I thought I was done with holiday food prep until I realized I needed one more entree that was lactose and gluten free, and blood sugar safe, which I could gift people. After a quick glance over the pantry and refrigerator, I came up with hatch chile chicken stew.
The prep included blanching tomatoes, then dicing up equal amounts of chicken thigh and breast, onion, tomato, hatch chilies, garlic. Normally I would blend hatch and jalapeño chilies, but my hatch are already hot as is. The end product will have more of a bite, and adding mild cheese to a rue may be needed at the end.
Then it was time to sauté the onions and toss in the diced chicken and minced garlic, then toss with chaqueque flour. It is a coarse ground blue corn flour from New Mexico, and I love the texture it adds to the dish.
After adding some spices, the whole thing simmers for 90 minutes. The flour requires stirring every 15 minutes or so to keep it from clumping and burning, but it's well worth the effort. The final touch will be to add a cornstarch slurry or rue if the dish needs to be thickened, possibly with some mild dairy-free cheese it the heat level needs to be toned down a bit.
And violà! My food prep is done for 2023.
