Pepián

Ingredients

• Chicken — in pieces1.5 kg
• Pumpkin seeds120 g
• Sesame seeds60 g
• Guajillo chillies4
• Pasilla chillies2
• Tomatoes4
• Tomatillos300 g
• Onion1
• Garlic5 clove
• Potatoes400 g
• Green beans200 g
• Cinnamon stick1
• Coriander30 g
• Rice — to serve350 g
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Simmer the chicken with an onion and salt for forty minutes. Keep the broth.

   45 min

2. 2

   Toast the pumpkin and sesame seeds in a dry pan to a deep gold, stirring.

   10 min

3. 3

   In the same pan char the chillies, tomatoes, tomatillos and garlic until blackened in patches.

   15 min

4. 4

   Blend everything with two ladles of the broth and the cinnamon to a smooth sauce.

   8 min

5. 5

   Pass the sauce through a sieve; the chilli skins left behind would spoil the texture.

   6 min

6. 6

   Cook the sauce twenty minutes, stirring, until it thickens and darkens.

   22 min

7. 7

   Add the chicken, potato and beans and stew fifteen minutes. Serve with rice and coriander.

   18 min

About the dish

The sauce thickens on seeds — pumpkin and sesame, dry-toasted dark. There is no flour in pepián, and the thickener is the one the Maya used.

The chillies and tomatoes are charred on a dry pan until blackened in patches. That char supplies the smokiness the dish exists for, and boiling cannot replace it.

Pepián is recognised as Guatemalan intangible heritage. It belongs to the recados, sauces of pre-Columbian foundation to which the Spanish later added only spices.

Worth knowing

• — Do not scorch the seeds. Burnt, they leave a bitterness that runs through the whole sauce and nothing removes it.
• — The sauce must be sieved. That is what makes it smooth, and Guatemalan cooks do not skip it.
• — The finished sauce thickens overnight. Let it down with broth rather than water.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

640 kcal

Protein

44 g

Fat

28 g

Carbs

52 g

More from Guatemala

• Guatemalan tamales — Corn dough with meat and recado sauce, wrapped in banana leaf and steamed.
• Kak'ik — A red turkey soup with charred chillies and spices, a dish of the Q'eqchi' Maya.
• Rellenitos — Balls of ripe plantain purée filled with sweetened black beans and chocolate.