Hispanic Heritage · Guatemala

El Altiplano

Chimaltenango · Antigua Guatemala · Ciudad de Guatemala · Mixco · San Juan Sacatepéquez · Sololá

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Pepián de pollo

Descubre

Guatemala’s highland kitchen offers a rich lesson in toasted flavor. Pepián brings seeds, chiles, tomatoes, and warm spices into a sauce that coats chicken and vegetables without relying on strong heat.

La Gente

Pumpkin seeds and sesame help give the sauce its body. Toast each ingredient carefully, then grind and simmer them together. The finished pot shows how texture can carry flavor as clearly as a single prominent spice.

Sabor

The altiplano cooks toasted and thick. Pumpkin seed and sesame for the body, dried chiles for the deep red and a mild heat, tomato and miltomate for the acid, and the warm spices, cinnamon, clove, allspice, laid in underneath. Cilantro lifts it at the end. It is a nutty, smoky, gently sweet kitchen, and it is almost never fiery; the chile is for depth, and the heat is in the chirmol on the side.

Spice DNA · Smoke high · Sweet medium · Heat low · Herb medium · Acid medium

Seasonings to explore

• Pepitas, pumpkin seed. The pepitoria. The name and the body of the pepián. Badia sells them, which is more than most spice shelves can say.
• Hulled Sesame Seed. Toasted with the pepitas.
• Guajillo Pepper, whole dried. The closest jar to chile guaque, which is the same family of dried red chile, and a useful option when adapting this recipe.
• Pasilla Pepper, whole dried. Chile pasa. Badia sells it under the Mexican name.
• Cinnamon Sticks. A short piece, toasted.
• Cloves, whole. Two or three.
• Allspice, whole. Pimienta gorda. Three or four.
• Minced Garlic in Olive Oil. Roasted garlic is the tradition; this is the shortcut. Adds a savory garlic base.
• Cilantro flakes. For the day there is no fresh. Fresh is expected.

From your market: a whole chicken, ripe tomatoes, miltomates (tomatillos), a red bell pepper, an onion, a bunch of cilantro, a stale tortilla or a piece of French bread, a güisquil (chayote), potatoes, carrots, green beans, and rice. Badia does not sell the miltomate. Tomatillos are the same thing under a Mexican name, and every Guatemalan in the United States knows the aisle.

Cocina

Pepián de pollo

Guatemala's oldest recado. Toast everything. Grind everything. Cook the chicken in it with the vegetables. Sunday in Chimaltenango.

Serves 6

The chicken and vegetables

• 1 chicken, cut in 8 pieces
• 8 cups water
• Salt
• 2 potatoes, quartered
• 2 carrots, in chunks
• 1 chayote, peeled and cut in wedges
• 1 cup green beans, trimmed

The recado

• 4 ripe tomatoes
• 6 tomatillos, husked
• 1 red bell pepper
• ½ onion
• 4 garlic cloves unpeeled, or 4 tsp Badia Minced Garlic in Olive Oil at the blender
• 3 Badia Guajillo Peppers, stemmed and seeded
• 2 Badia Pasilla Peppers, stemmed and seeded
• ½ cup Badia Pepitas
• ¼ cup Badia Hulled Sesame Seed
• 1 Badia Cinnamon Stick, 1 inch
• 3 Badia Cloves, whole
• 4 Badia Allspice berries, whole
• 1 stale corn tortilla, or 1 thick slice of French bread
• ½ bunch cilantro, plus more for serving
• 1 oz Mexican chocolate, optional, for the pepián negro

1. Start the chicken. Cover it with the water, salt it, and simmer 30 minutes. Add the potatoes, carrots, and chayote and simmer 15 minutes more. Add the green beans for the last 5. Keep the broth.
2. Toast the vegetables. On a hot dry comal or heavy skillet, roast the tomatoes, tomatillos, bell pepper, onion, and garlic, turning, until they are soft and blistered with black patches, 15 to 20 minutes. Peel the garlic. The char is the flavor. Do not be timid.
3. Toast the chiles. Press the guajillos and pasillas flat on the comal 20 to 30 seconds a side until fragrant. Do not blacken them. Soak in hot water 15 minutes.
4. Toast the seeds and spices. Pepitas until they puff and turn golden, then the sesame until it pops, then the cinnamon, cloves, and allspice for a few seconds, then the tortilla until dark. Watch all of it. A burned seed makes a bitter pepián.
5. Grind. Blend everything from steps 2 through 4 with the cilantro and 2 cups of the chicken broth until completely smooth. Strain if you want it silky; Chimaltenango often does not.
6. Cook the recado. Pour it into a pot and simmer 20 minutes, stirring, until it darkens and thickens and the raw edge is gone. Add chocolate now if you are going negro. Salt.
7. Bring it together. Add the chicken and vegetables with enough broth to make a thick, spoonable sauce. Simmer 10 minutes.
8. Serve over white rice, cilantro on top, warm tortillas beside, and chirmol for the heat. The comal will smell like this for a day. Let it.

Pueblos del Altiplano

Chimaltenango · Antigua Guatemala · Ciudad de Guatemala · Mixco · San Juan Sacatepéquez · Sololá · Panajachel · Santiago Atitlán · Chichicastenango · Quetzaltenango · Totonicapán · San Marcos · Huehuetenango · Sacapulas · Nebaj · Cuilco

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