So I came up with a tomatillo sauce that ROCKED.

1 lb tomatillos, with papery skin removed, rinsed and dried
1 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, peeled
3 chipotles in adobo (this made this pretty spicy - two was a much milder flavor).
Salt
Chili Powder
Cumin

Heat oven to 400 degrees. On a baking sheet, toss peeled garlic, tomatillos, and olive oil. Bake 15 minutes. Halfway through cook time, remove the garlic so it doesn't burn and turn the tomatillos over. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

In a blender or food processor, combine tomatillos, garlic, and chipotles in adobe (including all the juices that come out of the tomatillos while baking). blend until smooth, then add salt (about a teaspoon), a few dashes of cumin, and about a teaspoon of chili powder. Mix well.

I used this sauce over chicken for dinner tonight, and also added it as flavoring to a spanish brown rice I made by cooking up a diced yellow onion, 1 cup diced tomato, and 2 cloves minced garlic in a spoonful of the tomatillo sauce. To this I added 2 cups chicken stock and 1 cup instant brown rice once the veggies had cooked down a bit (10 min or so)...then brought to a boil and simmered per the brown rice instructions. It gave the rice SO much flavor!

chipotles in adobo

Pardon this northerner's ignorance - but is this something you buy in a jar/can? Found in the ethnic foods section? I've had a chipotle shrimp dish at a Mexican place and it was to die for. This sounds wonderful. I've looked at tomatillos and wondered what to do with them. :lol:

It is a canned product - I find it in the ethnic foods section of nearly every grocery store. They are smoked jalapenos which are canned in a vinegar-based tomato sauce (adobo). Note that its hard to use up a whole can in one recipe, so I like to freeze mine individually - on a baking sheet, lay a sheet of waxed paper, then spoon out one chipotle and a bit of the sauce. Keep spooning these a couple inches apart, then freeze and store once frozen in a ziptop bag - bingo, one pepper whenever you need it, easily removed from the bag.

Okay, thanks! I'll be looking for this next time I'm in the store! :) Which is actually pretty often as it's 5 min from work, and next to the post office. :lol: