Sans Gluten is a StumbleWell original series, that focuses on gluten-free cooking and baking. Every week, they attempt to make a dish from their collective culture (and others) gluten-free on the YouTube Channel. Subscribe to watch!
Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup
At this point, you’ve probably noticed a trend in our recipes. If we’re not baking, we’re making some variations of stews. Why?
BECAUSE THEY’RE EASY AND GROWN FOLKS HAVE BUSY LIVES — I SAID GOOD DAY!
In all seriousness though, Chicken Tortilla Soup was something I learned how to make early on in our marriage. I wanted to continue to explore the Latinx/South Texas culture I had grown up in and married into. I think this recipe is more of a guide that is meant to be adjusted to your preferences in taste.
WATCH US MAKE IT!
For example, some like to add hatch green chiles and jalapeño for spice. Go for it!
I just didn’t have any laying around…
Chris and I are always low on fiber so I add black beans to the soup as a finisher, but again, that’s just me. I like this recipe because it’s versatile and simple. Most people have the bulk of the ingredients in their pantry and fridge, with the exception of the fixins.
INGREDIENTS.
4 Chicken thighs (diced)
6 -7 tomatoes (diced)
1 onion (diced)
2 -3 garlic cloves (minced)
1 cup chicken stock
1-2 teaspoons Cumin
Salt & Pepper to taste
FIXINS.
Corn Tortilla Chips (most are naturally gluten-free, but make sure they’re not made in a facility that also process gluten)
Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
Lime
1 Can Black Beans
INSTRUCTIONS
In a large bowl, combined diced tomatoes, onion, garlic, chicken stock, cumin, and some salt. Stir until everything is combined.
Take your chicken thighs and place them at the bottom of your Instant Pot. Then pour your mixture over the chicken thighs. *
Turn your Instant Pot on to Stew, and allow it to pressurize and cook. The overall process should take about 30 - 40 minutes. **
Stand back as you release the pressure vent. Once it’s finished venting, remove your chicken from the mixture and change the Instant Pot setting to warm.
Shred your chicken thighs, removing the skin and bones and then add it back to your Instant Pot along with Black Beans (if you like beans).
Switch your pot to simmer to cook the beans through and salt and pepper to taste, it should take about 5 minutes.
Serve hot with your fixins!
*COOKING NOTES
*You can use any chicken pieces, I prefer dark meat for the fat and added flavor. You can also puree the veggie mixture if you like your soup to be less chunky. I just prefer a more “home-style” tortilla soup. Finally, if you want more spice, add some jalapeño or green chilies to your mixture.
**This entire recipe can be done on the stove or in a slow cooker in lieu of an Instant Pot. If you’re doing it in the slow cooker, allow your chicken/juice mixture to cook for at least 4 hours on high. Then continue the recipe as normal. For the stove, allow your chicken juice mixture to cook at a medium simmer for about an hour and then again, continue the recipe.
Calabaza Con Pollo
Calabaza (squash or zucchini) con pollo is another dish that was a staple from my childhood. Prep is minimum and it can simmer on the stove for an extended period while you finish errands (child-wrangling, workouts, binge-watching, what-have-you). Omit the chicken to make the dish vegan or as a side. The dish worked as either a soup or hash-like product. My mother used to boil the chicken, whole or dissected, and then add the chicken and the resulting broth to the dish. The other way she’d prepare it, the hash, was how I reconstructed it and currently prepare it.
WATCH US MAKE IT!
A couple of quirks to consider when preparing this recipe include the dreaded bitter squash. If you cook with calabaza enough times, you’ll find that sometimes it will come out slightly bitter. I’ve attributed this to overcooking my squash, but I haven’t been able to find any evidence that this is a true. After some quick research, I found an article by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that actually shed some light on this. Mild bitterness is apparently not uncommon in zucchini and cucumbers and tends to happen when they’re exposed to environmental stress like high temperatures or drought. Vine crops produce chemicals called cucurbitacins, that are normally is low concentrations in mass-cultivated varieties. Wild cucumber and zucchini can have the chemical in such high concentrations as to make it inedible. So, sometimes you’ll run into a bitter zucchini and your dish will be a little bitter. So it goes.
As for choosing zucchini, you’ll want to choose those that hold their shape against gravity in your hands. Too many times I’ve reached for zucchini only to find that it went limp in my hand. (Censor warning, there was no way to describe the lack of rigidity in a phallic vegetable without coming off as a veggie pervert. This is the world we live in and I’m sorry. Now back to the blog.) All I’m saying is select a good group of gourds.
Chew on. — Chris
INGREDIENTS.
4-8 chicken legs or thighs
2 tbsp. canola oil
1 onion
1-2 garlic cloves
4-5 medium-sized tomatoes
4-5 green zucchini or Mexican calabaza
1 cup fresh or frozen corn
Salt & Pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
Place Dutch oven (or medium-sized, high-walled pot) on the stove over medium heat. Add cooking oil to the pot.’
Add the chicken to the pot and brown on all sides or about 3 minutes per side and set aside in a clean container or plate. Work in batches if using a lot of chicken.
Dice onion and garlic and add to hot oil. Cook 2-3 minutes or until just softened. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Roughly chop tomatoes and add to the pot.
Cut the ends off the zucchini and cut in half length-wise. Cut each half, again, length-wise and finally chop into 1” pieces and add to the pot.
Add the corn to the pot, lightly season with salt and pepper, and stir to combine.
Add the chicken to the pot with any liquid that has collected in the container or plate.
Cover the pot and cook over medium-heat for 15 minutes or until the tomatoes start to break down into a liquid. Stir then cover.
Reduce the heat to medium-low and allow to simmer another 25 minutes or until tomatoes have broken down, zucchini is soft, and chicken is fully cooked.
Season to taste, remove from heat, and serve.
COOKING NOTES
Preparing for a smaller group? Use the smaller amount of the suggested ingredient.
Mexican calabaza appear striped in green, as if wearing camouflage. Google states they have a thinner skin than green zucchini and have a slightly sweeter flavor. I’ve never noticed a difference and feel they are interchangeable.
I’ve only ever used green zucchini or Mexican calabaza, but I suppose you could use yellow zucchini as well.
The dish can be made as a side dish or vegan (vegetable succotash) with the omission of animal protein. I think the dish would go well with tofu, though I’ve never tried it.
Feel free to use a quartered whole chicken in lieu of thighs or legs. We’re not a white-meat family otherwise we would.
Cooked rice is a great addition if you’re trying to make the dish last a few more days or when serving especially voracious eaters.
Adding the chicken early to the pot ensures it cooks through. If you’re squeamish about uncooked chicken added to your veggies then I’d cook the chicken in a separate pan and combine with the cooked vegetables.
South Texas Picadillo - Yo!
When I look back in my mind’s eye, I think of food. Well, food . . . and the time I tried to roll around in the grass like I had seen people do on TV and rolled in a large fire-ant hill. All the times I remember family gatherings, even though I didn’t discover I could understand Spanish in a border-town until I was a teenager, I remember good food served. And the person who made a lot of that good food was my mom.
Now, Mom worked full-time for a large portion of my childhood. Sometimes she’d come home exhausted with a bag of take-out. When she had more time, I remember her making picadillo. Like many dishes laid before me as a kid, I was not instantly in love with picadillo because it was, well, plain. The flavor consisted of tomato and ground beef; so basic – spice-level the exception.
Both my parents loved spicy foods, so there were always two to three jalapenos or, if we were out of jalapenos, serranos swimming around in the simmering tomato broth. Picadillo is what I lovingly call a “chop and dump” meal since, aside from browning the meat you just cut the ingredients and throw them in the pot as you go. To save time, my mom would just throw the peppers in whole. If they stayed intact you’d have a rich jalapeno-serrano flavor with a small wave of heat. If one or, God help you, multiple peppers burst because the heat was dialed-up too long. Then it felt like I rolled around in that fire-ant hill with my mouth open.
Watch us make the recipe here!
It was a few years ago that I started enjoying making meals and doing most of the meal prep between Hallease and I. Also around that time I wanted to re-create some of the flavors of my childhood. This recipe is based on my mom’s preparation. It has a few ingredients and is low-maintenance. It can just simmer on the stove if you’re doing housework and will happily bubble away until everyone’s ready to eat.
As with most dishes, there’s a lot of variability in making this dish depending on region and the person making it. Some add raisins, others olives, and some use cumin. I think raisins go great in rice pilaf, olives with wine, and I remember cumin from the cafeteria-style Mexican food from grade-school (this was always offensive to me, especially since there was so much authentic Mexican flavor to be had in the area. I guess that’s how you try and add flavor in food prep sourced out to the cheapest bidder…but I digress). That’s not how I envision picadillo, but doesn’t mean either preparation is wrong. If it tastes of childhood, then it sure tastes right.
Chew on. - Chris
INGREDIENTS
1-2 lbs ground meat
1 onion
4-6 medium tomatoes
2-3 russet potatoes
1-2 jalapenos
Salt and pepper to taste
Preferred cooking oil
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Place a Dutch oven (or medium-sized, high-walled pot) on the stove over medium heat. Add cooking oil to the pot.
2. Dice onion and add to hot oil. Cook 2-3 minutes or until just softened.
3. Add ground meat and cook until browned, about 5-7 minutes. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
4. As meat browns, peel and chop the potatoes into roughly ½ inch pieces. Set aside.
5. Roughly chop tomatoes. Set aside.
6. Remove jalapeno stems and dice. Remove seeds and veins if you’d like less heat.
7. Once meat has browned, drain the fat.
8. Add all vegetables into the pot and cover for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add additional seasoning.
9. Reduce heat to medium-low and allow to simmer another 20 minutes or until tomatoes have broken down and potatoes are soft. Stir occasionally.
10. Season to taste, take off heat, and serve.
COOKING NOTES
Preparing for a smaller group? Err on the smaller ingredient size.
Devein and deseed the jalapenos for less heat.
Mashing potatoes or adding additional cook time will break down the potatoes and thicken the dish.
Season lightly throughout cooking process.