Pollo al Chilindrón

Pollo al chilindrón is Aragonese, a chicken braise from the middle Ebro country where sweet peppers, tomato and little batons of jamón turn the pan juices into a deep red sauce. Its surname is the sauce: chilindrón means the peppers and tomato have been cooked down around the meat, not simply tipped over it. This is family food built in one cazuela, rich without being heavy.

The method that decides it is the sofrito, the slow vegetable base. Brown the chicken and lift it out, then give the onion and peppers time to collapse, darken and turn sweet before the tomato goes in. Crowd the pan or hurry them over fierce heat and they stay watery and sharp, so the finished sauce never clings. The Margin beside mine says only: "los pimientos primero," the peppers first.

Far from Aragón, use canned whole peeled tomatoes when fresh ones are pale and hard. You lose a little fresh brightness, but gain dependable body. An unsmoked dry-cured ham such as prosciutto can replace jamón serrano; it gives the necessary salt and fat, though the cured flavor will be gentler. No hace falta haber pisado España. Follow the weights and wait until oil shows at the edge of the sofrito, and it comes out right.