I love both Chicken Corn Tortilla Soup AND Chili! I also love tomatillos, that green vegetable used for making Salsa Verde.
Great Chili is made from scratch, slow cooking from ingredients the cowboys had access to in the pioneer days.
Prep a day ahead by soaking the white beans (I get them from Whole Foods).
Soaking the beans overnight increases their nutritive value, and decreases the gas causing agents in beans. Sometimes I soak them for 2 days, pouring off the soak water, and replenishing it with fresh water.
I have also taken to using the infamous Costco Roasted Chicken. Debone the chicken, then boil the bones to make stock. Start this a day ahead and boil all day until the bones fall apart. This increases the calcium value of the broth. I asked a Chinese doctor how Chinese get calcium in their diets. Chinese are noted to have osteoporosis later in life than Westerners. The Chinese doctor told me that the secret is soup, made with soup bones boiled for a day or more. this is also the secret to making great Pho broth.
Another wonderful ingredient in this recipe is BACON. Now really, do you think those cowboys had extra virgin olive oil in their packs? No, they had Bacon, a cured meat that they could take with them on their travels. Not to worry about the cholesterol if you stick to the recipe and add garlic and a couple of onions. Onions and garlic are known to neutralize the creation of cholesterol when cooked with fatty meats such as steak or bacon.
After this, the rest of this recipe is easy.
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken roasted (available at Costco)
1 cup of dried white beans (soaked overnight) (cheaper and more nutritious than canned)
12 fresh tomatillos (available at Win Co Foods or Whole Foods)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon spanish paprika
1/4 teaspoon ancho chili powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cans of Rosarita refried beans
4 strips of bacon cut into 1" pieces
2 small onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, chopped
1 bunch of cilantro (cut up - leaves only, remove stalks)
Step One: Cut the wings, thighs and drumsticks off the roasted chicken. Using a knife, cut along the ridge of the bone dividing the chicken breasts, as close as you can to the bone for maximum removal of the chicken breasts. Separate the chicken breast from the bone as you cut, using a fork. When you have removed the entire chicken breast, cut it crosswise in 1" cubes. Cut or pull the chicken meat off the wings, thighs and drumsticks.
Place the chicken bones in a large pot filled with water.
EASY TRICK: If you have one of those pasta pots with a colander insert (the one with holes in it to let the water out) use this to put the chicken bones in! When they are done, just lift the colander out of the chicken broth, bones and all!
Bring to a boil. Turn it down to medium low and cook for hours until the bones fall apart. Add water when needed.
MAKE AHEAD OPTION: You can make this calcium rich chicken broth and pour it into containers for storage in the refrigerator or freezer.
Step Two: Take the soaked white beans that have been soaking overnight, and rinse them.
Add them to a baking dish and cover with an inch of water. Put the lid on and bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours.
Step Three: Cut up the bacon into 1" pieces. Cook them over medium heat in a skillet. Chop up the onions and garlic, adding them to the bacon. Cook until the onions are transparent.
Step Four: Quarter the tomatillos. Add the tomatillos to the onion mixture. Add enough chicken broth to cover. Bring to a boil, then let it simmer until the white beans are ready. Add all the spices above. Add the cut up jalapeno.
Step Five: When the chicken bones have fallen apart, remove them from the chicken broth.
Step Five: When the white beans are soft enough to eat, use a slotted spoon, and transfer just the beans (not the water) to the big pot of chicken broth, after the chicken bones have been removed. Turn the heat up to Medium heat.
Step Six: Add the Rosarita refried beans to the soup, stirring and mashing them on the side of the pot until they dissolve into the soup.
Step Seven: Add the tomatillo onion bacon garlic mixture to the soup.
Step Eight: Cut the corn off the two ears of corn and add to the soup. (Yes, you can substitute with frozen corn)
Step Nine: Add the chicken meat, and cut up coriander leaves. Serve over rice.
Good with Doritos black bean tortilla chips and Costco Mango Peach Salsa.
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