Slow Cooker Green Chicken Chili

LUCY BURDETTE: We have a huge crop of tomatillos in our garden this year, which brings the knotty question of how best to use them. This recipe is based on one shared by my great grad school buddy, Mary Morris. I have very fond memories of the two of us cooking our way through the Moosewood Cookbooks when we weren’t working. I adapted it to use in my slow cooker and swapped around some ingredients. My guinea pig tasters declared this to be delicious!

Ingredients

1.5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 large onion

3 stalks celery

1 jalapeno or more to taste

1 green pepper

1 lb fresh tomatillos

chicken broth

3 tsp chili powder

2 tsp cumin

1 bunch fresh cilantro

1 can hominy, drained and rinsed

1 small can chopped green chilis

1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels

Chop the vegetables. Husk, rinse and halve the tomatillos. Clean and chop the cilantro.

Brown the chicken in a bit of oil if your slow-cooker has the sauté option. Add the chopped onion, celery, and peppers and cook a few more minutes, along with the spices. Add the tomatillos and pour in chicken broth to cover. Add half the cilantro and cook on low for 5 hours.

Remove the chicken from the pot and shred it, using two forks. Add the chicken back into the pot along with hominy, chilis and corn. Cook another half hour.

Serve over rice with more chopped cilantro, shredded Monterey Jack, crumbled tortilla chips, sliced radishes.

Lucy Burdette's 8th Key West mystery, DEATH ON THE MENU, is now in bookstores everywhere! Read more on Lucy's website, or Facebook, or Instagram, or Twitter...