Chef Lupita
Atápakua de Cerdo y Hierbabuena (K'uiripita Puesïri)
Michoacán's P'urhépecha atápakua is a masa-thickened sauce and stew at once, built with pork, chile guajillo, and hierbabuena added only at the end.
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Caldo de Pollo P'urhépecha con Nurite
Created by
Michoacán's Meseta P'urhépecha caldo, clean chicken broth scented with fresh nurite, seasonal vegetables, and chile perón, a midday pot taught by cocineras tradicionales, not restaurant chefs.
Soups & Stews
Mexican
Comfort Food
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
25 min
Active Time
1 hr 20 min cook•1 hr 45 min total
Yield6 servings
Michoacán, Meseta P'urhépecha. This caldo lives in the pine towns around Cherán, Nahuatzen, Paracho, and Angahuan, where nurite is sold in small green bundles by women who know exactly which hill it came from. It is not a restaurant soup. It is the noon pot: chicken with skin and bone, vegetables from the market, and an herb that is food and medicine at the same time.
Nurite is the ingredient that makes this dish belong to the Meseta. It smells a little like mint, a little like oregano, and a little like wet pine needles after rain. Do not replace it with hierbabuena. Do not replace it with epazote. Those are fine herbs and they belong to other dishes. Here, substitute nothing. If you don't have nurite, make caldo de pollo, but don't call it caldo con nurite. Así se hace y punto.
My mother didn't cook this in Colonia Roma. She was from Jalisco, and her notebook had pozole, birria, tortas ahogadas. For this broth I had to go to Michoacán and listen to cocineras tradicionales who cook over leña before the market opens. They taught the practical thing first: start with good chicken, skim the broth, add the nurite at the end, and let the herb speak. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Caldo de pollo con nurite belongs to the P'urhépecha highlands of Michoacán, where nurite, commonly recorded in Mexican ethnobotanical writing as Satureja macrostema, has long been used both as a medicinal infusion and as a cooking herb. Mexico's 2010 UNESCO inscription for Traditional Mexican Cuisine was built around the Michoacán paradigm, and P'urhépecha cocineras tradicionales were central to documenting that living system of milpa, market, hearth, and community knowledge. This broth is not churipo, which is a red beef broth served with corundas, never alone; it is the everyday chicken caldo of the Meseta.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces
Quantity
3 pounds
use thighs, drumsticks, wings, and backs
cold water
Quantity
10 cups
white onion
Quantity
1/2 medium
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
bruised
kosher salt
Quantity
2 teaspoons, plus more to taste
fresh corn
Quantity
2 ears
cut crosswise into thirds
carrots
Quantity
2 medium
peeled and cut into thick rounds
waxy potatoes
Quantity
2 medium
peeled and quartered
chayote
Quantity
1
peeled, pitted, and cut into wedges
fresh ejotes
Quantity
1 cup
trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
calabacitas
Quantity
2 small
cut into thick half-moons
fresh chile perón or chile manzano (optional)
Quantity
1
left whole
fresh nurite
Quantity
1 small bunch, 8 to 12 sprigs
rinsed carefully
lime halves (optional)
Quantity
for serving
hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)
Quantity
for serving
warmed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| bone-in, skin-on chicken piecesuse thighs, drumsticks, wings, and backs | 3 pounds |
| cold water | 10 cups |
| white onion | 1/2 medium |
| garlic clovesbruised | 4 |
| kosher salt | 2 teaspoons, plus more to taste |
| fresh corncut crosswise into thirds | 2 ears |
| carrotspeeled and cut into thick rounds | 2 medium |
| waxy potatoespeeled and quartered | 2 medium |
| chayotepeeled, pitted, and cut into wedges | 1 |
| fresh ejotestrimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces | 1 cup |
| calabacitascut into thick half-moons | 2 small |
| fresh chile perón or chile manzano (optional)left whole | 1 |
| fresh nuriterinsed carefully | 1 small bunch, 8 to 12 sprigs |
| lime halves (optional) | for serving |
| hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)warmed | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 6-quart stockpot or clay cazuela from Capula
- •Fine-mesh skimmer or large metal spoon
- •Kitchen twine for tying the nurite bundle
- •Comal for warming hand-pressed corn tortillas
- •Deep green-glazed Michoacán clay bowls for serving
Instructions
- 1
Clean the nurite
Pick through the nurite and remove any yellow leaves or tough woody stems. Rinse it in two changes of cool water because mountain herbs carry soil in the joints. Tie most of the sprigs into a small bundle and reserve a few tender leaves for the bowls. Nurite is not decoration. It is the medicine and the perfume of this caldo.
- 2
Start the broth
Put the chicken, cold water, onion, garlic, and salt in a heavy pot or clay cazuela. Bring it slowly to a simmer over medium heat. Skim the gray foam during the first fifteen minutes. Do not boil it hard. A furious pot gives you cloudy broth and dry chicken. This caldo should taste clean, like chicken, corn, and herb.
- 3
Simmer the chicken
Lower the heat until the surface barely moves. Cover the pot halfway and cook for 35 to 40 minutes, until the chicken is tender but still holding to the bone. Leave the skin on. That small gold bead of chicken fat on the surface is the body of the broth. Boneless breast gives you hospital food. No me vengas con atajos.
- 4
Add firm vegetables
Add the corn, carrots, potatoes, and chayote. Simmer gently for 15 minutes. The vegetables should soften without falling apart. This is how the midday pot works in the Meseta: the chicken gives the broth, the vegetables stretch the meal, and nobody leaves the table hungry.
- 5
Add tender vegetables
Add the ejotes, calabacitas, and the whole chile perón if using. Keep the chile whole so it perfumes the pot without taking over. Cook 8 to 10 minutes, just until the calabacita is tender at the edge but not collapsed. Not all Mexican food is built to burn your mouth. This one is about broth and nurite.
- 6
Steep the nurite
Turn the heat to low and tuck the nurite bundle into the broth. Cover and let it steep for 5 to 7 minutes. Do not boil nurite hard. It turns dark and harsh when abused. Treat it like the medicinal herb it is. Taste the broth after five minutes. It should smell green, minty, resinous, like the pine towns above Pátzcuaro.
- 7
Serve in clay
Remove the onion, spent garlic, chile perón, and nurite bundle. Taste for salt. Ladle chicken, vegetables, and broth into deep clay bowls and scatter a few fresh nurite leaves over the top. Serve with lime halves and warm hand-pressed corn tortillas. Flour tortillas belong to the north. This is Michoacán. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Chef Tips
- •Buy nurite from P'urhépecha vendors when you can: markets in Cherán, Nahuatzen, Paracho, Uruapan, and Morelia's Mercado Independencia are where I would ask first. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado. If they don't know nurite, you are in the wrong stall.
- •There is no true substitute for nurite. Mint will make the broth taste like mint. Oregano will make it taste like oregano. Epazote will pull it toward another region entirely. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade, and for this dish the compromise changes the name.
- •Use skin-on chicken with bones. The bones give the broth its body and the skin gives that clean gold fat on top. If you use boneless breasts, the broth will taste thin and you will know why.
- •The vegetables follow the mercado. If calabacita is tired, use cabbage or quelites. If corn is sweet and fresh, use extra. Mexican grandmothers cook with what is in front of them, not with a supermarket fantasy.
- •This is P'urhépecha home cooking, not a chile contest. The chile perón is optional and usually left whole for aroma. If it breaks in the pot, the broth gets sharper. Some families like that. Some do not.
Advance Preparation
- •The chicken broth can be made one day ahead through the first simmer. Refrigerate it without the vegetables and without the nurite, then skim any hardened fat only if there is excess. Leave some fat. That is flavor.
- •Add the vegetables and nurite on the day you serve. Nurite loses its clean green aroma if it sits overnight in the pot.
- •Leftovers keep for three days in the refrigerator. Remove the nurite bundle and chile perón before storing so the broth does not turn bitter or too sharp.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 700g)
Calories
450 calories
Total Fat
15 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
10 g
Cholesterol
105 mg
Sodium
950 mg
Total Carbohydrates
48 g
Dietary Fiber
8 g
Sugars
7 g
Protein
31 g
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