Chef Lupita
Acúmara Tatemada al Comal
Michoacán's Lake Pátzcuaro acúmara, a whole kurucha from the lago tatemada on a comal de leña and served with chile perón atápakua, corn tortillas, and P'urhépecha discipline.
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Pollo en Frutas Chiapaneco
Created by
Chiapas highland chicken in a spiced tomato broth with pear, peach, plantain, raisins, and almonds, the sweet-savory Sunday cazuela that knows exactly where it comes from.
Main Dishes
Mexican
Comfort Food
Holiday
Dinner Party
35 min
Active Time
1 hr 15 min cook•1 hr 50 min total
Yield6 servings
Chiapas, especially the highland kitchens around San Cristobal de las Casas and Comitan, knows how to put fruit into a savory pot without turning dinner into dessert. Pollo en frutas lives in that borderland: chicken browned in manteca, tomato broth, warm spices, ripe fruit, raisins, almonds, and a chile ancho that gives body more than heat.
This is not a northern flour-tortilla plate and it is not a plate covered in melted cheese. This is Chiapas, with fruit from the market, chicken from the Sunday table, and a cazuela deep enough to hold sweet and savory in the same bite. The plantain thickens and perfumes the sauce. The pear and peach should hold their shape. If they collapse into mush, you cooked without paying attention.
I first wrote this dish down from a señora near the mercado in San Cristobal who corrected me twice before I had even touched the stove. Brown the chicken properly. Fry the tomato sauce in the fat. Add the fruit late. That is the architecture. Recetas probadas y garantizadas, but only if you respect the order.
Sweet-savory meat dishes in Chiapas reflect the colonial meeting of indigenous poultry and chile cookery with Spanish-introduced orchard fruits, almonds, raisins, cinnamon, and cloves. In the Chiapas highlands, especially around San Cristobal de las Casas and Comitan, these fruit-and-meat cazuelas became part of festive home cooking rather than everyday market food. The dish belongs to the same Mexican family of baroque sweet-savory stews as Puebla's chiles en nogada and central Mexican picadillos, but its tropical plantain and highland fruit balance mark it as Chiapaneco.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks
Quantity
3 pounds
patted dry
kosher salt
Quantity
1 1/2 teaspoons, plus more to taste
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
manteca de cerdo (pork lard)
Quantity
3 tablespoons
white onion
Quantity
1 medium
thinly sliced
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
peeled
ripe Roma tomatoes
Quantity
5
cored and quartered
dried chile ancho
Quantity
1
stemmed, seeded, and toasted
hot chicken broth or water
Quantity
1 cup
for soaking the chile
chicken broth
Quantity
1 1/2 cups
Mexican cinnamon stick
Quantity
1 small
whole cloves
Quantity
3
whole allspice berries
Quantity
4
bay leaf
Quantity
1
fresh thyme
Quantity
1 sprig
apple cider vinegar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
piloncillo or dark brown sugar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
ripe plantain
Quantity
1
peeled and sliced into 1/2-inch rounds
firm-ripe pears
Quantity
2
peeled, cored, and cut into thick wedges
firm-ripe peaches
Quantity
2
peeled, pitted, and cut into thick wedges
raisins
Quantity
1/3 cup
blanched almonds
Quantity
1/3 cup
warm corn tortillas (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| bone-in chicken thighs and drumstickspatted dry | 3 pounds |
| kosher salt | 1 1/2 teaspoons, plus more to taste |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1/2 teaspoon |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard) | 3 tablespoons |
| white onionthinly sliced | 1 medium |
| garlic clovespeeled | 4 |
| ripe Roma tomatoescored and quartered | 5 |
| dried chile anchostemmed, seeded, and toasted | 1 |
| hot chicken broth or waterfor soaking the chile | 1 cup |
| chicken broth | 1 1/2 cups |
| Mexican cinnamon stick | 1 small |
| whole cloves | 3 |
| whole allspice berries | 4 |
| bay leaf | 1 |
| fresh thyme | 1 sprig |
| apple cider vinegar | 1 tablespoon |
| piloncillo or dark brown sugar | 1 tablespoon |
| ripe plantainpeeled and sliced into 1/2-inch rounds | 1 |
| firm-ripe pearspeeled, cored, and cut into thick wedges | 2 |
| firm-ripe peachespeeled, pitted, and cut into thick wedges | 2 |
| raisins | 1/3 cup |
| blanched almonds | 1/3 cup |
| warm corn tortillas (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide clay cazuela or heavy 6-quart Dutch oven
- •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting chile
- •High-powered blender
- •Fine-mesh strainer
Instructions
- 1
Season the chicken
Pat the chicken dry and season it all over with the salt and black pepper. Let it sit while you prepare the chile and tomatoes. Dry skin browns. Wet skin stews, and we are not starting this dish with pale chicken.
- 2
Toast the ancho
Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Toast the chile ancho about 20 to 30 seconds per side, just until it softens, darkens slightly, and smells like raisins and warm chile. Do not blacken it. Put the toasted chile in a bowl, cover with the hot broth or water, and let it soak for 15 minutes.
Chile ancho gives this sauce depth and a soft fruit note. It is not here to make the dish hot. Not all Mexican food is hot. That lazy idea has ruined many good pots. - 3
Blend the sauce
Transfer the soaked ancho to a blender with the tomatoes, garlic cloves, and 1/2 cup of the soaking liquid. Blend until completely smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve if your blender leaves chile skin behind. The sauce should look brick red and smell like tomato, chile, and garlic, not raw water.
- 4
Brown the chicken
Melt the manteca in a wide clay cazuela or heavy Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the chicken skin side down in a single layer, working in batches if needed. Brown 5 to 6 minutes per side, until the skin is golden and the fat in the pot smells roasted. Remove the chicken to a plate. La manteca es el sabor, and this browned fat is the base of the sauce.
- 5
Fry the tomato base
Add the sliced onion to the same pot and cook until soft and lightly golden, about 6 minutes. Pour in the blended tomato-ancho sauce. It will sputter. Stir and fry the sauce for 8 to 10 minutes, until it darkens, thickens, and the fat starts to show at the edges. This is where the raw tomato becomes a proper guiso. No me vengas con atajos.
- 6
Simmer the chicken
Return the chicken and any juices to the pot. Add the chicken broth, cinnamon stick, cloves, allspice, bay leaf, thyme, vinegar, and piloncillo. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover partially, and cook 35 to 40 minutes, turning the chicken once, until the meat is tender and the sauce has a glossy red-brown depth.
- 7
Add the fruits
Add the plantain, pears, peaches, raisins, and almonds. Nestle them around the chicken instead of stirring hard and breaking everything. Simmer uncovered 15 to 20 minutes, until the fruit is tender but still holds its shape and the sauce lightly coats the back of a spoon. Taste for salt. Sweet needs salt or it becomes flat.
- 8
Rest and serve
Turn off the heat and let the cazuela rest 10 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick, bay leaf, thyme stem, cloves, and allspice if you can find them. Serve family-style in the cazuela with warm corn tortillas. Spoon fruit and sauce over every piece of chicken. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
Chef Tips
- •Use fruit that is ripe but firm. Pears and peaches that are too soft will disappear into the sauce. If the peaches at the mercado are hard and mean, use more pear and plantain that day. Cook what the market is selling today.
- •The chile ancho should be flexible and smell sweet, like dried fruit and tobacco. If it is brittle, dusty, or smells like cardboard, leave it with the vendor. You can have perfect technique and bad chile and still get a bad sauce.
- •Manteca de cerdo matters here because it carries the tomato, onion, and chile into one rounded flavor. Vegetable oil will cook the dish, yes. It will not give it the same body. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •Serve this with corn tortillas, not flour tortillas. Flour tortillas are a northern tradition. Chiapas has its own table, and this cazuela belongs with corn.
Advance Preparation
- •The tomato-ancho sauce can be blended one day ahead and refrigerated. Fry it in the lard on the cooking day so the flavor opens properly.
- •The finished chicken can be made up to one day ahead. Reheat gently in the cazuela over low heat and add a splash of broth if the sauce has tightened.
- •Add the fruit on the day you serve if you want clean pieces in the cazuela. Overnight fruit tastes good, but it softens.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 450g)
Calories
690 calories
Total Fat
37 g
Saturated Fat
10 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
25 g
Cholesterol
150 mg
Sodium
1100 mg
Total Carbohydrates
63 g
Dietary Fiber
9 g
Sugars
25 g
Protein
32 g
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