Hours of Devours

As dinner time hit on the fifth of May, we realized that we hadn’t planned a meal to celebrate cinco de mayo.  On a typical warm, SoCal night, we’d fire up the grill, marinate some skirt steak, chicken or fish and make tacos.  Unfortunately, Monday evening was anything but balmy so we decided a change in plans was in order.

We’ve always loved enchiladas verde when we dine out but had never tried to make that tangy green sauce at home, we guess we’ve always suffered from a bit of a tomatillo phobia.  With the weather screaming for a braise rather than grill, we decided to conquer our fears and tackle the tomatillo.

Rather than follow a recipe, we rolled the dice on what we thought were the key ingredients.  We threw tomatillos, jalapenos, cilantro, lime juice, garlic and salt into the food processor.  We added more lime and more garlic to get the flavor right.  We then threw it into a pot with a bunch of chicken and left it to braise away for about 45 minutes.  We shredded up the chicken, loaded it into corn tortillas and here’s the end result.

The sauce carried the heat from the jalapenos, the freshness and tanginess from the limes and some sweetness from the tomatillos.  Next time, we will try roasting the tomatillos and garlic to bring out more of that sweetness and balance the sauce a bit better.  All in all, a nice success that proves you don’t need cookbooks to recreate good dishes.