Pollo en Caldo de Ángeles

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 6-quart clay cazuela or Dutch oven
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •High-powered blender
• •Deep Talavera bowls for serving

Instructions

1. 1

   Start the broth

   Place the chicken pieces in a heavy pot with the cold water, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, bay leaves, and salt. Bring it up slowly over medium heat. Skim the gray foam in the first 15 minutes. A convent broth should be clear enough to respect before you thicken it. A hard boil makes the meat tight and clouds the liquid.

2. 2

   Simmer the chicken

   Lower the heat until the surface moves gently. Cook partially covered for 45 to 55 minutes, until the chicken is tender and the leg meat pulls from the bone with no argument. Remove the chicken to a plate. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve and discard the spent vegetables and bay leaves. You should have about 7 cups of clean broth.

3. 3

   Toast the bread

   Wipe the pot clean. Add the manteca de cerdo or butter over medium heat, then add the torn bolillo. Fry until the edges turn pale gold and smell nutty, about 3 minutes. Do not brown it hard. This bread is here to give the broth body, not a burned flavor. In Puebla convent cooking, stale bread was not waste. It was structure.

4. 4

   Wake the spices

   Add the almonds, saffron, cinnamon stick, cloves, and peppercorns to the pot with the bread. Stir for 1 minute, just until the almonds smell warm and the saffron stains the fat lightly. Do not toast the saffron dark. It turns bitter and expensive bitterness is still bitterness.

5. 5

   Blend the almond base

   Add 2 cups of the strained chicken broth to the pot and simmer for 8 minutes, until the bread softens completely. Remove and discard the cinnamon stick if you want a softer spice note, or leave it in for a stronger poblano convent flavor. Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend until completely smooth. Almonds take time. Blend longer than you think.

6. 6

   Strain the sauce

   Pour the blended almond mixture through a fine-mesh sieve back into the pot, pressing hard with a spoon. This is not laziness work. The broth should be smooth and pale, with no gritty almond skins or bread lumps. Add the remaining strained broth and the sherry or white wine. Bring to the gentlest simmer.

7. 7

   Return the chicken

   Nestle the chicken pieces back into the almond broth. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes, spooning broth over the pieces now and then. The liquid should thicken enough to coat a spoon lightly but still behave like caldo, not mole. Taste for salt. The almond softens everything, so the seasoning must be clear.

8. 8

   Temper the yolks

   Whisk the egg yolks in a small bowl with 1/4 cup warm broth, adding the broth slowly so the yolks do not scramble. Pull the pot off the heat and stir the tempered yolks into the caldo. Return to low heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until the broth looks satin-smooth. Do not boil after the yolks go in. Así se hace y punto.

   If the broth boils after the yolks are added, it can curdle. The flavor will still be there, but the texture will tell on you.
9. 9

   Serve in Talavera

   Set one or two chicken pieces in each deep Talavera bowl and ladle the almond broth over them generously. Finish with a little chopped flat-leaf parsley if you use it. Serve with warm corn tortillas or bolillo. No chile garnish, no sour cream, no nonsense. This is Puebla's convent table.

Chef Tips

• •Use blanched almonds. Almond skins make the broth speckled and a little tannic. If you only find skin-on almonds, cover them with boiling water for 1 minute, drain, and pinch off the skins. It takes time. No me vengas con atajos.
• •Saffron is not decoration here. It is part of the convent pantry that separates this dish from an ordinary chicken soup. Buy threads, not yellow powder. Yellow powder is usually turmeric pretending to be saffron.
• •A good farm chicken gives a better broth than boneless breasts. Boneless chicken breast in this dish is poverty of imagination, not economy.
• •If you use butter instead of manteca de cerdo, understand the difference. Butter belongs to many conventual poblano kitchens because dairy was part of the cloister economy. Manteca gives a deeper Mexican household flavor. Both have a place here.
• •This dish is not supposed to be hot with chile. Not all Mexican food is chile-forward. Puebla knows how to build flavor with almonds, spices, fruit, nuts, and patience.

Advance Preparation

• •The chicken broth can be made one day ahead. Refrigerate the chicken and strained broth separately, then remove the solid fat from the top before continuing.
• •The almond base can be blended and strained up to one day ahead. Reheat gently and add the tempered yolks only right before serving.
• •Leftovers keep refrigerated for 3 days. Reheat over low heat and do not let the broth boil, because the egg yolks can separate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 540g)