seco de pollo (adventures with cilantro)

In response to my recent announcement that I did not like cilantro and was sick of getting mountains of it every week from my CSA, a friend suggested I try to find some Peruvian stew recipes dealing with it and see how I felt afterwards. So I found this one and decided to give it a try. My version:

1 large bunch of cilantro
5 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lb chicken breast, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
7 drops chili sauce (see note)
3 large carrots, diced
4 medium yellow potatoes, diced
1 bag frozen peas (obviously if you can get fresh you should use fresh but you know)

Wash the cilantro, then remove the large stem bits. Put in blender with about 1/2 cup chicken stock, blend well. Cube chicken, In large saucepan saute chicken until all sides are cooked. Set chicken aside, add garlic & chili sauce (see note). Saute garlic, then add cilantro mix, remaining chicken stock, carrots, and potatoes. Simmer until the veggies start to become tender; add chicken and peas. Keep checking the chicken, and as soon as you feel it's done remove from heat. Serve over rice.

Now. First, the chili sauce: I'd rather have used a pepper, but I forgot to get one. The sauce will do in a pinch. The pepper would have been much tastier. The original recipe also calls for onion, but I wasn't feeling it.

Second, the cilantro blend will be a very amusing green in the blender. Once you introduce it to the rest of the food, everything becomes green, and a slightly less amusing shade, at that. A fairly unfortunate one, I would go so far as to say, because it just looks ... weird. It was described as "a witch's brew" which is not at all inaccurate. It was kind of off-putting. I doubt there's any way around it, though.

The end result was ... actually pretty good. Reaction in my household varied from "... I don't hate it" to "... you know, this isn't actually all that bad." (Mind you, there's only two of us, but hey.) It was oddly bland. I don't know how I could use all that cilantro--and boy, could you smell the cilantro--without winding up with a massive cilantro flavor, but there it is. Salt and pepper were essential but once they were added the end result was quite pleasing; I'll likely freeze the rest for occasional lunches since I'm the only one here who cared for it.