Food Friday: Pollo con Jalapeno

The beauty of this recipe for Mexican-style chicken is the fact that once made, it can be used in any number of recipes. Use the chicken for chicken tacos or taquitos, in enchiladas (with green or red sauce), in tortilla soup, or make some refried beans and have yourself an amazing chicken burrito.

This recipe is for 2 chicken breasts; it can be doubled or tripled for whatever needs you have in mind.

2 chicken breasts (I use boneless, but breasts on the bone can also be used)
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
pickled jalapenos, 1-2 jalapenos finely chopped
1 teaspoon of reserved jalapeno liquid
4-5 cubes chicken bouillon
water

The goal in this recipe is to cook moist and tender chicken. That will be accomplished by cooking it slowly and allowing the chicken to absorb all of the chicken broth. Though the actual cooking is not demanding, you'll need 1 1/2 to 3 hours to really get this chicken as tender as it should be. More time is better.

Start by bringing 2-3 cups of water to boil and then add bouillon cubes. When the cubes are dissolved, add the chicken breasts. Bring broth back to boil and then turn heat low to simmer for 20-30 minutes. When breasts are cooked through, remove from the broth and set to cool.
Reserve the broth and add chopped onion, the jalapeno, and the jalapeno juice. Add 2 more cups of water and 2 more cubes of bouillon and bring to a boil. While broth and onions are coming to a boil, shred the cooled chicken. I use a fork and pull against the grain of the meat. The goal is to shred finely and create more surface area for the chicken to absorb the broth (remember: this chicken is headed back to the pot).
Add the shredded chicken back to the both and bring to a boil. Then, turn the heat low and simmer. Your chicken should look like this at the outset:
The goal is to have that chicken absorb all of the broth. After an hour of simmering, your chicken will look like this:
Check the simmering chicken every 20 minutes or so. When nearly all of the broth has been absorbed by the chicken, it will look like this:
Now it's ready to be served.

The chicken you see here went on the table for making chicken tacos.

Happy eating!