Tomatillo & Poblano Soup

The straw that broke the camel’s back in my decision to start this blog/recipe book was when a friend of mine, gifted to me one of his favorite comfort food recipes. We had been discussing our mutual love of cooking and he launched into a story about his famous “Tomatillo and Poblano soup”. Now, I had never tried a tomatillo on my own before, let alone knew what to do with one once I had it in my hot little hands, but the way he described this soup I knew that I had to give it a try. So that very day I went to the nearby Mexican market and purchased all of the ingredients I would need before heading back home to begin the process. 

It’s actually a fairly simple recipe but has gone over so well with my fourteen year old that we are currently fighting over who gets the leftovers. You will need the following ingredients to make this souper (ha, see what I did there) simple soup.

• 4 to 6 Tomatillos peeled and clean
• 1 White Onion
• 1 Jalapeno optional 
• 1/2 cup Cilantro plus extra for garnish
• 3 Poblano/ Chile Verde
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil (for covering the veggies)
• Minced Garlic (Measure with your heart)
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt to taste
• Mexican oregano
• 32 ounces Chicken stock til desired thickness is achieved
• 1 teaspoon Cumin
• 1 block of Cream Cheese (room temperature)
• Queso fresco 
• 2-3 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (season with adobo)

First and foremost, preheat your oven to 450 Fahrenheit. I know that seems high but trust the process.

So, the first thing you want to do is peel and wash your tomatillos. I found mine to be kinda sticky, but once I gave it a good scrub they resembled tomatoes. Give them a rough chop, along with the white onion and toss them on a cookie sheet. I used a deep one because I knew there would be juices after the roasting process. 

After washing your chiles, go ahead and place them on the cookie sheet also, along with your cilantro, don’t worry about the stems, they will all be used. Now, drizzle the olive oil all over the veggies and then cover them in your seasonings; salt, pepper, oregano and adobo.

Once you’ve slathered those bad boys in the oil, pop them in the oven until the ends begin to turn black and crisp up.You want the black bits, they add flavor. I made sure to flip my chile’s every 8-10 minutes, and I did it three times. All in all, they were roasting in the oven for between 30-35 minutes. After they were done, I transferred everything to the blender, making sure to skin the chile’s. 

You want to puree this mixture until it’s smooth. Sadly, my blender doesn’t have that option so I ended up using a sieve and draining and smooshing until I had no wayward seeds or clumps. I transferred the mixture then to my dutch oven and then added the whole 32 ounces of chicken stock, letting the flavors marry. 

While this was happening, I turned my attention to the chicken breasts, which I have coated liberally in adobo seasoning and pepper. Using the same cookie sheet that I had roasted the veggies on, I put it in the oven at the same temperature, for 20 minutes. 

While the chicken is roasting, I then added the entire block of room temperature cream cheese to the soup and slowly emulsified it into the liquid, letting it thicken. Once the chicken is done, you simply pull it out of the oven, shred it and then transfer it into the soup. I let all of the flavors come together for another 10-15 minutes before serving. I topped mine with crumbles of queso fresco, cilantro, jalapeno slices and half an avocado.