I make, if I can say so myself, a really good Green Chile Stew. The recipe isn’t so important as the change I want to make in it. I usually use pork (boneless, country ribs) cut into stew size pieces that end up simmering for about 90 minutes. Tonight, though, I want to do it with half pork and half chicken thighs. Boneless, skinless thighs.
Q1: Should I keep the thighs whole or cut them up? I’m thinking of cutting them up, roughly the same size as the pork.
Q2: How long should I simmer them? If cut up, I’m thinking ~20 minutes. I don’t want them in there for the full 90 minutes, especially if cut up. If not cut up, I’m thinking 30 - 45 minutes.
I’d probably cut them up, but in slightly larger pieces. perusing Serious Eats, where they have similar recipes (e.g. chile verde) they seem to advise simmering chicken thigh for a bit under half as long as pork. chicken thighs don’t need the long cooking time to render collagen.
I make a chicken stew quite often, too, but with full, bone-in thighs. Those I cook for about an hour, or maybe a bit more. Half the time as the pork sounds a bit much, but probably should be OK. Thighs are pretty forgiving.
Yeah, I would say the cut-up thighs probably need about a half hour or so. I have no problem, though, letting them go longer. When I make chicken stew with cut-up thighs, I let it go as long as an hour or so over low heat. The main difference I find is that the chicken gets a bit soft and “shreddy” and fail to hold their shape if I go a bit long, but, depending on what I’m making, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Verde? Boneless thighs and don’t worry about the time too much. You want the meat to be shreddable. Makes it easier to glom out of the bowl and onto a piece of tortilla.
Bone in thighs with skin have 1000 % better flavor. Sometimes when I make pork in green sauce there’s a lot of sauce left after the pork is gobbled up and I freeze it to put over grilled chicken, best of both worlds.
My Chile Verde is packed with flavor, thank-you-very-much! When I make chicken stew, I absolutely use bone-in meat with skins intact. But I’m only adding a bit of chicken to pork + savory vegetables.
Made it last night, and I cut up the thighs about in quarters. Sauted them first a few minutes on each side. Cooked them with the stew for about 30 minutes. It came out very good. One secret I do, and I probably mentioned this in another thread, is I only add half the vegetables at the beginning of the simmering process. I add the rest about half-way through so they all don’t disintegrate into the sauce.
And the whole house smells so freakin’ good, too!!
Absolutely!! In fact, the recipe calls for about a cup of water or stock, but I don’t add any at all and I still often have sauce left over. Maybe because I add more vegetables than the recipe calls for.
When I make chicken stew, I absolutely use bone-in meat with skins intact. But I’m only adding a bit of chicken to pork + savory vegetables.