Mexican Chicken with Black Beans Braised in Tomato Sauce
Chicken with beans, common in cuisines around the world, is a filling, tasty and easy dish. Common beans have been one of the most widespread food crops since ancient times, and the variety of types and cultivars is amazing. Edible green pods are a common ingredient in all sorts of dishes. In the Caucasus they make a wonderful lobio with all kinds of add-ins. And in the East, chicken with rice.
is popular. Dried bean seeds vary greatly in shape, size and color, from white, speckled and two-tone to jet black, like a raven's wing. I remember from childhood that my grandmother never planted beans in a separate bed. Bean bushes grew in huge numbers along the edge of the garden and between the small plots of other plants. But in the end, every autumn we harvested a big sack of beans and all winter long we cooked bean soup with meat and no potatoes.
In the ancient world, beans were the main food crop grown by the native peoples of the Americas. Black beans, small and slightly sweet, were especially popular. Depending on the variety, black beans can even be cooked without soaking. You can make soups, salads and all kinds of main dishes from black beans, such as beans with meat. Made with black beans, chicken with beans has a light hint of smoked meat.
The famous dish of Mexican or Texan cuisine chili con carne, meat with peppers, turns out great with red or black beans. The Mexican dish casado, a mix of black beans with rice and vegetables served as a side for meat, can be made with black beans or reddish-black pinto beans. A typical Brazilian dish, feijoada, is black beans with dried meat, sausage and plenty of spices.
Sixteenth-century history books describe the properties of the local bean varieties eaten by the Aztecs. Among them are large black beans and “mouse” beans, small and black.
Chicken with beans is easy to make for dinner. You just need to soak the beans in advance and, ideally, cook them until tender. Vegetables and chicken, a little tomato and herbs: it's an extended version of chicken with vegetables. All of this is easy to find and needs no special prep. Chicken with beans is a hearty and very tasty dish. If you like, you can make it quite spicy, which is actually right, given the dish's Mexican roots.
Ingredients
2 servings
- Chicken thighs 3-4
- Black beans 1 cup
- Red onions 3
- Garlic 1 head
- Chili pepper to taste
- Cilantro 0.5 bunch
- Tomato paste 2 tbsp
- Salt, black pepper, ground chili, sugar, ground coriander to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- Chicken with beans doesn't have to be made with black beans. Basically, any beans that don't turn to mush but keep their skins intact during fairly long cooking are great for a stew. In home cooking we usually use beans we already know, so choosing the beans won't be a problem.
- To cook beans well, rinse them in advance and soak in cold water for several hours, or better yet overnight. Drain, rinse again, cover with 1.5-2 liters of cold water and put on to cook. From experience: to keep the beans from falling apart, I cook them at a very gentle simmer with the pot uncovered. Black beans took 25 mins to cook through, and their skins stayed intact. Other varieties can take up to 1 hour. Drain the cooked beans in a colander, then transfer them to a deep bowl and cover so they don't dry out.
- Thaw the chicken in advance. I'm not a big fan of chicken breast in dishes like this: white meat is fibrous and better suited to a grilled chicken cutlet . By the way, that's a very tasty and quick dish. Chicken breast also makes a delicious chicken with peanuts. For frying with vegetables and making a stew, I prefer chicken thighs, leg quarters and drumsticks. You'll also need a few mild onions and a large head of garlic. I've noticed that red onions are milder and sweeter than white ones.
- Peel the onions and cut them into thick strips. Heat olive oil in a deep frying pan and let it warm through to get rid of some of the distinctive smell of natural oil. Fry the onions in the olive oil until soft.
- Separate the head of garlic into cloves without peeling them. Add the unpeeled cloves to the onions and fry everything together for 2-3 mins, stirring.
- While the onions fry, remove the skin from the chicken and cut out the bone and cartilage. Cut the dark meat into large pieces; for example, cut a chicken thigh into 6-8 pieces. Add the chicken to the onions and fry everything together over medium heat for 5-6 mins, until the onions start to brown and the chicken turns pale. Since the chicken will braise for quite a while, there's no need to cook it through now.
- Add the cooked beans and chili to taste. If you have a fresh chili pod, you can add it whole: then it won't make the dish very hot but will make the chicken with beans very fragrant. You can add a few dried chili pods, which is even better. Fry the chicken with beans for 2-3 mins. Then season with salt and pepper, and add 0.5 tsp of sugar and ground coriander to taste.
- The chicken will braise in tomato sauce. Let me say right away that good-quality tomato paste works great. The tomato can be anything, depending on the season and what you have. Ideally, of course, use fresh tomatoes or canned crushed tomatoes. But since that isn't always possible, natural homemade tomato juice will do just fine.
- Add tomato paste to the chicken and beans, 2 heaped tbsp is enough, plus 1.5 cups of water. Stir the chicken, beans and tomato together. Add more spices to taste if you like.
- Braise the chicken with beans covered over the lowest heat you can manage. The dish should barely simmer. Cooking time is 30 mins or more. That's the beauty of braised dishes: the flavor develops with long, slow cooking. I braised it for about 1 hour.
- The dish should be thick: separate pieces of chicken, unpeeled garlic and whole beans in a very thick, spicy tomato sauce. Being a fan of spicy food, I sprinkled the finished dish with a pinch of coarsely ground hot chili.
- Spoon the finished stew into deep plates and sprinkle with finely chopped cilantro.
- Serve the chicken with beans piping hot, while it's still steaming. As it cools, the sauce thickens a lot and the dish loses its charm and flavor.
- As an improvised side, I suggest adding a few pods of peppers in oil. And, of course, fresh bread or lavash.
| Serves: | 2 servings |
| Calories: | 150 |
| Prep: | 30 mins (plus soaking) |
| Cook: | 1 h 30 mins |
| Total: | 2 h |
| Category: | Main Dishes |
| Cuisine: | Mexican cuisine |
| Rating: |
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4.6
(10)
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