Mexican style pulled chicken

My house smells amazing right now. A while back Magnus moved and I inherited parts of his pantry, and since he was a foodie who regularly got care packages of ingredients from his home on the coast, there was some cool and unusual stuff in it you cannot get here. One cool item was a 7 oz can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I finally found a can of fire roasted tomatoes when I went shopping last and so I was determined to make something new with them. I settled on some kind of mexican pulled chicken...since I love pulled chicken but have never actually made it before ever for some reason...
I modified a few ideas i found on the interwebs, and you could use a slow cooker but I just used my dutch oven since I was home. It's hothlike out (with the wind it is -34C. Meh) and sunday so I am not going anywhere today! Turned out so tasty I want to write it down before I forget.

Chicken breasts (I used 3)
Chicken broth (~ 2 ish cups)
1 15 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
1/2 of a 7 oz can of roasted chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (4 peppers plus half the juice)
One large yellow onion sliced up
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t italian seasoning (was going to use oregano but was out of it)
1/4 t chili powder
Few shakes salt

In the dutch oven I put 3 full, skinned chicken breasts and added just enough chicken broth to cover them, and then added the rest and stirred it all to mix and then recover the chicken. I brought the pot to boil and turned it down to simmer for 1 hour with the lid on. The house smelled heavenly! The broth cooked down about half into a yummy thicker sauce.

At that point I turned the heat off and removed the chicken and shredded it with 2 forks on a plate. I took 3/4 c (about half) of the remaining juice and used it as half the water in my rice maker to make 1 cup of long grain white rice. Then I put the chicken back in the pot and stirred it all together into one yummy mess to let the remaining sauce soak into the chicken. I plan to have the chicken and rice in a wrap with some beans, grated cheese and perhaps some sour cream once J gets home. I will definitely be making this again...and I need to find a place to get more of those chipotles...I may be begging Magnus (please sir can I have some more?) to mail me some now that he's back home again!

The Polenta of Champions

I was given a "log" of polenta a little while back but only just got around to cooking it. I have been trying to stay away from commercial tomato sauces and learn to make more "homestyle" sauces from Italy. I doubt this would classify as "homestyle" but it was damn good. I hope to learn to make proper polenta at some point, but for now the log will do.

Preheat a pan with olive oil, place chilies and one star anise and one clove in the oil to simmer. That will get the essential oils from the clove and the star flowing and should an aromatic quality to the olive oil.

- Two roma tomatoes , diced. Romas are fleshier than beefsteak and vine tomatoes.
- One vine tomato for the moisture.
- One half a white onion.
- Two cloves of garlic.
- One handful of chopped walnuts. (I have big hands, btw)

Sautee all this in a pan and pour an ounce of single malt whisky for sweetness. You can blanch the tomatoes first if you want the skins completely off. I add the classic "Italian herbs and spices" at this point - basil, rosemary, oregano and sage. I also added 1/2 tsp Hungarian paprika to the mix, just because it was there. And yes, I added a bit of salt. In another pan I had browned some ground pork and add that into the mixture.
After cooking that for a while I add it into a pan over top of the now cut up polenta and grate parmesan over top. The oven has been preheated to 450. Covering the pan I put the polenta in and set the dial down to 400. I let it cook for an hour and then let it stand for 10 minutes.
Mmmmmmm!