In Mexico "enfrijoladas" are enchiladas covered in sauce made from pureed black beans. "Entomatadas" are enchiladas bathed in a tomato sauce. A few days ago, Alejandro told me that they had "pollo encacahuatado", chicken in peanut sauce, for dinner. That sounded good. At my local supermarket I can buy a jar of Thai peanut sauce which I use for my version of "pad Thai", but I asked him how to make a Mexican peanut sauce. He told me the ingredients... but no measurements... that are thrown together in a blender.
Yesterday I attempted to make a sauce for "pollo encacahuatado". You are supposed to use fresh tomatoes roasted on a grill, but since tomatoes from the produce section of the supermarkets up here are lacking in flavor, I bought a can of fire-roasted crushed tomatoes. With the large can of tomatoes that I bought I ended up doing two batches, and I put some in the freezer.
In the blender I simply combined chicken broth, roasted tomatoes, one chipotle pepper for each batch, a quarter of an onion which I lightly charred in a dry frying pan, and some minced garlic. I added peanuts until I attained the consistency that I wanted. I used unsalted peanuts, but at the end I needed to add salt to taste.
The result was a thick sauce still with a few pieces of peanut. (Alejandro said that it should be slightly chunky.)
It was really tasty with just a small kick from the chipotle peppers. I had to restrain myself from continuing to "taste test" it or there wouldn't be any left! It is usually served over whole chicken pieces, but I put it over shredded chicken with rice.
"¡Muy rico!" Delicious!
No comments:
Post a Comment