Mexican Green Chicken

Earlier this week, I went to the grocery store without a plan. Normally, this can be dangerous for me, but this time I was on a schedule because I had to go watch a football game. This was the only whole football game I've ever watched. Seriously. And they lost.

Anyway, tomatillos were on sale at the grocery store. I've never cooked with these before and I know that they are out of season. But SALE! Come on, cheap tomatillos in the middle of a Minnesota winter. Anyway, they make a damn good salsa (that's sauce, not dip, in Spanish).



Ingredients:
About a pound of tomatillos
1/2 medium yellow onion
3 cloves of garlic
5-7 green chillies
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 cup cilantro, no stems
3 chicken breasts
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 teaspoon paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

First, boil you're tomatillos until the skin splits (about 10 minutes). Strain them. Put them in a blender with cilantro, garlic, lemon juice, onion, some salt and pepper. Blend well until you reach "salsa" consistency.



Cut your chicken into strips. Make a breading from the crumbs, paprika and a little salt. Toss the strips in the breading and fry in 1 tablespoon of the butter until you have browning on all sides. Place chicken in baking dish with remainder of butter. Pour 3/4ths of the salsa into the dish and bake at 375 degrees for forty-five minutes. Stir occasionally. Take out and cut chicken to make sure it's well done. Mix in the remainder of your salsa for a fresh taste. Serve with rice.

Usually, I don't go for extra steps, like this breading and frying. But it made a difference tonight. This was really good. Sort of like curry, but a different bunch of flavors. I could have gone for a jalapeno, but I had a lot of chillies sitting around.