Recado and Lime Braised Chicken
Recado and Lime Braised Chicken is an easy, vibrant, deep, and tangy chicken dish that we love to make and serve to guests. This week we have been eating it on Venezuelan arepas with pickled red onions, avocado and a fried egg, last week we made our version of a pulled chicken sandwich on Paul's homemade bread with a creamy sauce. This dish is Paul's creation and takes his stunning version of Mexican colorado recado paste, and makes it into a rich braising liquid that allows the pungent recado flavors. Recado and Lime Braised Chicken is easy to make, and is a versatile an endlessly flexible dish, on tacos, over rice, with potatoes, or in sandwiches.
You may have noticed that we have a fondness for spice pastes here at The Hungry Hounds. If you too have caught the flavor paste obsession, check out our two other potent pastes: Smokey Mexican Chile Paste, Chilmole, and Garlic Ancho Chile Paste.
Yield: serves 6-8
Ingredients:
- 10 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 2 onions finely diced
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
- 4 jalapeños, seeded, roughly chopped
- 2 medium tomatos, cores removed, roughly chopped
- 2 heads garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 4 tablespoons colorado recado paste
- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
- 2 cups chicken broth, low sodium
- 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 250.
- In a small bowl, whisk together recado paste, lime juice and broth. Set aside.
- Heat a wide shallow pan on high for 2-3 minutes. Add oil and onions and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and salt and cook for another minute.
- Add the tomatoes, jalapenos, and recado mixture, stir, and bring to a simmer.
- Once the liquid is simmering, add the chicken.
- Cover, remove from the stovetop, and bake for 2 1/2 hours until the chicken is falling apart. Use a fork to shred the larger chunks of chicken. Serve with fresh limes and jalapeños.
Venezuelan Arepas with Recado & Lime Chicken
If you've never tried an arepa before, you have been missing out. Arepas are to South America, what tortillas are to Central America and Mexico; a simple, easy to make, and yet ridiculously delicious corn-based staple and platform for creativity. These arepas are in a more Venezuelan style, a little more rounded and thick, and cooked primarily on the stove-top. This week we have been topping our arepas with Recado and Lime Braised Chicken, fresh avocado slices, and our Mexican Quick Pickled Red Onions. These arepas are also great with Paul's Yucatán Citrus Pulled Pork.
Vietnamese Chicken Soup, Phở Gà
Food has the power to connect us to people and places around the world. In 2007, Rebecca and I spent three months traveling through South East Asia together. Leaving Cambodia on the back of moto-bikes, we arrived for the night, hot and dusty, in a small village in rural Vietnam. After dropping off our packs, we sat down on the rickety plastic stools of the town's only food stand, famished. Without asking what we wanted, two pungent bowls of Phở Gà, Vietnam's famous chicken noodle soup, were plunked down in front of us. We were hooked! As we made our way north over the next several weeks, we enjoyed many local variations of Phở: from the dark, rich, and beefy to bright and spicy with shrimp. Our favorite Phở, on which our recipe is based, was eaten from steaming bowls one early morning overlooking Hạ Long Bay. This version used chicken that had been marinated and grilled, rather than boiled in the soup, giving it a crispy texture and sweet charred flavor.
Each sip of flavorful broth reminds us also of the people and culture that created it. Phở is an aromatic and visual dish, one that we like to serve in our Vietnamese blue petal bowls made in the Kinh family workshop in the famous pottery village of Bat Trang, Vietnam. By partnering with a local non-profit and Ten Thousand Villages, women potters are able to make a living for their families, continue a rich cultural tradition, and gain access to tools, education, training, interest-free loans, and literacy classes. We buy many of our dishes and gifts from Ten Thousand Villages each year, and appreciate their commitment to ethical partnerships with local artisans around the world.
Berbere Spiced Chicken, Doro Wat
Berbere Spiced Chicken evokes memories of Ethiopia, the place where Paul and I first became friends. During our time in Addis, I got sick and Paul was appointed my hospital companion. I found a kindred spirit and we spent the rest of our time in Ethiopia together at every opportunity. A few months later, back home again, our relationship evolved into something more. The nuanced spice of berbere is a shared food memory; the start of a relationship, excitement of plans, passionate discussions, and the flash of recognition at finding a life partner.
Berbere is a distinctive spice mixture from Ethiopia -- fiery hot balanced with pungent garlic and warming spices. Many households prepare their own berbere mixture, and tarps laid out with drying chilies and spices were a common sight and smell in Ethiopia. Berbere Spiced Chicken is our greatly simplified and adapted version of the classic Ethiopian Doro Wat. Once you hunt down some berbere seasoning at your local spice store or online, this dish can be made in an hour and half with everyday ingredients.
Pork Vindaloo
A few years ago we traveled to India. India is the place where Paul’s brother and sister-in-law met, and where Paul’s brother lived and worked for a number of years. It is a vibrant country with a huge diversity of cuisine. We learned early on in our travels, how hard it is to recreate dishes in our home kitchen without some hands-on experience of the regional cooking techniques and ingredients. Having struggled to master Indian cooking at home, we signed up for a cooking class in each region we visited, and Goan Vindaloo was at the top of our list.
Pork Vindaloo is a spicy, garlic and vinegar seasoned pork dish that comes from the South Indian state of Goa, known for its unique blend of Portuguese and Indian cuisine. Vindaloo’ s name comes from the Portuguese words ‘vinho,’ wine (vinegar) and ‘alhos,’ garlic. Introduced to Goa by Portuguese colonists, Vindaloo evolved with the addition of Indian spices and seasonings. Vindaloo is a uniquely pungent stew with a strong punch of garlic, vinegar and mustard, mellowed by rich coconut milk. Madhur Jaffey, an award winning Indian cooking authority, is a wonderful resource if you are looking to make Indian food at home, and our recipe for Pork Vindaloo follows in her style of simplified Indian cooking.
Thai Peanut Sauce Smoked Chicken Wings
Christmas in Indiana this year had as hankering for these Thai Peanut Smoked Chicken Wings. Given the challenges of finding both chicken wings and a smoker in Haiti, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to chow down on an old favorite while back in the US. This pungent Thai sauce is chock full of vibrant flavors, tangy lime, creamy peanut butter, garlic, and spicy jalapeno. For those without a home smoker, the recipe includes an easy adaptation for oven roasting.
