Impulse Buys and What to Do With Them

In my excitement of finding a relatively well-stocked latino grocery store within 10 minutes walking distance from my house, I stocked up on random things that are generally not found at Whole Paycheck or the Soviet Safeway. Dried anchi chili peppers. Hmm. These had been sitting and mocking my lack of planning for a while now. These are a staple of Mexican food, from chili to moles to tamales. But really, I had no idea what to do with them.


Allrecipes.com to the rescue ... I found a recipe for ancho chili honey glaze, which I modified to become Ancho Chile Honey Glazed Chicken Thighs. I was going to use chicken breasts, but I prefer to cook chicken on the bone and the cooking method, braising, works so much better with dark meat than white meat. Besides, thighs were on sale. This dish has a dark smoky flavor with a kick, a slightly sweet edge because of the glaze, and a cool finish with the creamy yogurt topping. I didn't do a nutritional analysis because this recipe made an insane amount of the glaze and an equally insane amount of the mixture in which the thighs are braised. Which is not a bad thing, since it creates leftovers for use in other ways. But it made it hard to get an accurate picture of what the nutrition would be.


I heated my cast iron pan on medium-high heat on the stove and seared 4 chicken thighs on both sides until golden brown and then set the thighs aside. Then, I sauteed 1/2 onion and 2 cloves minced garlic until soft and starting to brown. Then I added 1 dried ancho chile pepper (chopped, stemmed, and seeded), 1 can of no salt added diced tomatos (pureed in a food chopper but still slightly chunky), 1 tbsp tomato paste, 1 cup homemade chicken broth, 1 heaping tsp ground cumin, 1 bay leaf, 1/2 tsp cayenne, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring this to a boil and return the chicken thighs to the pan. Then, cover with tin foil and bake for about 1 hour on 350 degrees. Just throw the whole cast iron pan in there.


Then, while the chicken is slowly cooking, you prepare the glaze. Take 3 dried ancho chile peppers (stemmed and seeded) and boil them, then soak for about 10 minutes in 2 cups of water. Reserve about 1/2 cup or more of the cooking water. Throw the reconstituted chiles in a blender with the reserved cooking water, 1/4 cup raw honey, and 1 tsp lemon or orange zest (I used lemon zest) and set aside. Super easy. You could easily make this glaze separately for any meat like lamb or beef and it would be awesome even without braising the meat. But next time, I would cut this recipe in half since it made a huge amount of glaze.

Now, pull the chicken out of the oven and increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Lightly oil a roasting pan (I just used a small pie dish), and take your chicken thighs and put them meaty side facing up on the pan. Set aside the tomato mixture. Brush the glaze over the meat and return to the oven for another 6-8 minutes or until a crust forms. Now, I think I made my glaze too thick because I didn't get any nice crystallizing action in the form of a crust. The thicker texture is perfect for smearing on sandwiches or burgers or quesadillas, but not for created a crust. But, in the end, the chicken was delicious, crust or not.

Finally, while the meat is resting 5 minutes, mix some chopped up cilantro in skim greek yogurt. I served the chicken on top of steamed greens, with a huge spoonful of the tomato braising mixture, and a dollop of yogurt on top. Even though the glaze was pretty good, I think the best part was the braising mixture, which had so much flavor and was a perfect match with the chicken. The glaze would probably be better with lamb or beef or venison.