Chicken Recuerdos de Tucson II

Tonight for dinner I made Chicken Recuerdos de Tucson again. A recipe I got from reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

However, tonight I made a few modifications and wanted to share them to show how versatile soups can be. Add this, omit that and you can have a completely different meal!

Chicken Recuerdos de Tucson- take two
1 lb. chicken drumsticks {the original recipe called for breasts, thighs and legs but I only had drumsticks on hand so I rolled with it}
Olive oil (for sauté)
1 medium onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
Brown chicken in a large kettle. Remove chicken, add oil, gently sauté the onion and garlic.
1 tsp cumin seed
2 orange bell peppers
1 large or 2 medium zucchini or other squash, thickly sliced
Add to kettle and sauté, add small amount of broth if necessary.
1 cup tomatoes (fresh, frozen, canned, or ½ cup dehydrated, depending on season)
1 28 oz can white hominy
2 tsp. oregano
2 cups chicken broth or water
Add to kettle along with browned chicken, add water or broth (more if using dried vegetables), cover and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, until chicken is done to bone.

The cliffnotes
1. I used drumsticks instead of a breasts, thighs and legs. I only had drumsticks available.
2. I omited the green chilies so the soup was not spicy at all.
3. I replaced 2 cups of corn with 1 28 oz. can of white hominy.
4. I omited the basil since I did not have any available.
5. I used 2 orange bell peppers instead of 2 red or green. Not a huge difference here in taste but the orange peppers at the store looked a lot better than the green or red.

The hominy made the soup much hardier than the original version. Although Barbara Kingsolver, the author of AVM, would probably object since the basis of her book is about eating local foods. The hominy was definitely not local. Hey I'm doing what I can but I am no purist. Besides she made the year long vow, not I.

Also, by omiting the green chilies the soup was not spicy at all. Which was great because I could feed it to Ozzie. The other changes were minimal and made little to no difference in taste but they were modifications from the original recipe so I felt it necessary to note them.

Enjoy!