Pollo Borracho

Yay. Drunken chickens. What more can one ask?

Well, for starters, you might ask what exactly is Pollo Borracho? And, I would tell you that

It is a stew, of sorts, made with some lovely, fresh vegetables, chicken, (go figure,) and, a beer. I saw a new favorite home cook, last night on YT. Her name is Araceli, and she cooks for her family, over an open flame. She doesn’t own a stove, or an oven; they are both made from cement, and are out doors. How amazing is that? Her channel is called Comida Mexican Araceli. Watch a few of her videos, and see how creative someone can be with the basics.

This is what both of our stews looked like while simmering. Yay!

This is simmering, so the large, gelatinous looking things are just bubbles.

The rest of the prep went into getting vegetables ready for the molcajete (pronounced mole-ca-HEH-teh); a mortar and pestle of sorts, commonly used to make salsas. I put 6 Roma tomatoes, 5 onion skins, a jalapeño, and a serrano chile on a round, flat comal, or griddle, on high heat, to burn the outer skins to make the sauce. After all were burned to my liking, I ground them all in my molcajete, with a bit of large grain salt to help with the grinding. The salt is the size of the salt used on thick steaks before grilling.

Now, for the Cliff Notes version: I browned 8 chicken thighs, (our favorite,) in the big olla above, while prepping the rest of the food necessary. I cut up into big chunks 300g. bacon, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces 3 large white potatoes, about 200g green beans, and, 5 carrots. Side note: the large carrots down here, I believe, taste as sweet as the baby carrots up North. I have always detested the taste of carrots up North. Lucky me.

Let me say, here and now, that using a molcajete is one of the hardest things I have done, thus far, in the kitchen. It takes more time than one would expect, and, uses muscles unused to such stress and strain. I am always exhausted after I make a sauce in the molcajete. I understand why “modern” women buy blenders, mixers, food processors, etc. The woman from whose video this recipe comes, also uses a metate, to do a lot of her grinding.

On the left is my molcajete; on the right, my mortar and pestle. The molcajete is made from black volcanic rock, and the mortar and pestle are marble.
These are still used today.

I would like to see if I could get used to using such equipment, and rely less on modern conveniences. I won’t know until I try. They are grossly expensive, FYI. The ones available “online” are about $60-$150. I need to find someone who no longer uses theirs. Harder to do down here than up North. Not many people advertise in the newspaper.

To finish this post, the smaller, covered cazuela, casserole dish, below, is going upstairs, to Jesús, Liz, Gabi, and Alicia. I hope they enjoy it. We sure did.

This portion is going upstairs. It doesn’t look like much but there are 5 small thighs, and about 1 1/2 liters of stew in there.

Well, folks. I am plum tuckered out for today. Going to close as I always do. Please, stay happy, stay healthy, stay safe. Wash your hands, cover your mouth, and protect your loved ones.