Maize & Blue Chicken Stew

I decided to try my hand at creating my own Maize & Blue recipe. I have an awesome Buckeye Cake recipe and Boilermaker Chili recipe, so it only seemed right to have the University of Michigan represented in my recipe manager.

So, I came up with Maize and Blue chicken stew using my white bean chicken chili recipe as inspiration. The maize and blue comes from yellow sweet corn, golden hominy and blue corn posole.

Don't be surprised if I come up with a maize and blue dessert at some point too!

Maize & Blue Chicken Stew

Prep Time: 15 mins | Cook Time: 1 hr | Servings: 8 - 10 serving | Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

• 5 to 6 5 ounce chicken breasts, grilled and shredded
• 1/2 to 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 5-7 garlic cloves, minced
• 78 fl oz chicken stock (3 cartons Swanson stock)
• 4 ears fresh yellow corn, cooked and cut from cob
• 4 cups blue corn posole, soaked and boiled
• 2 15 ounce cans great northern beans with liquid
• 1 15 ounce can golden hominy, drained
• 2 green chilis, diced (recommend more for kick, first time I used anaheim peppers)
• 4 tsp ground cumin
• 2 - 3 tbsp dried oregano
• Optional: 2 tbsp fresh oregano in addition to dried
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 3 - 4 dashes Frank's hot sauce
• Kosher salt & ground black pepper

Directions:

Preparation:

Soak dry blue corn posole overnight in water. Boil following morning for one and a half to two hours before making soup. Drain and set aside.

If using corn on cob, boil cobs until just done, pull from water, cool and slice kernels from cob.

Grill chicken until cooked through. Allow to cool and shred or cut to bite size pieces.

Chop/dice up onion, garlic and chilies and place in separate bowls. Mince oregano if using fresh as well.

Soup instructions:

Heat oil in soup pot. Add onion and sauté for five minutes. Add garlic and sauté one minute. Add chilies (with liquid if using canned) and sauté another two to three minutes.

Pour in stock, blue corn posole, yellow corn, golden hominy, cumin and dried oregano. Bring to a simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes and add fresh oregano, cayenne and hot sauce. Simmer for 30 to 60 minutes total. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve with sour cream, sliced green onions, cheddar cheese and/or blue corn tortilla chips.

February Photos

The girls enjoy playing with each other. Here are two cute pictures of them giggling on the floor. They were trying to hide from mommy and daddy.

Kaitlyn and I still cook together - here is a yummy batch of chocolate chip muffins. I told daddy I planned to give some away and he immediately shot down that idea. Kaitlyn, Madelyn and daddy all enjoyed the muffins instead.

February in Michigan

In February we took a quick, quiet trip to Michigan since daddy had to go there for work. Here are a few pictures:

Kaitlyn made the ocean in a bottle. It's nice to dream of the beach on a cold winter's day. We added sand, shells and rocks first.

Next, we added water and blue glitter.

Kaitlyn shook up the bottle to disperse the glitter.
The glitter stayed clumped together. Turns out we just had dirty water with blue glitter. Oops - we'll try it again next winter. Kaitlyn enjoyed the project anyway. Now she wants us to take her to the ocean.

Snuggle time!

After building a 'lean-to' and playing outside (including a fall against a tree and scrape on the chin), Kaitlyn looks beat. Good job wearing her out Gamma!

After dinner picture with Aunt Niki. I love Madelyn's little smile behind her finger.