Caldo de Pollo P'urhépecha con Nurite

Michoacán, Meseta P'urhépecha. This caldo lives in the pine towns around Cherán, Nahuatzen, Paracho, and Angahuan, where nurite is sold in small green bundles by women who know exactly which hill it came from. It is not a restaurant soup. It is the noon pot: chicken with skin and bone, vegetables from the market, and an herb that is food and medicine at the same time.

Nurite is the ingredient that makes this dish belong to the Meseta. It smells a little like mint, a little like oregano, and a little like wet pine needles after rain. Do not replace it with hierbabuena. Do not replace it with epazote. Those are fine herbs and they belong to other dishes. Here, substitute nothing. If you don't have nurite, make caldo de pollo, but don't call it caldo con nurite. Así se hace y punto.

My mother didn't cook this in Colonia Roma. She was from Jalisco, and her notebook had pozole, birria, tortas ahogadas. For this broth I had to go to Michoacán and listen to cocineras tradicionales who cook over leña before the market opens. They taught the practical thing first: start with good chicken, skim the broth, add the nurite at the end, and let the herb speak. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.