Herbs, chiles, chayotes, tomatillos, and zucchini enrich Mexican chicken with pumpkinseed sauce. If you do not like spicy foods, cut back on the chiles or use milder chiles to suit your tastes.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hours,
Ingredients:
6 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts (halves), about 3-3/4 pounds total
1 small white onion, sliced, divided use
4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved, divided use
1/2 teaspoon each dried marjoram and thyme
3 bay leaves
Salt to taste
1-1/4 cups (about 6 ounces) hulled, untoasted pumpkinseeds (pepitas), see note below
8 ounces (5-6 medium) tomatillos, husked, rinsed and roughly chopped
2 large romaine lettuce leaves, torn into large pieces
Fresh hot green chiles to taste (roughly 2 serranos or 1 jalapeno), stemmed, roughly chopped
Leaves from a small sprig of epazote, plus an additional sprig for garnish
1/2 cup loosely packed chopped cilantro, plus a few sprigs for garnish
1-1/2 Tablespoons vegetable oil or olive oil
2 medium chayotes, peeled if you wish, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 medium zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Preparation:
Poach chicken:
Into 6- to 8-quart pot, place 10 cups water. Add half onion, half garlic, marjoram, thyme, bay leaves, and about 1-1/2 teaspoons salt. Bring to boil. Add chicken breasts and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer uncovered over medium heat 10 minutes (increase simmering time to 13 to 14 minutes if chicken breasts are large). Cover pot and let stand off heat 10 minutes. Remove chicken from pot. Strain broth and skim off fat that rises to top (can be done 1 day ahead).
Prepare sauce:
In heavy 4-quart saucepan, Dutch oven or cazuela (a traditional Mexican earthenware casserole with a lid), dry-toast pumpkinseeds. Set pot over medium heat, add pumpkinseeds and, when the first seed pops, stir constantly until all have popped from flat to round, about 5 minutes. Don't let them darken past golden (usually caused by too high heat or not enough stirring) or the sauce will be brownish and slightly bitter. Cool. Set aside 3 tablespoons for garnish and transfer rest to blender. Add remaining onion and garlic to blender, along with tomatillos, lettuce, chiles, epazote leaves and chopped cilantro. Pour in 1 cup of strained broth; cover and blend to smooth puree (can be done 1 day ahead).
In pumpkinseed-toasting pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. When hot enough to make a drop of puree sizzle sharply, add it all at once. Stir as mixture darkens slightly and thickens considerably, about 10 minutes. Stir in 2 more cups broth, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer about 20 minutes for flavors to mellow and sauce to thicken to medium consistency (it should coat spoon).
While sauce is simmering, steam chayote in vegetable steamer 3 minutes. Add zucchini and steam 2 to 3 more minutes, stirring everything several times to ensure even cooking. Or, if you find it easier you can blanch vegetables in salted boiling water, cooking chayote about 3 minutes, then adding zucchini for 1 minute. Drain and spread vegetables on plate to stop cooking.
When sauce has simmered 20 minutes, it will likely look coarse. Smooth it to a velvety texture by reblending it in small batches (loosely covered to avoid blender explosions). Return sauce to pan, taste and season with salt, if needed, about 3/4 teaspoon. If sauce has thickened beyond a light cream-sauce consistency, thin it with a little remaining broth. Remove skin from cooked chicken, if desired, and slip chicken breasts into sauce, then add cooked vegetables. Simmer over medium heat just long enough to heat everything, about 5 minutes, then spoon chicken, vegetables and sauce out onto warm serving platter. Sprinkle with reserved pumpkinseeds (you may want to crush them), decorate with sprigs of epazote and cilantro. Serve.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Per serving: 481 calories, 39 g protein, 15 g carbohydrates, 31 g fat, 93 mg cholesterol, 148 mg sodium. Calories from fat: 57 percent.
Note: If untoasted pumpkinseeds are hard to locate, look in the grocery store's snack aisle for toasted, salted ones; they will work (skip the step for toasting, of course).
