Pollo Encacahuatado Veracruzano

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Dry cast iron comal or heavy skillet for chiles, peanuts, and jitomates
• •Wide red clay cazuela or heavy Dutch oven
• •High-powered blender, or metate if you have the shoulders for it
• •Fine-mesh strainer for the chicken broth
• •Tongs and a wooden spoon with a flat edge for scraping the cazuela

Instructions

1. 1

   Simmer the chicken

   Season the chicken with 1 teaspoon of the salt and the black pepper. Put the chicken in a pot with the half onion, 3 crushed garlic cloves, bay leaves, and water. Bring to a gentle simmer, skim the foam from the top, and cook 20 to 25 minutes, until the chicken is mostly cooked and the broth tastes like chicken, not water. Transfer the chicken to a tray and strain the broth. The chicken finishes in the sauce, where it must reach 165F at the thickest part.

2. 2

   Toast the peanuts

   Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Toast 1 cup of the peanuts for 5 to 7 minutes, shaking the pan often, until they smell deep and nutty and the skins darken in spots. Rub off only the loose skins. Leave some behind for color and character. Raw peanut tastes green. Toasted peanut tastes like Veracruz.

   Do not use sweetened peanut butter. Do not use salted cocktail peanuts. No me vengas con atajos. Buy raw cacahuate and toast it yourself.
3. 3

   Toast the chiles

   On the same comal, toast the chile ancho about 25 seconds per side, just until the skin softens, darkens, and smells like dried fruit. Toast the chile chipotle seco more carefully, 10 to 15 seconds per side, because it is already smoked and turns bitter if you scorch it. Put the chiles in a bowl, cover with hot water, and soak 15 minutes. Drain them. Use broth for the sauce, not the soaking water.

4. 4

   Char the vegetables

   Place the halved jitomates de bola, quartered onion, and 4 unpeeled garlic cloves on the comal. Turn them until the tomatoes collapse at the edges, the onion has black spots, and the garlic is soft inside its skin. Peel the garlic. Melt 1 tablespoon of the manteca in a small skillet and fry the bolillo pieces or tortilla until golden. Toast the cloves, peppercorns, allspice, and canela for 20 seconds, just until fragrant.

5. 5

   Blend the sauce

   In a blender, combine the toasted peanuts, soaked chiles, charred tomatoes, onion, peeled garlic, fried bolillo or tortilla, toasted spices, Mexican oregano, hoja santa, vinegar, and 2 cups of the reserved broth. Blend for a full 2 to 3 minutes, until the sauce is as smooth as your blender can make it. A metate would make it silkier. The blender works if you give it time.

6. 6

   Brown the chicken

   Wipe out a wide cazuela or Dutch oven and melt the remaining 2 tablespoons manteca over medium heat. Pat the chicken pieces dry. Brown them skin side down first, 3 to 4 minutes per side, until the skin takes color and the pot smells like roasted chicken fat. Remove the chicken to a plate. La manteca es el sabor, and now it carries the flavor of the bird.

7. 7

   Fry the encacahuatado

   Pour the blended sauce into the same cazuela. It will sputter, so stir with authority. Cook 8 to 10 minutes, scraping the bottom, until the sauce darkens to rust-red, thickens heavily, and the fat begins to freckle at the edges. If it still smells like raw peanut, keep cooking. This step is where a paste becomes encacahuatado. Asi se hace y punto.

   Peanut sauces catch on the bottom faster than chile sauces. Keep the heat at medium and stir across the whole base of the cazuela, especially the corners.
8. 8

   Braise and serve

   Return the chicken to the cazuela and spoon the sauce over every piece. Add enough reserved broth to loosen the sauce so it moves slowly around the chicken but still coats the spoon. Cover and simmer over low heat for 20 to 25 minutes, turning once, until the chicken reaches 165F and the sauce is thick and glossy. Taste for salt. Let it rest 10 minutes before serving. Line the serving cazuela with banana leaf if using, scatter with chopped toasted peanuts and small torn hoja santa leaves, and bring it to the table with white rice, black beans, and warm corn tortillas. Veracruz at the table. Not flour tortillas. Cada estado, su propia cocina.

Chef Tips

• •Buy raw peanuts at the market, preferably with skins. The skins give color and a little tannic edge. If your peanuts smell stale or oily before toasting, they are already bad. Start at the market, not the stove.
• •Use chile chipotle seco, meco if you can find it, morita if that is what your chile vendor has. Canned chipotle in adobo is a compromise, not an upgrade. It brings vinegar and sugar the sauce did not ask for.
• •Hoja santa is called acuyo in much of Veracruz. If you cannot find it, leave it out. Do not replace it with basil. Basil makes the sauce taste like somewhere else.
• •The sauce thickens as it sits because peanuts keep drinking liquid. Loosen leftovers with reserved broth or water a few tablespoons at a time, never by dumping in a cup and drowning the work.
• •This is not a hot dish in the lazy sense people mean when they say all Mexican food is hot. The ancho gives fruit and color. The chipotle gives smoke and a little bite. The depth comes from frying the sauce, not punishing the diner.

Advance Preparation

• •The chicken can be simmered and the broth strained one day ahead. Refrigerate both, then brown the chicken and finish it in the sauce the next day.
• •The encacahuatado sauce can be made two days ahead before adding the chicken. Refrigerate it and reheat gently with broth until it loosens. The flavor deepens overnight.
• •The finished dish keeps refrigerated for 3 days. Reheat over low heat, stirring often, because peanut sauce sticks when ignored.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 550g)