Free Range Friday After All

Since I already made a food post this week, I was going to skip Free Range Friday from the food perspective...because that's the sort of reliable blog person I am. But then I was walking through Milka's and saw this.

 

This is not in Milka's - it came home fast

I had to have this. Crushed already, not in a brine (we can sometimes get fresh tomatillos from the veggie guy on Fridays, but this was Thursday and I live on Culebra)...yes! So now I had to find something to cook with it. Truthfully, I eat so much chicken I should have feathers, but lucky for me, I like chicken and it seemed right. So I picked up these boneless, skinless (but not fatless) chicken thighs.

and put them in a pan. Oh, sure, I could have trimmed the fat off, but what fun is that? You could. Maybe you should. I didn't.

Then I took about a cup of the crushed tomatillos and mixed it up with...a little bit of everything. Some garlic aioli, to start. And a spoonful, a generous spoonful, of apricot jam well, two spoonfuls...and what about some chipotle hot sauce? Dash dash. Oh yeah.

And then, the cumin called to me...I want IN! I listened. A good dash. A healthy dash. Ok, maybe it was about 2 teaspoons worth. Or more. I love cumin.

After it was all mixed up, I poured it over the chicken. The oven was preheating at 425. But, it looked naked to me. Out in the yard I got some racao and basil. Now it was ready for the oven.

I remembered that somewhere in the fridge I had some cheese, which sounded like a good final topping. Shredded mozzarella that somehow, when I opened its brand newness, was wet and a bit gloppy instead of nicely shredded but it was fine for what I was going to use it for. More than fine; now I knew it wouldn't be any good on a salad!

I put this on about 15 minutes before it was done and turned on the broiler.

Not so pretty here

But really pretty here!

And prettiest right here...

The racao and basil melded into the cheese, the tomatillo, garlic, apricot jam and other spice is nice bathing the meat had moved in by osmosis. The fat added its flavor and fell away on serving. It worked! Easy, delicious, inexpensive. What more could I ask from a can of crushed tomatillos? Nada

Buen provecho! 

Have a fitting Friday! Do something fat-freeing.