A while back, at a reunion of sorts, a family friend brought chicken chili verde soup to share with the army, that is our family. Its simplicity and warming spicy flavor was a crowd pleaser, and left me fantasizing about scooping that last bite out of my bowl with my broken tortilla chip on the ride home. During our Fall recipe testing, I got another hankering for that verde goodness, and this image came into my head of a mutant green bowl of soup with creepy floating eyeballs, that still tasted yummy. Both a mind trick and a treat if you will. Muahahahaha! So here is my Spooky-fied Verde Chicken and Bat Wing Nachos!
Before we begin, you should know there is a quick 10 minute version of this recipe that was provided by our family friend found here. It’s simple and wonderful and we so appreciate her sharing it! You should also know that our version, takes a bit longer, but has some delightful qualities that more than make up for time spent. The vibrance and flavor of fresh tomatillo salsa is a wonder to behold! Also, black eyed peas make for tasty eyeballs and tomatillos are basically just tiny green pumpkins! 
If tomatillos are new to you, don’t be scared their little pumpkin skin peels right off and they are ready to roll! Fire up the grill or broiler and lets get cooking!
Place peppers and tomatillos close to open flame or at the top of the oven. Let the skins of peppers blister and blacken. Make sure to stay close so you can turn them frequently to get all sides. The tomatillos don’t need quite as much browning. Then, place them all in a dish covered in wrap, ziplock bag, or even a brown bag to let them steam for 5-10 min. This helps the bitter skin peel off the peppers and finishes the cooking. After they are cooled enough to handle throw tomatillos in blender or food processor and wipe/scrape of the skins of the the peppers and remove most of their seeds. I like to use a paper towel with a couple drips of water on it to remove the skins. Make sure to set aside a few pieces of the black skin to make the ghost mouth later! The ever present Meg Meg lurks around for even a pepper scrap!
Toss the peppers and the rest of the salsa ingredients into blender and process for about 30 seconds and get your corn chips ready for a taste test!
Next heat up you chicken stock and cooked chicken on stove. Add salsa verde to pot, but be sure to reserve a half cup or so for the ghost topping and chip dipping at the table!
Black eyed peas can be found in the can, but again if you want to get deeper in touch with your hungry cooking soul, making them can be a treat. They only require a little extra planning, because they need to soak for a at least a couple hours and then cook for about another hour. Soaking the beans over night, and then finishing them off the next day worked the best for me. When they are cooked until soft but not falling apart add them to the soup. Heat soup a few minutes and season to your liking while singing:
That tonight’s gonna be a good night
That tonight’s gonna be a good, good night
To make the spooky ghost appear in your soup bowl, just ladle a tablespoon of salsa on top of soup followed by a sour cream ghoulish shape, two black eyed peas, and a mouth cut from the blackened pepper skin.
For the nachos we just went with a scoop of refried beans-to hold chips up like wings, blue corn tortilla chips (which taste pretty much the same as white corn ones), shredded pepper jack cheese, topped with diced red bell pepper, and warmed in the micro. Now dive in; before the candy mania countdown begins!
- For the Salsa:
- 3 poblano peppers aka pasilla
- 1.5 pounds tomatillos skins removed
- 3 cloves garlic
- juice of one lime
- ¼ cup fresh parsley
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro
- 1 jalapeno pepper
- 1 tsp honey or sugar
- ½ tsp salt or more
- For the soup:
- 3 cups cooked shredded chicken (left overs, roasted chicken, boiled-whatever you got)
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 1.5 cups cooked black eyed peas (follow cooking directions on package, but be sure to leave time for soaking and cooking before hand or just use canned variety)
- 2 tsp cumin
- salt and pepper to taste
- Salsa verde -reserve ½ cup for the garnish and table dipping
- sour cream for ghosty garnish
- For the Nachos:
- 1 can refried beans
- 1 bag blue corn tortilla chips
- 1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
- 1 red bell pepper diced
- For the Salsa:
- Heat grill or oven to broil.
- Completely Char peppers and give the tomatillos some color on all sides.
- Place peppers and tomatillos in dish covered with plastic wrap, in a ziplock or in paper bag to steam 5-10 minutes.
- When cool enough to touch remove pepper skins and seeds (skip this step for tomatillos).
- Place all salsa ingredients in blender or processor and let it go 30 seconds or so.
- Taste test.
- For the Soup:
- Place stock, chicken, seasoning, salsa and black eyes peas in heavy pot and cook about 10 minutes.
- For the nachos:
- Spoon beans on dish arrange corn chips in beans so they stand up, add cheese and peppers and heat in micro.
- Serve soup topped with salsa and sour cream ghost along side the bat wing nachos and fly in!
Sounds great. Hope to try it soon.
Awesome Janet, come visit again soon:o)