Leo Maya's green chicken tacos

Name: Leo Maya's green chicken tacos
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 2 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs; 1 ½ lb tomatillos, husked and rinsed; 2 serrano chiles, stemmed (seed them for less heat); 6 cloves garlic; 1 small white onion, halved; 1 bunch cilantro, thick stems and all; 3 limes, juice and zest; 12 corn tortillas, warmed; cotija or queso fresco, crumbled, to finish; thinly sliced radishes, for crunch; pickled red onion and lime wedges, to serve; salt

A borrowed green sauce, put where it always wanted to be, in a tortilla.

At a Glance

Time

45 min

Adjust servings

Story

This green sauce comes from a cook named Leo out of Acapulco, who by all accounts made it weekly, and it is worth stealing. The move that matters is boiling the tomatillos and chiles before they go in the blender rather than leaving them raw, which trades the mouth-puckering sharpness of a fresh salsa verde for something rounder and mellower. Then you poach the chicken right in that sauce, so the poaching liquid and the sauce are one and the same.

Ingredients

2 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 ½ lb tomatilloshusked and rinsed
2 serrano chilesstemmed (seed them for less heat)
6 cloves garlic
1 small white onionhalved
1 bunch cilantrothick stems and all
3 limesjuice and zest
12 corn tortillaswarmed
cotija or queso frescocrumbled, to finish
thinly sliced radishesfor crunch
pickled red onion and lime wedgesto serve
salt

Method

Skip any thought of crema here. Tomatillo already gives you all the tang and richness the dish wants, and a dollop of sour cream would only mute the green. Crunch comes from radish instead.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Drop in the tomatillos, garlic and serranos and cook 2 minutes, just until the tomatillos turn from bright to olive green. Drain well.
Tip them into a blender with the cilantro, the zest and juice of 2 of the limes and a big pinch of salt. Blend until nearly smooth, a little texture is welcome.
Pour the sauce into a Dutch oven and add the chicken thighs, turning them to coat. Bring to a boil, then lower to a steady simmer and cook 25 minutes, uncovered, until the chicken is tender enough to shred against the side of the pot.
Lift the chicken out, shred it with two forks, then return it to the sauce. Halve and finely slice the onion, stir most of it in with the juice of the last lime, and simmer 5 minutes more to thicken. Taste hard for salt and lime.
Pile the green chicken into warm tortillas. Top with cotija, radishes, the reserved raw onion and a squeeze of lime.

Set the pot on the table and let everyone build their own. Two each is a polite fiction and you know it.

On the pass