It’s Cold Out and Soup is in Demand!

It was a random cold snowy day out here in the Denver Metro Area and I planned to make a chicken and poblano casserole. My dear hubby had something else in mind. As I walked in the door after a long day of work, he gave me a hug and said, “today would be a really great day for soup.” He was right, and I wasn’t about to turn that challenge down.

I raided the pantry and threw together a stew that was DIVINE! (Do I use that word too much? Maybe I need to explore some better adjectives…) I didn’t have a whole lot of fresh stuff, but, with the flavors in this soup, you couldn’t tell. So here is what it looked like:

Chicken Poblano Stew with a Rancho Verde Chile Cerveza Photo: © Gray Box Studios

And here is what I did:

I made a soup base by simmering a 32 oz box of vegetable broth and a 14.5 oz can of tomato sauce together. I added a splash of apple cider vinegar and a few dashes of cinnamon, salt, and black pepper. After simmering for a few minutes, I added a can of rinsed pinto beans and a large can of rinsed hominy, two small boxes of raisins and kept the simmer going. The simmering pot was at capacity, but I kept going.

I diced up the roasted poblanos (after removing the skins and most of the seeds), half a white onion, and 1 lb of chicken breast meat. I browned the onions and a little garlic in oil and added the roasted poblanos. After cooking that up for a few minutes, I put half of the mix into the very full pot of soup. I added the diced chicken to the other half of the mix in the frying pan and added a little salt and black pepper.

When everything was heated through, I combined a few scoops of each in a bowl, garnished it with some tortilla chips and Monterrey cheese and voila! This soup was DEEEE-LISH!

Thankfully, my family agreed.

The divine food that is… The Green Chile Burger

My family and I were hungry. We were on our way home from the Rocky Mountain Air Show and, because we live out in the middle of nowhere (a fact that is swiftly changing, but not changed quite yet), I insisted on doing the grocery shopping on the way home. Armed with our reusable bags and bulk containers, we headed for our regular grocery haunt, Sunflower Market. Being a Colorado company with fresh foods and seasonal selections, they (naturally) have a selection of green chile products available at the meat counter.

We could not contain ourselves. We had the butcher (is that the appropriate name for the guy standing behind the meat counter???) wrap up some pork & green chile sausage and some freshly made green chile burgers.

We got home and fired up the grill. The green chile burgers were DIVINE! They are mixed with Monterrey jack cheese and spices, but the green chile was delightfully flavorful. We served it up with a side of chile lime cucumbers and fried green tomato slices. YUM!

Green chile burgers on the grill (left) and on the plate (right). © Gray Box Studios 2011

Stay tuned for the pork & green chile sausage!