to the slow cooker, followed by the curry powder, ginger, salt and pepper, tossing everything together until the chicken’s coated in the spices. Add in the beans, tomatoes, broth, and bay leaf, stirring to mix everything together.
2. Put a lid on the slow cooker and either let it cook on the LOW heat setting for 8 to 10 hours or on the HIGH heat setting for 4 to 5 hours (we went with the LOW heat). Once those hours have passed, stir in the lime juice followed by the spinach afterwards. Let the dish cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the spinach has wilted. Serve the soup over the rice (if you want to).

Recipe source unknown.

Hope you enjoy life !

Coconut Chicken Curry

Ingredients

• 12 chicken thighs (about 3 pounds), skinned
• 2 teaspoons garlic salt (we used 3 tsp.)
• 3 teaspoons canola oil (we used 3 ½ teaspoons)
• 1 large onion, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 6 carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3 stalks celery, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped ginger
• 2 teaspoons grated lime peel
• 2 tablespoons curry powder
• 1 teaspoon salt (we used kosher salt)
• 1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce
• 1 can (13.66 oz.) coconut milk
• ¼ cup whipping cream
• 1 ½ cups uncooked long grain rice
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Take a 6-quart slow cooker out and spray the inside of it with cooking spray. Take the garlic salt and spread it over the chicken thighs. Take a 12-inch skillet and pour 1 ½ teaspoons of the oil in. Turn the heat up to medium-high and wait for the oil to get hot. At this point, add half of the chicken thighs to the skillet (we only put four thighs in at a time to avoid overcrowding & possible steaming) and cook 6 to 8 minutes (we went for 8 minutes), flipping halfway through the cooking time. Once both side are browned, place the chicken in the slow cooker. Repeat what you did for the first batch of chicken with what’s left of the oil and chicken*.
2. Now that all the chicken is in the slow cooker (it took laying half of the chicken on top of the other half to fit it in the slow cooker), place the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, ginger, lime peel, curry powder and salt in the skillet. Cook everything for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Now add the vegetable mixture to the slow cooker as well. In a small mixing bowl, mix together the sriracha, coconut milk, and whipping cream, pouring it over the vegetables in the slow cooker afterwards.
3. Put a lid on the slow cooker and set it to HIGH heat. Let the dish cook for 4 hours.
4. 15 minutes prior to the dish being done cooking, look at the bag the rice came in for cooking instructions and cook the rice according to those instructions. Right before serving, stir the lime juice and cilantro into the slow cooker. Serve the chicken and vegetables with the rice.

*While we did use 1 ½ teaspoons of oil to cook the first 4 chicken thighs in, we used 1 teaspoon of oil for the subsequent batches.

Serves 6 (2 chicken thighs, around ¾ cup of the vegetable mixture, and ¾ cup rice per serving)

This is such a scrumptious dish. We love it because it’s not only tasty, it’s cheap  to make and has a comfort food feel to it !

Recipe source unknown.

Hope you enjoy life !

Chicken Tikka Masala

Ingredients

• 2 pounds boneless chicken thighs or breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes (we used chicken thighs)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• 4 cloves garlic, finely grated
• One 2-inch piece ginger, peeled and finely grated
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely diced (we used a 3-inch jalapeño and we left the seeds in)
• 1 tablespoon paprika (we used smoked paprika)
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 (15-ounce) can crushed tomatoes (we used Hunt’s Crushed Tomatoes
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 1 cup frozen peas
• Basmati rice, for serving
• Chopped fresh cilantro, for topping

Directions

1. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon salt* and ¼ teaspoon pepper* over the chicken. Take a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker out and mix together in it: the garlic, ginger, jalapeño, paprika, coriander, tomatoes, heavy cream, and ½ teaspoon salt. Toss the chicken into the slow cooker, stirring the chicken around so it’s fully coated in the tomato mixture.
2. Put a lid on your slow cooker and let the dish cook on HIGH heat for 4 hours. 15 minutes prior to the 4 hour mark, take the lid off just long enough to add in the peas, putting the lid back on afterwards. Serve the slow cooker mixture over rice and top individual portions with the cilantro.

*We didn’t measure how much salt and pepper we sprinkled over the chicken, we just made sure it was well seasoned.

This turned out to be a really tasty dish ! Choosing to use smoked paprika gave the dish a smoky flavor it wouldn’t have had otherwise but the smokiness didn’t overwhelm the other flavors either.

We got this recipe from Food Network.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Food Network or Hunt’s.