Source: makes 6 large portions

Ingredients

• 3 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 3 cloves peeled whole garlic cloves
• 1 large yellow onion, halved
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup water
• 1 can (7-oz) chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• 1 can (28-oz) peeled plum tomatoes (I recommend using San Marzano) or 3 1/2 cups of any fresh or canned tomato product
• 2 tablespoons olive oil or reserved chicken fat
• 1 large onion, diced
• Cotija cheese and cilantro to garnish

Method

Poaching

1. Poach chicken thighs in chicken stock and water along with garlic, onion, oregano, salt. Bring to a simmer on high and simmer for 30 minutes.
2. Remove onion to bowl.
3. Remove chicken to another bowl. Allow to cool. Tear into bite-sized pieces.

Make sauce

1. Saute second onion in olive oil (or chicken fat strained from broth) with a big pinch of salt until they get a bit of color on them.
2. Strain stock. Add broth back to the diced, sauteed onions. Turn on high. Reduce to about half.
3. In the meantime make sauce by mixing chipotles in adobo in blender, along with boiled onion. Rinse the can with a bit of water to get all the adobo out. Pour in tomatoes. Puree until smooth, starting with pulsing, then faster.

Combine

1. Transfer sauce into reduced stock. Bring to medium high and simmer for about fifteen minutes. Skim off any foam.
2. Add chicken. Cook 10-15 minutes.

Serve it over rice or in a burrito or taco shell with some cotija on top.

2018-05-12: Wow, I really like this.

Instead of poaching the chicken on the stove, I let it cook in the crock pot on low for eight hours. That worked perfectly. You don't get much evaporation in the crock pot, so no need to add the extra cup of water. Just make sure the chicken is covered with water. And perhaps the initial quart of stock/water can be reduced to 3 cups.

Cotija is too salty. Next time I'll stick to queso fresco. I only used half the salt, which worked well. If making for Celiac eaters, try to find chipotles that have a clear allergen warning. I bought some canned in Mexico, and the "spices" line of the label worried my sister.

2018-08-25: Made it again. Served it this time with queso fresco on top. Really good. Karen liked it, too.

2019-08-17: Made it again. Again used the crock pot the night before for the chicken prep. This time I used four pounds of chicken thighs that turned out to have bones. I trimmed off extra skin. When all was said and done, there were also some very gelatinous joints towards the end of the cooking, which I removed, although maybe I didn't need to.