To me there is nothing better than waking up on a Sunday morning and making something delicious in the kitchen, something that during the week would not be possible…
With the house still quiet and only the sounds & smells of the kitchen around me, it is a sort of peaceful moment in time that I cherish.
This morning did not fall short…
After attending the Cinco de Mayo themed cooking class at Whole Foods last week there was a sauce that I just couldn’t get out of my mind & I knew after our trip to the Latino market yesterday that I had to make it and I had to make it now!
Ancho Chile Sauce
- 3 tomatillos
- 3 oz. ancho chiles
- 2 onions
- 5 garlic cloves
- approx. 3 cups veg stock
- 1 tblsp agave
Have you ever worked with tomatillos before? This was a first for me!
These lil’ guys are a staple in Mexican cuisine and are not to be confused with an unripe green tomato. They are covered with a paper-like husk and impart a tart flavor and beautiful green color to many Mexican sauces.
I started by coating the tomatillos with about 1 tblsp olive oil, placing them on a foil lined baking pan and roasting at 425F for about 20 minutes…
Next I removed the skins from the onions & garlic, coated them with another 1 tblsp olive oil and slow roasted these at 350F for about 45 minutes. Note that I wrapped each individually in foil to create a “packet”
The end product was a roasted batch of wonderful!
While all this roasting was going on, I prepped the ancho chiles, which are actually dried poblanos. This was also an ingredient that I have never worked with in the kitchen, so fun!
First just prep up the chiles by slicing off the stems & scraping out the seeds, unless you like your mouth to be on fire I guess? 
Then bring a few cups of veg stock to a boil (or you can use chicken stock or even beer!), turn off the heat and drop in the dried chiles, covering the pot to trap in the heat.
Once they soak for a little while (maybe an hour?) they plump right up and are ready to use 
At this point it was time to get out one of my favorite kitchen tools and get to blending!
Just add all the roasted ingredients to the ancho chile mixture and blend away… I transferred to a taller pot to avoid splattering the walls/myself/etc with the red sauce 
GIVEAWAY REMINDER! You have until 5pm tomorrow to enter to win your very own Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Blender!
After blending the ingredients I decided a touch of agave would just finish this sauce off, check out the final product…
Gorgeous.
After that kitchen adventure we had a full day of cleaning the house, watching Food Inc. (loved it, reaffirms all my reasons for shopping/eating how I do) and pounding out a 6 Round Slim Down routine on ExTV
Once dinner time rolled around things were ready to roll!
I took these Whole Foods chicken breasts…
… and covered with the ancho chile sauce before placing them into a 350F oven for about 30 minutes to cook through.
Layer of sauce on bottom, chicken, layer of sauce on top.
Then shredded up the chicken, adding more sauce as needed to create a luscious chicken filling for the corn tortillas.
Speaking of, check out these beauties from the Latino market!
Stone ground corn, water & lime. That’s it. The smell of these in the oven was so authentic, so fabulous ahhh so good!
To complete the tacos I sauteed up some onions & peppers in a lil’ olive oil, adding some fresh cilantro at the end…
Served with shredded cheese and salsa, here was the dinner setup!
To go with I made a mixture of corn, peppers & onions, salsa for our veg… plus some fresh chives for good measure
All served up this one was one delicious meal! I loved the sauce and have mucho leftovers stored away for future use
Muy Delicioso!
Quick lil’ hint about fresh herbs too friends, if you pick too much from your garden or want to keep store bought fresh, just loosely wrap in a wet paper towel and add some water (about 1/2″) to a cup/mug and store on the counter…
… these mint leaves have been here for 7 days. I kid you not, and they look fabulous!
Alright well I better get outta here, time to rest up before another Monday at work and a trip to the dentist for a filling (as if Mondays couldn’t get any better haha)
Lata friends!
