I’ve done a lot of cooking in the past 10 days.  Without planning for it, I embarked on a little experiment: cooking only with what we had on hand.  I resolved to buy nothing but milk for the girls (one exception – my Sunday paper…a girl needs her coupons).  I hadn’t planned ahead to do this but I had been to both the grocery store and Sam’s Club so we had plenty of proteins and veggies on hand.  I hadn’t planned out a menu so there were odds and ends that I didn’t have to make certain dishes that I might have made if I could have run to the store just to pick up one or two items.  I had to be a little inventive and Sabrina had to live without a few of her normal lunch items.  But it led to a couple of interesting creations.  This is one of them.

I don’t know if I should call this a soup or a stew but regardless of what it is called it was really yummy!  My friend, Tonya, mentioned on facebook that she making some things with tomatillos from her garden.  I said that I loved making salsa verde but that the tomatillos were insanely expensive in the grocery store here.  A few days later, I had a little box of tomatillos and some hot peppers in my mailbox!  (Thank you Tonya – it was a great surprise.)  I kept meaning to make salsa verde with them but kept forgetting to pick up cilantro at the store.  I was afraid they would go bad so I was determined to use them.

Tomatillo Stew

1 – 1.5 lb tomatillos

3/4 lb chicken breast, cooked and shredded

2 1/2 Cups chicken broth

1 or 2 hot peppers (I don’t know what variety she sent…try whatever you like) seeded

1 bag frozen corn, heated

3 cloves garlic

1/2 medium yellow onion

1 tsp sugar

corriander, cumin, salt, pepper

shredded cheese and crushed tortillas for garnish

If you’ve never used tomatillos, they come in a paper husk.  Remove the husk and rinse well.  Then slice them in half and put them on a baking sheet.  (Use one that has a lip so the juices don’t run all over the bottom of your oven.  Not that I would know anything about that.)  Put them under the broiler for 6-8 minutes…until the tops are well browned.  (Last time I talked about the broiler, someone from outside the US didn’t know what that was.  It is a high heat setting in our ovens…kind of like a grill but with the heat coming from the top instead of underneath.)

Take them out of the oven and put them into the food processor – use a blender if you don’t have a food processor.  Add, garlic, onion, 1 teaspoon sugar and hot pepper(s).  Here is where I get scientific.  Add 6 shakes of ground coriander (I didn’t have fresh cilantro and what we call coriander in the US is the ground seeds of the cilantro plant – I hoped it was an adequate substitute) and 3 shakes of cumin.  A few shakes of salt and pepper.  Whirl it up in the processor until smooth.

Throw this mixture into a pot with 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth, the cooked shredded chicken, and the corn.  Allow this to heat on med-low for 20-30 minutes.  Serve with a little bit of shredded cheese and some crushed tortilla chips on top.  You could also put a dollop of sour cream on top.

Variations: This could easily be made vegetarian by using black beans or cannellini beans instead of chicken.  Or reduce the amount of chicken and add some beans too.  Fresh cilantro would be a nice addition too.

And my friend Meredith suggested something that hadn’t occurred to me – if you have a hispanic grocery near you check out their prices on tomatillos.  It might be much more wallet friendly!