Everyone understands frijoles, but you may not know about Chicos.
Chicos are dried corn kernels that are blanched and dried on the cob. This is very old preservation method of corn. The traditional process is time consuming and as a result you can buy Chicos for about $25 per pound.
We make our own from our local sweet corn. I simply peel the husk back but don’t remove it, pull off all silk then blanch a few minutes in boiling water or on to the smoker at about 250 for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. This kills the seed germ and now is ready to be hung and dried as is. The process takes about a month but then you remove the kernels and store them air tight.
You can cook them alone with onion garlic and seasoning in water but our favorite way is cooked with pinto beans.
These are the last of the batch my dad made in 2010, the year he passed.
I have more drying from this years corn now. But they almost indefinitely. When reconstituted they taste just like fresh sweet corn with a little different texture.
Chicos are dried corn kernels that are blanched and dried on the cob. This is very old preservation method of corn. The traditional process is time consuming and as a result you can buy Chicos for about $25 per pound.
We make our own from our local sweet corn. I simply peel the husk back but don’t remove it, pull off all silk then blanch a few minutes in boiling water or on to the smoker at about 250 for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. This kills the seed germ and now is ready to be hung and dried as is. The process takes about a month but then you remove the kernels and store them air tight.
You can cook them alone with onion garlic and seasoning in water but our favorite way is cooked with pinto beans.
These are the last of the batch my dad made in 2010, the year he passed.
I have more drying from this years corn now. But they almost indefinitely. When reconstituted they taste just like fresh sweet corn with a little different texture.
