Mark Brown
August 18, 2022
3 packages boneless skinless chicken thighs, About 5 pounds.
2 cans no salt added tomatoes
2 cans mild Rotel, or tomato with chiles
4 – 6 ounces water
2 tbsp homemade salt free taco seasoning
2-3 tbsp coarse kosher salt
3-4 tbsp coarse grind black pepper
3-4 tbsp vegetable oil
Cook time: About hour and 20 minutes.
This recipe is a new favorite. I’ve made it quite a bit lately. The dish is ridiculously easy to make but can take some time because the first part of the process is a little lengthy. In smaller portions, it would only take probably 25-30 minutes. Chicken and tomatoes go very well together. It’s also a very good way to getting in vitamin C and all the others that are in tomato and peppers. Chicken thighs are a very good vessel for this. I wouldn’t do this with chicken breasts because they don’t taste like much.
Season the boneless skinless chicken thighs with kosher salt and black pepper. Brown all the chicken in the pan and cook the chicken all the way through or just under that point. Be sure to cook the chicken in a hot enough pan to get a good sear on the chicken. Leaving it on the side in a hot oiled pan will brown and cook the chicken all the way through in just 5-6 minutes on each side. If it ends up being a bit dry, remember that the sauce will cover that up a bit. The pan has to be hot though. Do no overcrowd the pan. That will decrease the temperature of the steel the fond on the bottom of the pan will not develop over the searing time. Even with a 14 inch pan with straight sides, I can only fit 3 pieces of chicken per time in it. That’s why the cook time is so long here. Be careful about overheating the pan. This is medium-high temperature on the burner, not fully blasted high. The fond on the bottom of the pan is easy to burn. Once it burns, it becomes smoky and acrid. Completely unusable.
Once the final pieces of chicken are browned and set aside with the others, hopefully in a bowl to catch any liquid from them, pour in the 4 cans of tomato and Rotel. Add the taco seasoning to the tomatoes and chiles. Clean out the cans with water by pouring water into one can and transferring it to another and repeat that until all them are clean. The remaining tomato liquid and tomatoes should be in the water. Pour it in to the pan, then turn up the heat to let the tomato juice reduce till there’s almost just tomatoes and chiles in the pan. Pull the chicken in large pieces and put into the pan then stir into coat the chicken with the tomatoes and sauce. The amount of sauce that is left in the pan will tell the cook how much chicken to add to the pan. The picture has 11 boneless chicken thighs in it. I had 3 left over for the next night. Taste for seasoning, then adjust as necessary. It needed a few more good shakes of kosher salt before service.
There are some things that are important to note. First, I find buying canned tomatoes and beans without salt added to them is the best way to manage salt intake. The fond on the bottom of the pan is the saltiest part of the dish. It comes from the surface of the chicken as it cooks so salt somewhat aggressively. The tomato juice and water will dilute it before reduction begins. Second, this recipe is highly adaptable to how someone wants to make it. The 2 cans of Rotel could be swapped for 2 cans of tomatoes and different seasoning added. Italian seasoning or various curry powders would take this dish entirely different places. I like cooking food that is adaptable.
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