Homemade Chicken Pepian Recipe

[Saviolo]

We are going Latin American for this recipe! So, the recipe that we used for this is Guatemalan of origin, but this sort of food is very common all the way through Mexico, Latin, and South America. This comes from the same sort of tradition that produced recipes like mole, with a bunch of ingredients being ground together into a paste and added as a flavouring to a sauce, soup, or stew. The richness of flavour in this recipe is really enhanced by all of the ingredients being toasted in the cast iron before they're ground up.

Pretty easy to switch up the flavour profile in this one. You can use chicken, beef, pork, goat, lamb, or just leave it with veggies. You can also switch up the peppers that you use for the base of the paste. The original recipe asked for one guajillo and three pesilla peppers, but we tossed in a cascabel and an ancho, and it did make a difference in the overall flavour, so experiment and see what you prefer.

[Laelth]

1. That looks fantastic! k&r n/t

-Laelth

[Saviolo]

2. It came out really well.

This was our second try at it, and it was different each time, but just as delicious. Lots of flavour and very hearty.

[Laelth]

3. Did you use the recommended squash?

I have never cooked it before.



-Laelth

[Saviolo]

4. The Chayote squash? Yes!

It's quite delicious. It has an interesting texture, somewhere between a melon and an acorn squash, with one big seed in the middle that's very easy to remove. It is also sometimes referred to as mirliton.

We've used it both raw and cooked (as in this dish). There's a recipe in our back catalogue for a really delicious light slaw that uses raw chayote and candycane beets.