Chef Lupita
Apaseo el Grande Carnitas (Carnitas Estilo Apaseo)
Guanajuato's Apaseo el Grande carnitas, pork shoulder and skin cooked slowly in manteca de cerdo with orange, salt, and milk, then torn and crisped on the comal for celebration tacos.
Culinary Explorer
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Pollo San Marcos de Aguascalientes
Created by
Aguascalientes' Pollo San Marcos is feria chicken browned in lard, carried by chorizo, papas, zanahoria, and a tomato-serrano salsa that is savory, bright, and mild.
Main Dishes
Mexican
Celebration
Holiday
Comfort Food
30 min
Active Time
1 hr 5 min cook•1 hr 35 min total
Yield6 servings
Aguascalientes sits in the Bajio, north of Jalisco and south of Zacatecas, and Pollo San Marcos belongs to the table of the Feria de San Marcos. This is food from a small state with a serious fair, not a generic chicken stew dressed up for a holiday. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
The dish is mild. Understand that before you start. The salsa is tomato and chile serrano, bright and green-edged, not a red assault of chile de arbol. The chorizo carries the depth, the papas and zanahoria carry the comfort, and the chicken is browned first in manteca de cerdo so the sauce has something to hold on to. You brown, you fry, you braise. Así se hace y punto.
I learned a version of this from a woman near the Jardin de San Marcos who had cooked through the feria more times than she wanted to count. Her cazuela was blackened at the rim, her tortillas were stacked in a chiquihuite, and she corrected me before I reached for more chile. 'No es para enchilar,' she said. It is not meant to burn. It is meant to feed.
Serve it in barro, with corn tortillas, and let the sauce stain the plate red-orange from the chorizo. Saber cocinar es saber vivir, and in Aguascalientes that means knowing when restraint is the tradition.
The Feria de San Marcos in Aguascalientes traces its origins to 1828, when the city established a commercial fair that later became tied to the San Marcos neighborhood and its spring celebrations. Pollo San Marcos, also called Pollo de Feria, reflects that fair-table cooking: chicken extended with potatoes, carrots, chorizo, tomato, and serrano so one cazuela could feed a family during a public celebration. Unlike richer moles of Puebla or Oaxaca, this Bajio dish depends on a mild tomato salsa and the seasoned fat from Mexican chorizo, which is why adding chocolate or aggressive chile heat changes the dish.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
whole chicken
Quantity
1, about 3 1/2 pounds
cut into 8 pieces
kosher salt
Quantity
2 teaspoons, plus more to taste
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
manteca de cerdo
Quantity
3 tablespoons
Mexican chorizo
Quantity
8 ounces
casing removed and crumbled
waxy potatoes
Quantity
1 1/2 pounds
peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
carrots
Quantity
3 medium
peeled and sliced into thick coins
white onion
Quantity
1 medium
finely chopped
garlic cloves
Quantity
3
finely chopped
ripe Roma tomatoes
Quantity
1 1/2 pounds
fresh chile serrano
Quantity
2
stemmed
chicken broth or water
Quantity
1/2 cup
bay leaf
Quantity
1
dried Mexican oregano
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
crumbled
apple cider vinegar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
pitted green olives
Quantity
1/4 cup
halved
raisins
Quantity
2 tablespoons
hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)
Quantity
for serving
warmed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| whole chickencut into 8 pieces | 1, about 3 1/2 pounds |
| kosher salt | 2 teaspoons, plus more to taste |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1/2 teaspoon |
| manteca de cerdo | 3 tablespoons |
| Mexican chorizocasing removed and crumbled | 8 ounces |
| waxy potatoespeeled and cut into 1-inch chunks | 1 1/2 pounds |
| carrotspeeled and sliced into thick coins | 3 medium |
| white onionfinely chopped | 1 medium |
| garlic clovesfinely chopped | 3 |
| ripe Roma tomatoes | 1 1/2 pounds |
| fresh chile serranostemmed | 2 |
| chicken broth or water | 1/2 cup |
| bay leaf | 1 |
| dried Mexican oreganocrumbled | 1/2 teaspoon |
| apple cider vinegar | 1 tablespoon |
| pitted green oliveshalved | 1/4 cup |
| raisins | 2 tablespoons |
| hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)warmed | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide 12-inch clay cazuela or heavy Dutch oven
- •Cast iron comal for roasting tomatoes and chile serrano
- •Blender
- •Wooden spoon for scraping the chorizo fond
- •Cloth-lined chiquihuite for warm corn tortillas
Instructions
- 1
Season the chicken
Pat the chicken pieces dry. Season all over with the salt and black pepper. Let them sit at room temperature for 20 minutes while you prepare the salsa. Dry skin browns. Wet skin stews before it ever gets a chance to take color.
- 2
Char the salsa
Heat a comal or heavy skillet over medium-high. Roast the Roma tomatoes and chile serrano, turning often, until the tomato skins blister and blacken in patches and the serranos soften. Blend them with the chicken broth until mostly smooth. This salsa is mild, not picante. The serrano gives green sharpness and a little bite. It does not turn the dish into a dare.
Do not add chile de arbol, chipotle, chocolate, or dried chile paste. Pollo San Marcos is carried by tomato, serrano, chorizo, papas, and zanahoria. No me vengas con atajos. - 3
Brown the chicken
Melt the manteca de cerdo in a wide cazuela or heavy Dutch oven over medium heat. Brown the chicken in batches, skin side down first, until the skin is deep golden and the bottom releases cleanly from the pot, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer the pieces to a plate. La manteca es el sabor, and here it gives the chicken the feria flavor you will not get from thin vegetable oil.
- 4
Cook the chorizo
Add the crumbled Mexican chorizo to the same pot. Cook, stirring and scraping the browned chicken bits from the bottom, until the chorizo has rendered its red fat and smells of vinegar, garlic, and chile ancho, about 5 minutes. If the chorizo is very lean, add another teaspoon of manteca. A dry chorizo base makes a dry sauce.
- 5
Fry the vegetables
Add the potatoes and carrots to the chorizo fat. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring often, until the edges of the potatoes turn yellow-orange from the chorizo and begin to take color. Add the onion and garlic and cook 3 minutes more. The vegetables should taste seasoned before the salsa goes in, not boiled and corrected at the end.
- 6
Build the sauce
Pour the blended tomato-serrano salsa into the pot. Add the bay leaf, dried Mexican oregano, vinegar, olives, and raisins. Bring to a steady simmer and taste for salt. The sauce should be bright from tomato, savory from chorizo, and lightly sweet-sour from the raisins and vinegar. That balance is the Bajio speaking.
- 7
Braise the chicken
Nestle the browned chicken pieces back into the pot, skin side up, with any juices from the plate. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 30 to 35 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the potatoes are tender. Keep the simmer gentle. Hard boiling knocks the skin loose and breaks the potatoes into paste.
- 8
Finish uncovered
Uncover the pot and cook 8 to 10 minutes more, spooning sauce over the chicken, until the salsa thickens enough to coat the spoon and the red chorizo fat gathers at the edges. Remove the bay leaf. Taste again. If the tomato is too sharp, add a pinch of salt before you add sugar. Most cooks reach for sugar too fast.
- 9
Serve from clay
Serve the chicken directly from the cazuela or on Aguascalientes terracotta plates, with papas, zanahoria, chorizo, and sauce spooned generously over each piece. Put warm corn tortillas in a cloth-lined chiquihuite on the table. This is feria food, family food, food made to feed people after the noise of the plaza. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
Chef Tips
- •Use fresh Mexican chorizo, the loose red kind seasoned with chile, vinegar, garlic, and spices. Spanish cured chorizo is a different product. It will not melt into the sauce the same way.
- •The serrano is here for brightness, not punishment. Two chiles for this amount of tomato is enough. Pollo San Marcos is mild. Respect the dish.
- •Brown the chicken in manteca de cerdo. If you use vegetable oil, the recipe will still cook, but it will taste thinner. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •Choose waxy potatoes that hold their shape. Russets fall apart and thicken the sauce like mashed potato. That is not what the feria cazuela wants.
- •If tomatoes are pale and hard, roast them harder on the comal and add one tablespoon of tomato paste while frying the salsa. If the market has good ripe Roma tomatoes, leave the paste alone. Preguntale a las senoras del mercado.
Advance Preparation
- •The tomato-serrano salsa can be roasted and blended one day ahead. Refrigerate it, then fry it with the chorizo base when you cook.
- •The whole dish can be cooked up to one day ahead and reheated gently in the cazuela with a splash of chicken broth. The potatoes will absorb salt overnight, so taste again before serving.
- •Do not freeze this dish. The potatoes turn grainy and the sauce loses the clean tomato-serrano character.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 480g)
Calories
860 calories
Total Fat
50 g
Saturated Fat
16 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
31 g
Cholesterol
170 mg
Sodium
1600 mg
Total Carbohydrates
56 g
Dietary Fiber
9 g
Sugars
9 g
Protein
48 g
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