Comfort Food – Green Chicken (Pollo Verde)

When we had Green Chicken growing up, I never wanted to invite a friend over for dinner. I was even embarrassed to divulge what was for dinner if Green Chicken was on the menu. After all, what kid wants to eat Green Chicken? It sounds like something that’s gone bad; been sitting in the refrigerator far too long; developed gangrene. But for me, while not the prettiest of dishes, Green Chicken is comfort food. Maybe I should have called it by its Mexican name, Pollo Verde.

The stewed, bone-in chicken, cooked in pureed tomatillos, cilantro, onions, and garlic is delicious. But the sauce over a bed of plain white rice is what really does it for me. Warm, soupy, and substantial, it is cozy and comforting. It fills the stomach, especially on a cold fall evening. It’s exactly what comfort food is supposed to be. When Green Chicken is for dinner, I often go back for leftovers, not for another piece of chicken, but for an additional pile of rice topped with a steaming ladleful of green sauce.

My father started cooking Green Chicken when I was about 10 or 12 years old, and I loved it. I soon took over cooking it because it was so simple to make. (Put the sauce ingredients in a blender and puree. Pour over a cut-up, bone-in chicken. Cover and cook for an hour.) It became one of my gateway drugs to cooking.

When I started a garden and learned I could grow tomatillos in New York, I grew them to make Green Chicken. And they became one of my staples in gardening. At the time, I didn’t know, or care, what else they could be used for; it was all about Green Chicken. In early fall I still eat this dish a lot because I grow so many tomatillos. Plus, there are often enough to freeze and enjoy it all winter long. I’m no longer ashamed to tell my friends about Green Chicken; it’s comfort food and makes me happy every time I eat it.

Green Chicken (Pollo Verde)

Cooking doesn’t get any easier than this. All you do is puree herbs and vegetables into a sauce, pour it over chicken in a pot, and stew it until it is done. Making white rice, while not difficult, is harder to cook than the chicken.

Occasionally my father adds a jalapeño to the sauce to add a little kick, but I tend to prefer this recipe without it. It makes great leftovers as is, or the chicken can be stripped from the bones, soaked in the green sauce, and used to make excellent enchiladas verde.

Adapted from The Complete Book of Mexican Cooking by Elizabeth Lambert Ortiz

Serves 4, 1¼ hours

1½ lb. tomatillos, peeled, rinsed, and cut into halves or quarters

1 large bunch cilantro, leaves and stems

1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 clove garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

1 fresh jalapeño pepper, stemmed and roughly chopped (optional)

1 tsp. kosher salt

½ tsp. fresh ground black pepper

1 cut-up, bone-in whole chicken

cooked white rice for serving

1. Peel the papery husk from the tomatillos, rinse, and cut them into halves or quarters. Put the tomatillos, cilantro, onion, garlic, jalapeño (if using), salt, and pepper in a food processor or blender and process to a puree. Add couple of tablespoons of water if needed to get the blending process going.
2. Place the chicken pieces in a heavy pot large enough to hold them and the sauce. Pour the sauce over the chicken.
3. Bring to a boil, stir, cover, and lower the heat to simmer.
4. Simmer for about an hour or until the chicken is cooked, stirring occasionally.
5. Taste and adjust salt. Serve over white rice.

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