Dried kernels of sweet corn made by steaming whole ears in the husk, traditionally in an outdoor adobe horno, then drying them, and cooked into stews with meat, onion and chile.
New Mexico Magazine describes chicos, Spanish for small, as a staple of Southwest cooking since the days of the Ancestral Puebloans. Farmers lay ears of white sweet corn in the husk in a large horno, cover them with wet sacks and steam them overnight under a wood fire, which gives chicos their smoky flavor, then pull the husks back and hang the ears to sun dry for at least a week. Unlike posole, which is made from hulled kernels, chicos are made from whole ears. They go into stews with meat, onion and chile, and are sold at farmers' markets, local supermarkets and co-ops.
