Colima Chicken-Masa Stew (Cuachala)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 6-quart clay cazuela or Dutch oven
• •Cast iron comal for toasting chiles and roasting tomatillos
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Wooden spoon or flat paddle for stirring the masa

Instructions

1. 1

   Build the broth

   Put the hen or chicken pieces in a heavy pot with the cold water, onion, garlic, bay leaves, and salt. Bring it slowly to a simmer over medium heat, then skim the gray foam from the surface. Do not boil it hard. You want a clean broth with body, not cloudy water with tired meat.

2. 2

   Cook the chicken

   Lower the heat until the bubbles come gently. Cover partially and simmer until the meat pulls easily from the bone, about 1 hour for chicken or up to 1 hour 30 minutes for an older hen. Remove the meat to a tray. Strain and reserve the broth. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred it by hand and discard the bones and skin.

3. 3

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile guajillo and chile ancho separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side, just until they darken slightly and smell sweet. Do not blacken them. Burned guajillo turns bitter and then the whole cazuela pays for your impatience.

   The guajillo is thin and burns fast. Press it briefly against the comal with tongs, then move on. No me vengas con atajos.
4. 4

   Soften the chiles

   Put the toasted chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water, not boiling water. Let them soften for 15 minutes. Boiling water toughens the skins and can pull bitterness into the sauce. Hot water softens the flesh cleanly.

5. 5

   Roast the vegetables

   On the same comal, roast the tomatillos and Roma tomatoes until they are blistered, softened, and marked with dark spots. The tomatillos will turn from bright green to olive. That acidity is what keeps the masa-thickened broth from tasting heavy.

6. 6

   Blend the sauce

   Drain the chiles and put them in a blender with the roasted tomatillos, tomatoes, cumin seed, peppercorns, 2 peeled cloves from the cooked garlic, and 2 cups of the reserved chicken broth. Blend until completely smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing hard on the solids. The sauce should be red-orange and clean, not full of chile skins.

7. 7

   Fry the base

   Set a wide clay cazuela or heavy Dutch oven over medium heat and melt the manteca de cerdo. Pour in the strained chile-tomatillo sauce. It will sputter, so stir with purpose. Cook 8 to 10 minutes, until the color deepens and the fat shows in tiny red-orange beads at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. This step takes the raw edge off the chiles.

8. 8

   Thin the masa

   In a bowl, whisk or knead the fresh corn masa with 1 1/2 cups warm reserved broth until smooth and pourable. Work out the lumps with your fingers if you need to. This is not cake batter. This is corn returning to the pot as structure.

9. 9

   Thicken the stew

   Add 4 cups of reserved broth to the fried sauce and bring it to a gentle simmer. Pour in the thinned masa slowly with one hand while stirring constantly with the other. Keep stirring until the broth thickens to the texture of loose atole, 10 to 12 minutes. If it turns too thick, add more broth. If it tastes raw, keep simmering. Raw masa tastes chalky. Cooked masa tastes round and sweet.

10. 10

    Finish with chicken

    Stir in the shredded chicken and the epazote sprig. Simmer gently for 10 minutes so the meat takes the flavor of the chile and corn. Taste for salt. Remove the epazote before serving. The cuachala should coat a spoon but still flow back into the cazuela. Así se hace y punto.

11. 11

    Serve in clay

    Ladle the cuachala into deep clay bowls or bring the cazuela to the table family-style. Serve with warm corn tortillas, diced white onion, and lime halves. Flour tortillas belong to the north. Here, corn is the backbone. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •Use gallina if your mercado has it. Ask the poultry vendor for an older hen for caldo. It takes longer, but the broth has the strength this dish needs. A young chicken works, but that is a compromise.
• •The masa must be fresh masa for tortillas if you can get it. Masa harina will work in an emergency, mixed with warm broth until soft, but fresh masa gives the stew its proper corn sweetness and silkier body.
• •Do not make this fiery. Cuachala is about guajillo color, tomatillo acidity, chicken broth, and masa texture. If you want heat, put salsa on the table. Do not distort the pot.
• •If tomatillos are pale, hard, or flavorless, roast an extra tomato and add a teaspoon of lime juice at the end. The market decides. Preguntale a las senoras del mercado.
• •The stew thickens as it sits. Reheat it with a splash of chicken broth and stir gently. Do not let it scorch on the bottom, because masa grabs the pot when you stop paying attention.

Advance Preparation

• •The chicken broth and shredded chicken can be made one day ahead. Refrigerate them separately and skim any hardened fat from the broth only if there is too much. Leave some. Flavor lives there.
• •The chile-tomatillo sauce can be blended and strained one day ahead. Fry it in manteca de cerdo the day you serve the cuachala.
• •Do not add the masa until serving day. Once thickened, cuachala keeps for 3 days refrigerated, but it will need broth when reheated because the corn continues to absorb liquid.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 540g)