This one’s for Sheri. I deeply miss one of my best friends who moved back to NYC after an extended L.A. experiment. She’s a true New Yorker with a fondness for the best of Los Angeles – just not enough to make it permanent.
One of the “must-do” things on our list whenever she visits is to head to Tacos por Favor on the west side for posole. Well… not just posole, but it is unbelievably comforting.
When the pandemic hit, and I was (like many) forced to stay indoors more than out, I found that cooking was a salve for these strange days. Lately, I’ve become obsessed with cooking from Northern Mexico and L.A.’s particular sabor of the cuisine.
I promised my friend Sheri a recipe for Posole Verde con Pollo. I’ll get to that; first, I’m inclined to offer up the base flavor mix for that dish and many others she and I love so much. Salsa Verde.
Like most of the things I cook, this recipe is really forgiving. The ingredients and amounts are what I use, but mine changes every time. It all depends on what’s available at your local market, how spicy you want a particular batch and what kind of flavors you prefer. You do you!
The only thing I heartily recommend is roasting and steaming the chiles, tomatillos and at least half the tomatoes. It’s a much, MUCH richer flavor.
Ingredients
- 10-12 tomatillo
- 8 Roma tomatoes
- 1-2 set aside for chunkier salsam
- 2 jalapeno
- 2 Serrano
- 1 habañero
- 1 red onion, 1/2 reserved for chunkier salsa
- 1/2 white or yellow onion
- 3 cloves garlic (still in husks/skins)
- 1 bunch cilantro
- 1 bunch scallion
- 1 lime
- 1 lemon
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp black ground pepper
- 1 tsp Mexican oregano
- Salt to taste
Method
- Remove husks and stems from the tomatillos and wash residue from the fruit. Slice in half.
- Brown peppers, 1/2 red onion, garlic cloves still in husks, 1/2 white or yellow onion, 6-7 of the tomatoes & all tomatillo. I recommend an oven or toaster oven broiler. Doing it in a stovetop pan is a pain in las nalgas.
- As each piece browns, remove the chiles, garlic cloves and tomatillos and put in a large zip bag for 20 minutes to steam. You can put the charred onions and tomatoes right into the blender.
- Chop reserved fresh tomatoes and onion (set aside.)
- After 20 minutes, remove chiles, tomatillos and garlic from the bag. Depending on your tolerance for spice, remove stems, seeds, and veins from broiled chiles. Add to blender.
- Remove husks from garlic cloves. Add to blender, along with tomatillos.
- Rip the cilantro bunch in half and stick stems, leaves and all into the blender.
- Squeeze 1 lime and half a lemon into the blender.
- Add spices and salt.
- Blend the crap out of the mixture until it’s smooth.
Here’s where it gets personal. Start tasting and adjusting at this point. Sometimes I find I need a 1/2 tsp of sugar if it’s a little too bitter. Most of the time, I do end up adding more lime and more salt.
- Once the flavor is where you like it, pour into a container, add the fresh chopped veg in and enjoy.
Depending on how cold your fridge is, it can keep for 2-3 weeks, but mine never lasts that long. I put it on everything from scrambled eggs to avocado toast and it’s particularly good with my Pulled Pork Carnitas.
Salt, Sweet, Spirits. 