Feel free to make a big batch, it freezes well.
| Servings |
lbs chicken thighs
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Ingredients
- 2 lbs bone-in chicken thighs — with or without skin.
- 2 Tbsp chicken fat, lard, or clarified butter — Or cooking oil
- 1 large onion roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic — smashed and chopped.
- 1 Tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- Salt and pepper
- 1.5 cups salsa/picante sauce — Homemade is best, but Pace is good and available in mild, medium, and hot.
- 2 cups chicken stock — if you're snowed in and it's an emergency you can substitute water
- 1 lime zested & juiced
Ingredients
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Instructions
- Remove thigh skin. Either discard or see notes below. Pat thighs well dry with paper towels. Do NOT skip that step.
- Lightly salt both sides of thighs and refrigerated from a couple of hours to overnight.
- Chop the onion and garlic.
- Select a covered pan or pot wide enough to brown all thighs at once. Preferably not cast iron - It's not a good idea to reduce an acidic sauce in cast iron. Add oil and heat to shimmering.
- OPTIONAL ALTERNATIVE To oil... put the whole skins in the pot and brown them, turning every minute or two, until the fat has rendered and the skins have browned nicely. Then remove them, leaving the rendered fat in the pan. You can either discard the skins, salt them and use them as snacks, or vacuum seal and freeze them to toss into your next batch of chicken stock.
- Add thighs to pot and Brown on both sides (about 4 minutes each) remove and set aside.
- Add onion, cumin, chili powder and a big pinch of salt and pepper. Cook onion a couple of minutes.
- Add garlic. Continue cooking until onions are well softened and browning.
- Return chicken, add salsa and stock then bring to a simmer.
- Cover and slow simmer for 30 minutes.
- Remove chicken and set aside.
- Add lime zest to sauce.
- Simmer sauce uncovered until reduced by half, stirring periodically.
- While sauce is reducing, debone and shred thigh meat with a couple of forks. Let it cool a bit first or delegate this task to someone annoying.
- Mix shredded meat back into sauce and reduce heat to low. Add lime juice. Salt and pepper to taste.
Recipe Notes
Rather than discarding the skin, consider packaging and freezing it for the next time you make poultry stock. Brown it and toss it in. Om nom nom nom!
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