Stalking Henny Penny

I speak for many when I say I love the grocery store rotisserie chicken. Any evening when I don’t have a plan for dinner, or when I have a plan but the plan doesn’t sound good to me, it’s off to Whole Foods for a delicious roasted chicken.

We like it just as it is, served with a vegetable and maybe some biscuits. And since, seeings as there are only two of us, we can only eat half, there is always the other half to use as a second meal.

I went to Whole Foods the other evening expressly to get a roasted chicken for dinner. My plan was to eat half that night and to make chicken enchiladas the next night. When I got there at about 4:45, however, there were only four measly chickens on the platform. I glanced up at the rotisserie oven and saw that the birds looked brown and yummy and ready to package up and put out. Ah ha, I thought. I bet they put out fresh chickens at 5. I’ll wait for a hot roasted chicken.

So I wandered around the store. I looked at the cheeses. I stopped at the olive bar and filled up a container with olives and pickles. I checked out all of the great looking sausages. I went back to the roasted chicken rack. There were only three chickens sitting there. It was 5:03.

That’s okay, I thought. I’ll wait a bit longer. I went to the produce aisle and filled my basket with the makings for my salsa verde that I would use with my chicken enchiladas the next night. It was 5:10. I went back to the chicken rack. There was one lonely chicken, and it proudly boasted that it was unsalted. Unsalted? I glanced at the people behind the counter and no one appeared to be getting chickens ready to put out. Rats.

So I went back to the meat area and asked the butcher to cut one of the big rib eye steaks in half the long way. We would go to Plan B and have panfried steak. On my way to the checkout I walked by the chicken rack. That poor unsalted, unloved chicken was still sitting there all by himself.

The store was busy and the line was long. I was second in line when I glanced back at the deli area and saw that a young man was putting roasted chickens in containers. Yippee! I left my place in line without a backward glance and asked the young man if I could have one of the chickens he was preparing. Of course, he said.

I went home with a hot, delicious chicken for dinner, though the process took longer than I thought it would. And the next night, just as I planned we had chicken enchiladas. Double duty.

Stacked Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients
12 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
2 jalapenos, stemmed
1 onion, quartered
Splash white vinegar
Water
1 t. ground cumin
½ bunch fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
2 limes
Salt
1 pint green chili (homemade or store-bought)
1 deli roasted chicken
½ bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
12 corn tortillas
Cheese

Process
Make the salsa verde: Put the tomatillos, jalapenos, and onion in a saucepan with the vinegar and water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and poach for 10 minutes. Drain. Put the vegetables in a blender, add the cumin, and puree. Add the cilantro, lime juice, and salt. Pulse to combine.

Bring the green chili to a simmer. Fold in the chicken, cilantro, salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 350.

To assemble, place some salsa verde on the bottom of a 9 X 13 pan, and cover with corn tortillas. Layer the green chili/chicken mixture, the salsa verde, and the cheese two or three times. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes. Let sit a few minutes before cutting into the dish.