Creamy Chicken Verde
This dish is a fusion of two my mother used to make. The first is Chicken & Green Chilies, which was infamous in my house because on one of her first dates with my father, my mother accidentally made it with chilies so HOT they made my poor dad’s eyes water. Lucky for me, to impress the pretty girl, he soldiered through! The other is Hungarian Chicken, a hearty braise of chicken pieces loaded with paprika and topped with a comforting, flavorful sour cream gravy. Traditionally it’s served over noodles, but I always loved eating it over brown rice because sopped more of the gravy up into each bite.
Ingredients:
2 medium onions diced
2 cups chicken stock
8 oz canned diced mild green chili peppers
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
16 oz sour cream at room temp
1 tsp kosher salt
Plus salt & pepper for sprinkling
Vegetable or olive oil
Instructions:
Pat the chicken dry and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Heat oil in a large sauté pan over high heat until shimmering. Add chicken to pan and brown on both sides this may be done in two batches to avoid crowding the pan, which causes steaming instead of browning. Remove chicken from pan and set aside. Chicken will not be cooked through at this point.
Reduce heat to medium high and add more oil to the pan. Add onions to the pan and sauté until translucent, about 5min. Add green chiles and chicken stock to the pan and bring to a simmer. Return chicken to the pan, cover and reduce heat to medium low. Simmer for 15min or until chicken is cooked through.
Add sour cream to a medium bowl. Remove a 1/2 cup of the sauce from the pan and slowly ladle it into the sour cream by dribbles, stirring as you go. This warms the sour cream so it does not curdle. Add the sour cream mixture back to the pan. If the sauce is a little thin you can remove the chicken from the pan to your serving platter and bring the sauce to a low boil to thicken slightly. Add 1 tsp salt or more to taste. Cover chicken with sauce and serve over brown rice with refried beans.