Tomatillo Shredded Chicken Taco Recipe

I have another great taco recipe for everyone using a common Mexican food staple, the tomatillo. The tomatillo is an interesting ingredient, it comes in its own wrapper, a sort of paper like husk, peeling the husk reveals a fragrant green fruit. A relative of another fruit, the tomato, (yes it’s a fruit) the tomatillo has a similar appearance, the skin is not as soft and it is somewhat sticky to the touch. This a very simple tomatillo recipe that requires only a few steps and ingredients. When the recipe is completed you’ll be left with plenty of tomatillo salsa, we reused the sauce and leftovers to make verde chicken enchiladas the next day, I’ll include that recipe at the bottom as well. The first part of this recipe involves creating the sauce, the tomatillo is your base and by itself it is not hot or spicy. It is up to you on how spicy you want the sauce to be, I suggest using different types and quantities of peppers to create your desired heat. A very mild dish can be created using using jalapeños, serranos for medium, and habenero and above is your hot.

Ingredients for shredded chicken tacos

You’ll need a blender
12-14 tomatillos
1-2 poblanos remove the stems
2-4 peppers of your choice, keep the seeds in for more heat (I used two serranos, seeded and stems removed, will be using 4 next time)
1 medium/large white onion cut into chunks
3 cloves of garlic
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 cup chicken broth
1.5 lbs chicken breast
Cilantro (will also be using as a topping)
Radishes sliced
Lime wedges
1/3 cup sour cream
Serrano and fire roasted Tomato Sauce – use our recipe
Tortillas (store bought or make your own) Bob’s Red Mill Masa Harina was used for the dough.
Queso fresco (topping)
Avocado (topping)

Tomatillo Salsa recipe

Prepped to Roast

Ready to Blend the Tomatillos

Directions

Pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees.
Grab a non stick baking sheet pan and place down parchment paper on top of the pan’s surface.
Just like Christmas start with unwrapping all the tomatillos and place them on the pan.
Grab an onion and slice into large chunks. place them on the pan.
Take your peppers, cut the stems off and place them onto the pan.
Drizzle some olive oil over the tomatillos, onions and peppers making sure everything is evenly distributed and mixed throughout. Next, season everything with salt and pepper.
Once the oven has reached 425 degrees place the pan in the oven for a total of 40 minutes, at the 20 minute mark remove the pan and mix all of the items again and return to the oven for another 20 minutes.
Using the last 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness of your chicken breasts, place them on a pan to bake, you don’t need to season them. when cooked shred the chicken breast. Set aside the shredded chicken breast.
When finished remove the tomatillos, peppers and onions from the oven, the tomatillos should have burst a little, using tongs place everything from the pan into the blender. Any liquid on the pan should also be poured into the blender.
Before blending, add a fist full of cilantro, 1 cup of chicken broth, and 3 cloves of garlic. blend until smooth.
Grab a large sauce pan and place on the stove. Add in the chicken, then slowly start to mix in the sauce until you reach the desired thickness. Don’t feel like you have to use all of the sauce. We bottled the remaining sauce and used it for other meals.
Add in your sour cream to the sauce pan, place the pan over a medium-low heat covered for around 15 -20 minutes (stir occasionally)

Preparing Your Tacos

Use a slotted spoon so you don’t grab too much sauce all at one time to prepare your taco. One spoonful of filling should work well for a tortilla.
After adding the chicken, add some toppings; add three thin slices of radishes, followed by two to three stems and leaves of cilantro, crumble some queso fresco on top, and squeeze a little lime on top.
If you have it; top off the tacos with a slice of avocado, followed by the serrano tomato sauce or a sauce of your choice.

Left over Chicken Verde Enchiladas

If you bottled some left over verde sauce that you didn’t add to your chicken this is an easy use for your leftovers.

Verde Enchiladas

Ingredients

Flour tortillas
Left over tomatillo Shredded Chicken
Cheese (cheddar, Monterey Jack, etc)
Left over verde sauce
Choice of hot sauce
Side of rice

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Fill tortillas with the shredded chicken and wrap them facing the folded seams of the tortillas face down into a shallow baking dish.
When the pan is filled, pour over the salsa verde on top of the enchiladas.
Top the enchiladas with cheese.
Cover the enchiladas with foil and place them in the oven for around 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes have passed remove the foil and continue to cook for another 15 minutes.
Set the oven to broil for around 5 minutes or until the cheese has slightly browned.