Canarygirl’s Chicken Verde
There is a restaurant in my home town in Saint Cloud, Minnesota that makes the best burritos…no really…THE BEST burritos. The name of this place is Bravo Burritos…and Oh. My. Sweet. God. The chicken verde there is just awesome. I make my own version at home, and believe me, if you like Mexican, you’ll love this recipe. I like to serve the burritos loaded with refried beans, “Mexican” rice, cheese, sour cream (I usually sub greek yogurt though), guacamole , onions and of course, HOT sauce. Chips and salsa on the side, more guacamole , more hot sauce….you get the idea. One burrito is enough for a whole meal. Seriously. The wonderful aroma of spices and chilies wafting through the house while it cooks makes the lengthy cook time worth it…and it makes a LOT of Chicken Verde…so you’ll be sure to have leftovers. Leftovers that freeze very well, I might add.
The Recipe for Chicken Verde(makes enough for at least 12 large burritos):
Ingredients:
For the chicken:
1 whole chicken, washed
1 onion
2-3 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
water to cover
For the sauce:
2 (8 ounce) cans tomatillo sauce
a large bunch of cilantro (enough to have about a cup after chopping)
a generous amount of cumin seeds (at least 2 tablespoons)
1 large onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
a sprinkling of oregano
salt and pepper to taste
For the burritos:
soft flour tortillas (or for gluten-free, substitute gluten-free tortillas, or corn tortillas)
refried beans (thinned with a little water and seasoned with salt, pepper, chili powder and a little garlic powder)
“Mexican” rice
cheese (your choice, cheddar, monterey jack, a mix)
sour cream
guacamole
chopped onions
HOT sauce
Preparation:
First you’ll need to cook the chicken in water with the onion, garlic, salt and pepper. It’s best to use a large stockpot with a lid.
Bring the chicken to a boil over high heat, then cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for an hour to an hour and a half, until the chicken falls from the bone.
Remove chicken from broth to a plate and allow to cool enough to handle.
Strain broth and reserve.
When chicken is cool enough to handle, shred with a fork or your fingers, discarding all skin, bones and other waste.
Put chicken in a medium sized stock pot and add enough broth to cover.
Refrigerate or freeze any remaining broth.
Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium low and simmer at least 45 minutes to an hour.
Adjust seasoning.
Now it’s time to make the burritos!
Place a warmed tortilla on a plate.
Using a spoon, spread the entire tortilla with refried beans.
Now spread with rice.
Add a bit of chicken verde down the center of the tortilla.
Top with cheese, sour cream, guacamole, onions and hot sauce.
Roll up the burritos.
Serve fold side down—you’ll need to eat these with a knife and fork, unless you wrap them very well in foil. They are big!
Serve with more rice on the side, chips, salsa and more guacamole.
These burritos sound amazingly good! I love everything about the recipe, from start to finish, and your photos are the icing on the cake in making this irresistible! And I also cannot wait to try your Mexican rice! Love your blog, and I’m really glad I happened to discover it.
Comment by Belinda — July 30, 2007 @ 3:41 pm
Thanks so much, Belinda! I’m thrilled that you like my site.
Welcome to the neighborhood! 
Comment by nikki — July 31, 2007 @ 8:15 am
Hi Nikki
I´ve made this chicken verde recipe before, and enjoyed it hugely! However I have no idea what tomatillo sauce is…..I used run of the mill tomato sauce last time. I´m going to do it again but would like to use the correct ingredients. Where do you buy your tomatillo sauce? Living as well in the Canaries, if you are getting it from a Canarian supermarket, then presumably I too can get it here……..although I have tried Mercadona and not only do they not have it, they have never heard of it, and neither have any of my Canarian friends!
Also, can you throw some light on the USA version of “cups” of stuff? I have tried to find out on Internet, but can´t find any one site that agrees with another!!! As it´s all such a mystery, any chance that on future recipes you can also put the gram equivalent (or cl if liquid) for us non-USA aficionados of your website??!!
Many thanks and kind regards
Colleen
Comment by colleen keyes — April 23, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
Hi Colleen! Ah, the ever elusive tomatillo salsa. lol I’m not surprised that no one has heard of it, since it is a Mexican food product. Those tend to be fairly difficult to locate around these parts.
I am able to consistently find it (it’s called “salsa verde”) at Alcampo, El Corte Inglés, and HiperCor…some tourist-y locations have it, too…EuroSpar, Vivó in tourist locations. Let me know if you cannot find it, and the next time I find some I will pick up a can for you and send it your way. Tomatillos are actually small and green, they look like green cherry tomatoes, but are actually a pepper, the salsa has those, cilantro, onion, garlic, and spices.
Now for the cups…I have a set of measuring cups that I bought at Ikea, and I usually tell my friends here when measuring the following: 1 cup = 1 vaso (de Nocilla), 1 tablespoon = 1 cucharada (de sopa), 1 teaspoon = 1 cucharadita (de café). I hope this helps! I also have a link posted on my sidebar for measurement conversions…you can punch in any measurement and convert it to it’s metric equivalent.
(http://www.onlineconversion.com/)
Cheers!
Comment by nikki — April 25, 2008 @ 8:26 am