Mile High Mamas is a fabulous resource for all things to do with moms and kids in Colorado. 
So I am thrilled to have them post a review and offer a giveaway of my cookbook this month!
Check it out, enter, and win your own signed copy of Glorious One-Pot Meals!
Of course, you can always purchase one for yourself over at Glorious One-Pot Meals. 🙂
I gave my kids a choice one recent snowy morning: I had two pounds of thawed chicken cut into fajita strips. I wanted to make a big pot of something so that I could stock up the freezer as well as enjoy a comfort dinner that night.
“It’s either chili or pozole,” I told the two of them, based on what I had in the house. I figured I could combine the chicken with:
a) tomatoes and various types of beans (pinto, kidney, black) to make a thick southwestern chili. I usually make this with ground turkey, but today I wanted to use chicken.
or, b) chicken broth, a drained 28-oz. can of hominy (large corn kernels, sometimes called “corn nuts”), green chiles, dried oregano, and a dried ancho chiles to make a pozole.
I was surprised when my son voted for pozole over chili, which has traditionally been one of his favorites, but his little sister quickly followed suit. So I complied.
Pozole is a Pre-Columbian corn stew. In New Mexico, where I grew to love pozole while I was working in an art gallery in Santa Fe in the early 90s, pozole is heavy with green chiles and relies on hominy and a pork butt for the savory base.
For this day’s pozole, I based it on chicken rather than pork, and add lots more vegetables for a healthier, more well-rounded meal for my family.
Here’s the recipe for my delicious chicken pozole. Serve it with warmed tortillas, if you want. Happy cooking!
Olive oil for sauteing
2 lbs. chicken strips
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 qts. chicken broth
1-2 ancho chiles, destemmed and seeded
2 8-oz cans of diced green chiles
1 whole onion, trimmed and peeled
1 28-oz can hominy, drained and rinsed
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
6-12 mushrooms, sliced
1 large yellow squash or zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced
16 oz. diced carrots, fresh or frozen
Heat a large soup pot on the stove. Cover the base with a coat of oli and add the chicken. Season the chicken with sea salt and black pepper as you lightly sear the chicken. Before the chicken is fully cooked, pour in the chicken broth and scrape the bottom to loosen any bits.
Add the chiles, including any chile juice from the cans, and place the onion into the stew whole.
Drain and rinse the hominy kernels and add to the pot along with oregano. Let stew at a low heat for an hour.
Then add the mushrooms, squash, and carrots to cook for an additional hour or so, until everything is tender. Taste and adjust for seasoning. Serve with warmed tortillas, slices of avocado, chopped cilantro, and/or rice. Feel free to freshen the stew with a squeeze of lemon or lime just before eating.
Feeling weighted down by holiday cheer already? I feel like I’ve been eating chocolate non-stop since Halloween, I don’t know about you! Not to mention all the heavy, hearty meals we’ve been eating during our recent sub-zero weather.
Take a break from rich and heavy foods with this quick, easy, and delicious vegetarian one-pot meal: Farmhouse Pasta.
Mmmmm…. Creamy chevre goat cheese, lightly coating al dente noodles complimented by crisp-tender vegetables to make a colorful and addictive meal.
Make it a meat-lover’s dish by adding 1/2 lb. chorizo or other ground beef or turkey over the pasta when you load the pot.
Happy cooking!
PS: You’ll find this recipe in the current edition of Glorious One-Pot Meals. Get your autographed copy for that hard-to-shop-for person on your list!
I went to Julie Powell‘s book signing earlier tonight at the Tattered Cover to hear her read and discuss her new book, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession.
As with her first book, Julie and Julia, I was impressed with her raw honesty and dedication to pursuing sometimes distasteful activities.
I loved Julie and Julia — parts made me laugh out loud. The movie was fun, too.
In this memoir, she undertakes a 6-month internship in a butcher shop in upstate New York. Honestly, I personally can’t think of many things I’d rather do less than be elbow-deep in dead flesh with sharp knives day in and day out. Turns out Julie had many different reasons for wanting to learn butchery, which we’ll learn about in her new book.
Julie read a few
intriguing passages to the crowd. In one of them, she details the first time she nicked her hand while carving a huge piece of meat. The owner of the butcher shop had her wash up and then apply oregano oil to the cut.
“There’s a lot of bacteria around when you’re working with raw meat,” Julie commented, in what was surely a monumental understatement.
Oregano oil is a strong antiseptic, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, and all around healing oil. It’s not the same as culinary oregano (it’s a different species of oregano) and should contain at least 70% of carvacol to be most effective.
It can be used internally for the treatment of treatment of colds, influenza, mild fevers, fungal infections, indigestion, stomach upsets, enteric parasites, and painful menstruation. Large amounts can be toxic so stick with only a few drops at a time. 1 to 4 drops once or twice a day in a drink is plenty.
I’ve also heard oregano oil can have healing powers when used topically and rubbed into sore muscles, skin irritations, eczema, and other ailments. Be sure to dilute it with 1 drop oregano oil to 1 tablespoon olive or coconut oil. Try rubbing it on your neck to stop headaches.
I have learned this about oregano oil before, but was grateful to be reminded again by Julie’s positive experience with it. Thanks for sharing, Julie! I’m looking forwad to reading the book!
Here’s a note from a Glorious One-Pot Meals reader to share today:
I saw you do a cooking demonstration in a cookware store last month. I am having trouble trying to choose some recipes to get started with the One Pot Meals. My kids are back home from college, living here while they look for jobs, so I am cooking for four now. My family likes everything, so could you give me a few suggestions -like your most popular recipes – that will help me get going? Thanks!! – Cissy K, Englewood, CO
Hi Cissy,
I’m sorry to hear you’re having trouble selecting recipes but glad to know you feel there is a large selection in the book (more than 100 recipes!). 🙂
Here are a few recipes that fans have told me are their favorites. I would suggest you look at the ingredients and see if they are flavors that your family likes, and then go from there.
Remember: everything in a GOPM is substitutable. That means that any protein can be substituted for any protein, any carb for any carb, and any veggie for any other veggie. Feel free to mix an match fresh and frozen ingredients within a recipe, and swap out ingredients your family doesn’t like for ones they do.
Honey and Spice Pork (page 97)
Bahamian Chicken (page 118)
Rosemary Chicken (page 150)
African Peanut Butter Stew (page 116)
Chicken Cacciatore (page 122)
Scallops and Sweet Potatoes (page 74)
Thai Curry with Tufu (page 200)
Cajun Fish (page 26)
Be sure you are using a cast iron Dutch oven and that your oven is at the right temp (450F) and I’m sure you’ll enjoy whatever recipe you choose to make!
Check out some of my streaming video recipe demonstrations here and here, too, for more ideas. I like to make the most delicious meals on camera! 🙂
Happy cooking!
PS: You might enjoy a GOPM cooking class on DVD — they are 50% off this month and, along with autographed cookbooks, are available over at the Glorious One-Pot Meals store!
