Ensalada de Pollo Yucateca

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large 6-quart stockpot for poaching the chicken
• •Wide colander for draining vegetables
• •Sheet pan for cooling the papa and zanahoria
• •Cast iron comal or small skillet for toasting walnuts
• •Large mixing bowl with a wide flat base
• •Wide shallow Ticul-red clay cazuela or talavera platter for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Poach the chicken

   Place the chicken in a large stockpot with the halved onion, halved garlic, bay leaves, epazote, and the tablespoon of salt. Cover with cold water by two inches. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat and skim the gray foam that rises in the first ten minutes. Cook at a low simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, until the chicken is just cooked through and pulls cleanly from the bone. The epazote is not optional. It is what tells your tongue this caldo was made in a Yucatecan kitchen and not a generic one.

   Do not boil the chicken hard. Hard boiling toughens the breast and clouds the broth. You want lazy bubbles, never a rolling boil.
2. 2

   Cool and shred the chicken

   Pull the chicken out with tongs and let it rest on a sheet pan until cool enough to handle. Strain and reserve the caldo for soup another day. It is too good to throw out. Remove the skin and bones and shred the meat by hand into bite-sized pieces. Hand-shredded, not chopped. The torn edges hold the dressing the way clean cuts cannot.

3. 3

   Cook the potatoes and carrots

   Bring a fresh pot of salted water to a boil. Add the diced papa and zanahoria together. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until a paring knife slides in without resistance but the cubes still hold their shape. Drain in a colander and spread on a sheet pan to cool. Do not skip the cooling. Warm potatoes will weep into the mayonesa and break the dressing. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo.

4. 4

   Blanch the peas

   If using fresh chícharos, blanch them in boiling salted water for 2 minutes and shock them in ice water. If using frozen, thaw and drain. They go in raw-bright, never overcooked into army green.

5. 5

   Toast the walnuts

   Heat a dry comal or small skillet over medium. Toast the nuez de Castilla for 3 to 4 minutes, shaking the pan, until the nuts smell warm and the cut sides turn a shade darker. Tip them onto a plate immediately. Walnuts left in a hot pan turn bitter in seconds.

6. 6

   Make the dressing

   In a large mixing bowl, whisk the mayonesa, mustard, naranja agria juice, the teaspoon of salt, and the black pepper until smooth and pale yellow. Taste it. The naranja agria does the work of vinegar here. It should taste sharp, a little tart, with the mustard right behind it. If you used the lime and sweet orange substitute, you may need an extra few drops of lime to bring it up. No me vengas con atajos: bottled sour orange marinade is not the same and will throw the balance off.

   Naranja agria is the citrus that built Yucatecan cuisine. If you live in Florida or south Texas you can find it. If not, the lime-and-sweet-orange mix is the household trick señoras in Mérida pass to friends in the diaspora.
7. 7

   Combine the salad

   Add the cooled chicken, papa, zanahoria, chícharos, manzana, and pasitas to the bowl with the dressing. Fold everything together with a spatula, lifting from the bottom. Do not stir aggressively. You want the potato cubes to keep their shape, not turn the whole thing into puré. Fold in the toasted nueces last so they stay crisp. Taste again for salt. The potato will have absorbed some, so it usually needs a little more.

8. 8

   Rest and assemble

   Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least one hour, two is better. The salad needs to settle. The flavors knit together, the pasitas plump in the dressing, the apple stops tasting raw. Just before serving, line a wide platter or shallow Ticul-red cazuela with lechuga orejona. Mound the salad on top. Decorate with the rounds of hard-boiled egg, the sliced pimientos morrones, and the cubes of queso de bola. Serve cold with saladitas or pan francés on the side. Así se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •Poach the chicken on the bone with the skin on. Boneless breasts dry out and taste like nothing. The bones and skin are what give the meat flavor and what give you the caldo for tomorrow's sopa de lima. Throwing the bones away is throwing the recipe away.
• •Naranja agria is the soul of Yucatecan cooking. Look for it at Caribbean markets, Cuban groceries, or Florida produce stands where it is sold as sour orange or bitter orange. The frozen pulp from Goya is acceptable. The bottled marinade labeled 'sour orange' from the Latin aisle is not, it is full of preservatives and the flavor is flat. If you can't find any, mix two parts fresh lime juice with one part fresh sweet orange juice and a pinch of grapefruit zest.
• •Queso de bola is Edam, the round red-waxed Dutch cheese that arrived in Yucatán in the colonial trade and never left. Cubed on top of the salad is traditional. Do not substitute cheddar. Cheddar is a Tex-Mex marker and it will make the dish taste like a church potluck in Tucson, not a birthday in Mérida.
• •Make it the day before. This salad is better cold and settled. The pasitas plump, the apple loses its raw edge, and the dressing tightens around everything. A salad served the moment it is mixed tastes flat. Saber cocinar es saber esperar.

Advance Preparation

• •The chicken can be poached and shredded one day ahead and refrigerated in a covered container with a few spoonfuls of its caldo to keep the meat moist.
• •The papa and zanahoria can be cooked one day ahead and refrigerated separately from the chicken.
• •The entire salad is best assembled at least 4 hours before serving and ideally the night before. It keeps refrigerated for 3 days, though the apple softens after day two.
• •Do not freeze. The mayonesa breaks and the papa turns grainy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 270g)