braising chicken thighs in our tomatillo sauce

This isn’t a precise recipe, but I’m fairly confident that you can follow along you'll end up with something similar and delicious enough. You can make this on the stove top/oven (which I do if I want to keep the thighs intact), or you can cook it in a crock pot (I shred the meat when I cook it this way.)

  • Season your 6 thighs with salt and pepper.
  • Sear them skin side down over medium heat to render some of the fat out from under the skin and brown the skin. While they are searing, add some white onion wedges and garlic cloves to the pan. If you want more heat, add a cut and deseeded jalapeno or poblano pepper. Let the vegetables soften and brown in the chicken fat. (I use the odds and ends in my vegetable drawer here.)
  • Once the vegetables and chicken are browned, you can add your braising liquid to the pan they’re cooking in or transfer them to a crock pot. For the braising liquid I add equal parts Mel’s tomatillo salsa and chicken stock. (Depending on the size of your pan this could be 1-1 1/2 cups of each.) And if I have cilantro stems in my vegetable drawer, I add those as well. If braising in the pan, you want the liquid to come halfway up the chicken thighs (don’t submerge them completely.) When making this in the crockpot, the chicken gets submerged.
  • Cover and cook in a low oven 325 or crock pot setting until tender (about 45 mins-1 hr. if in the oven.) If you braised the chicken thighs in the oven… it’s best to let them cool in their braising liquid and then you can take them out of the liquid and brown them in the oven/toaster/broiler when you are ready to eat them. If you cooked them in the crock pot… I remove the bone and skin (i’ll try to crisp the skin for a little snack) and shred the meat, then add the braising liquid to moisten it. 
  • Use the braising liquid to sauce the meat, and if there is more left over you can dilute it with water or more chicken stock and cook rice in it. 
  • The shredded meat is delicious in warmed tortillas and the whole thighs are great over rice garnished with radishes, green onions, sour cream, avocado, etc...