Stewed Chile Chicken

This is a simple recipe that makes an excellent one pot meal.  The chicken is
stewed until tender, broken up and then served with the sauce on top.

Ingredients
 5-6 tablespoons olive oil
 2 onions, sliced (white is good)
 3-4 cloves garlic, sliced  (less garlic if crushed)
 2-3 bay leaves
 thyme to flavor (I put 4-5 sprigs in)
 28  oz can of whole, peeled tomatoes (good quality is better)
 2-3 whole New Mexico Chiles, seeded, toasted, powdered
 2-3 whole Guajillo Chiles, seeded, toasted, powdered
 1/2 Piloncillo sugar (1/8 cup brown sugar will do)
 2+ teaspoons sea salt to flavor
 1/4+ stewing chicken (You could do 1/2 a chicken easily with this)

 (Chile "heat" index is commonly known as scoville units:
     PEPPER TYPE    	  	  SCOVILLE UNITS
   Anaheim-(Mild)		    100 -     250
   Cherry Pepper 		    100 -     500 
   Anaheim-(Hot)	 	    800 -   1,400
   Mulato 			    900 -   1,500
   New Mexico 			  1,000 -   1,400
   Pasilla 			  1,000 -   1,500
   Ancho, Poblano 		  1,250 -   2,500
   Serrano Chili-(Mild) 	  2,000 -   4,500
   Jalapeno 			  3,500 -   5,000
   Pasilla de Oaxaca 		  4,000 -  10,000
   Yellow Wax			  5,000 -  15,000
   Kung Pao Hybrid		  7,000 -  12,000
   Serrano			 10,000 -  25,000
   Chile de Arbol, Japones	 15,000 -  30,000
   Cayenne			 20,000 -  40,000
   Super Cayenne		 25,000 -  55,000
   Tabasco 			 30,000 -  50,000
   Chipotle (with seeds?)	 60,000 - 100,000
   Thai Dragon			 75,000 - 150,000
   Habanero			100,000 - 325,000
   Scotch Bonnet		200,000 - 325,000
   Caribbean Red Habanero	225,000 - 577,000   )


Directions: 
Heat pot over high heat, add in olive oil.  I know it seems like alot of olive 
oil, but it sure is tasty!

Once the olive oil is hot throw in the sliced onions followed by the garlic.
Keep on high heat, stirring until the onions start to become translucent on the 
edges.

Reduce heat to medium.  Toss in the bay leaves and thyme.  Dump the sauce from 
the canned tomatoes into the sauce pot.  I prefer to crush the tomatoes by 
squeezing them through my fingers, and dropping into the pot.  If you wish, you 
can use the back of a cooking spoon to do this.  Place whole can of tomatoes 
into the pot.  Easier method is dumping the whole can in a blender and briefly
blending, just to break up the tomatoes.

Time to toss in the powdered chiles.  I prepare the chiles before hand by 
toasting them briefly over an open flame, then seed and break into chunks.
Throw those chile chunks into a blender and set on high.  Try to get the chiles
broken up into powder if possible.  If your blender lacks the speed to 
powderize the chile that's okay just get it as fine as you can.

Take the powdered chile and just dump it all into the building sauce.

Throw in the sugar and some salt.  (Salt is very subjective, my sea salt is
very mild.)

Lastly add the stewing chicken.  For 2 people I usually use 1/4 chicken, but
if I put in 1/2 it would also disappear at the table.

Simmer over low heat for about 1 hour+ with lid on.  Last 15 minutes with a 
splatter guard on top is what I do too.

When done the chicken should be very soft and easy to debone.  Just pull it off
the bone, pile on a plate, and spoon some of the rich sauce over the top.

For the leftover sauce you can use it for pasta, over eggs or whatever.  The
sky's the limit on that sauce!