Jalisco Tortilla Casserole (Pastel Azteca)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for roasting chiles and tomatoes
• •9-by-13-inch clay or ceramic baking dish, preferably Tonala or Tlaquepaque style barro
• •Wide skillet for frying tortillas
• •Blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the chicken

   Put the chicken breasts in a pot with the half onion, peeled garlic cloves, bay leaves, salt, and enough cold water to cover by one inch. Bring to a gentle simmer, then lower the heat and cook 25 to 30 minutes, until the meat is cooked through and still juicy. Do not boil it hard. Stringy chicken comes from impatience, not from tradition.

2. 2

   Shred and save broth

   Lift the chicken onto a plate and let it cool until you can handle it. Pull the meat from the bones and shred it with your fingers or two forks. Strain the broth and save at least 1 cup. That broth carries the onion, garlic, and chicken fat. Water does not.

3. 3

   Roast the poblanos

   Roast the chile poblano directly over a gas flame, under a broiler, or on a hot comal until the skins blister and blacken in patches. Put them in a covered bowl for 10 minutes, then peel away the skins. Remove stems and seeds, then slice the flesh into rajas. The chile poblano gives this pastel its green, roasted flavor. This is not a dish that needs to burn your mouth. Not all Mexican food is hot.

4. 4

   Cook rajas and corn

   Melt 1 tablespoon lard in a wide skillet over medium heat. Add the sliced onion and cook until soft and translucent, about 6 minutes. Add the poblano rajas and fresh corn kernels. Cook 5 minutes more, until the corn turns glossy and the poblanos smell roasted and sweet. Salt lightly. If the market corn is not sweet today, do not force it. Use fewer kernels and let the poblano lead.

5. 5

   Toast chiles and tomatoes

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile guajillo and chile ancho about 20 to 30 seconds per side, just until they soften and smell deep, never black. Set them in hot water for 15 minutes. On the same comal, roast the tomatoes and unpeeled garlic until the tomatoes have charred spots and the garlic softens. This is where the sauce gets body. Raw tomato sauce tastes thin, and you will know it in the first bite.

   If a dried chile goes black instead of reddish and fragrant, throw it out. Burned chile turns the whole sauce bitter. No me vengas con atajos.
6. 6

   Blend the sauce

   Peel the roasted garlic. Blend the roasted tomatoes, softened guajillo, softened ancho, garlic, Mexican oregano, cumin, and 1/2 cup reserved chicken broth until completely smooth. Strain if your blender leaves pieces of chile skin. You want a sauce that coats the back of a spoon, not a watery salsa.

7. 7

   Fry the sauce

   Melt 2 tablespoons lard in a saucepan over medium heat. Pour in the blended sauce carefully because it will sputter. Cook 10 to 12 minutes, stirring often, until it darkens from bright red to brick red and the fat begins to shine at the edges. Taste for salt. La manteca es el sabor, and it also tells the tomato and chile to behave like one sauce.

8. 8

   Fry the tortillas

   Add enough lard to a skillet to come 1/4 inch up the side and heat over medium. Fry each tortilla 10 to 15 seconds per side, just until flexible and lightly blistered, not crisp like a tostada. Drain on paper towels. Flour tortillas do not belong here. This casserole is built on corn, the backbone of the country.

9. 9

   Build the layers

   Heat the oven to 375F. Spread a thin layer of sauce in a 9-by-13-inch clay or ceramic baking dish. Add 6 fried tortillas, overlapping to cover the bottom. Spread with one third of the shredded chicken, one third of the rajas and corn, a ladle of sauce, a few spoonfuls of crema, and a handful of queso adobera. Repeat twice more, ending with sauce, crema, queso adobera, and the crumbled Cotija.

10. 10

    Bake until set

    Bake uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes, until the edges bubble, the cheese melts into the crema, and the top has golden spots. Let it rest 12 minutes before cutting. If you cut it straight from the oven, the layers slide apart and you blame the recipe. The recipe is not the problem.

11. 11

    Serve from cazuela

    Serve the pastel from the baking dish at the table, with chopped cilantro and thin white onion if you like them. The piece should hold in soft layers: tortilla, chicken, poblano, corn, tomato chile sauce, crema, cheese. This is potluck food because it travels well, feeds many, and tastes even better after the sauce has settled into the tortillas.

Chef Tips

• •Use day-old corn tortillas. Fresh tortillas are too tender and can tear when fried. Stale tortillas drink the sauce without disappearing. That is the whole point of the casserole.
• •Queso adobera is the Jalisco choice. It is semi-soft, slightly tangy, and melts into the crema without the rubbery pull of bad supermarket cheese. Look for it in Mexican markets with a real cheese counter. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado.
• •Do not skip frying the tortillas. Dipping raw tortillas in sauce and stacking them gives you paste. A quick pass through lard gives each tortilla a thin shield so the layers stay distinct.
• •Chile poblano is not a garnish here. It is the green backbone of the dish. Roast it properly. Canned green chiles taste like the can and belong nowhere near this pastel.
• •If tomatoes are pale and hard, use good canned whole tomatoes from Mexico instead of pretending bad fresh tomatoes will improve in the oven. Cook what the market is selling today.

Advance Preparation

• •The chicken can be cooked and shredded up to 2 days ahead. Refrigerate it with a little broth so it stays moist.
• •The tomato chile sauce can be made 3 days ahead. Reheat it gently before layering so it spreads evenly.
• •The casserole can be assembled 1 day ahead, covered, and refrigerated. Add 10 to 15 minutes to the baking time if it goes into the oven cold.
• •Leftovers keep for 3 days. Reheat covered at 325F until warmed through, then uncover for the last 5 minutes so the top tightens again.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 390g)