Green Chile Chicken Stew

D and I recently upgraded to a two bedroom – meaning my office and one bedroom – house with a yard for Foster Brown. This is an astronomical improvement over apartment living (no offense to apartment lovers – I have only lived in three apartments for a total of three years and there is a reason for that). However, the upgrade was to a house with a small, older fridge and freezer than I have had since….2001? Why did anyone every design a fridge with a freezer on top? Freezer on bottom people! Anyway,  I basically have to cook with a lot of frozen food at the moment and am slowly emptying the freezer to make room for ice trays (yes it is that old and yes I am a bonafide appliance spoiled brat). My mom gave me a bag of homemade (though what home it came from I cannot tell you) green chili sauce and it fell victim to the teeny tiny freezer. The nice thing about freezer cooking is that I basically had everything I need for what I envisioned as “Green Chili Chicken Stew” (which I have been craving since my Mom made Green Chile and Turkey White Bean Chili a few weeks ago). So Monday night after I made my actual dinner, I threw thawed chicken breasts and green chili sauce with other pantry items and let it cook on low heat overnight. Woke up the next day and the house smelled amazing and I had lunch and dinner just waiting to get in my belly!

Note: I did not do this because I honestly did not have time to get to the store, but I planned on adding cilantro and avocado as garnish. I did miss it a little bit – but I am overly enamored with both of those ingredients so you may not.  Also, feel free to use chicken thighs – you will get more flavor out of them. Breasts are a) healthier and b) were in my freezer; but, thighs are tastier and cheaper – your call.

Green Chile Chicken Stew

Serves Four

One whole chicken breast, cut into halves and seasoned with favorite season combo
Two and a half cups favorite homemade Green Chili Sauce
One White Onion, diced
Seven Cloves Garlic, minced
Half-Tablespoon Crushed Red Pepper
Two Tablespoons Ground Cumin
Half Tablespoon Ground Coriander
Salt
Pepper
One half can black beans, drained and rinsed
One can Cannellini Beans (or other white bean)
Two to three cups Chicken Stock (preferably homemade)
One can Whole Kernel Corn

Sear the seasoned chicken breasts in a glug of olive oil. Remove from pan and add onion and garlic and a pinch of salt. Saute until glassy, add beans, corn, chicken breasts, green chili sauce, chicken broth, and spices to the pan. Let simmer for about twenty minutes, then check and adjust seasoning as desired. Let cook up to 10 hours.

Serve with lime wedges, cilantro, sour cream, green onions and/or avocado as garnish.