Caldo de Pollo

The vegetables kept in large pieces and served in the bowl, which is what makes it a meal rather than a starter.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

the broth

• 1 chicken, about 1.6 kg, jointed
• 2.5 litres water
• 1 onion, halved
• 5 cloves garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon salt

the vegetables

• 3 carrots, in 4 cm lengths
• 2 potatoes, in large chunks
• 2 corn cobs, each cut into 3 rounds
• 3 courgettes, in thick chunks
• ¼ white cabbage, in 2 thick wedges
• 200 g green beans, topped and tailed

to serve

• 150 g long-grain rice, cooked separately
• lime wedges
• 1 white onion, finely chopped
• a handful of coriander, chopped
• salsa, as on its own page
• corn tortillas, as on their own page

Method

1. THE VEGETABLES ARE KEPT IN LARGE PIECES AND SERVED IN THE BOWL, which is what makes this a meal and not a starter. Carrots in four-centimetre lengths, potatoes in chunks, corn in rounds on the cob, cabbage in two thick wedges. Each bowl gets a joint of chicken and a piece of every vegetable, and it is eaten with a knife and fork as much as a spoon. Diced small the same ingredients make a pleasant thin chicken soup that nobody would build a lunch around, and the pieces also hold their shape through a long simmer where dice would not.
2. THEY GO IN IN ORDER OF HOW LONG THEY TAKE, which is the whole discipline of a one-pot soup. Carrot and potato twenty-five minutes out; corn and cabbage fifteen; beans ten; courgette seven. All in together and the courgette has gone to slime before the carrot is done.
3. THE RICE IS COOKED SEPARATELY AND SPOONED IN. Rice cooked in the pot drinks a litre of broth and goes on swelling in the leftovers until the next day's soup is a solid mass. Cooked apart and added by the spoonful at the table, each bowl is as wet as its owner wants and the pot keeps.
4. THE CHICKEN GOES IN RAW AND THE BROTH IS SKIMMED HARD IN THE FIRST TEN MINUTES. A grey-brown foam rises as the pot comes to the boil and it is the only thing between this and a cloudy broth. Lifted off with a spoon two or three times, the broth stays clear and golden -- which matters, because a clear broth is most of what this dish is.
5. IT IS SIMMERED AND NEVER BOILED AFTER THAT SKIMMING. A rolling boil emulsifies the chicken fat into the broth and turns it opaque, and shakes the vegetables apart. The surface should barely move for the whole hour.
6. The chicken put in a large pot with the 2.5 litres of water, the onion, garlic, bay and salt.
7. Brought slowly to the boil and SKIMMED hard, two or three times, as the grey foam rises.
8. Turned DOWN so the surface barely moves, and simmered 35 MINUTES. Never boiled.
9. The carrots and potatoes added -- 25 MINUTES to go.
10. The corn rounds and cabbage wedges added -- 15 MINUTES to go.
11. The green beans added -- 10 MINUTES to go.
12. The courgette added -- 7 MINUTES to go.
13. The rice cooked separately in salted water and kept warm.
14. TESTED: a knife should go into the potato with no resistance and the courgette should still hold its shape.
15. The bay and onion halves lifted out. Tasted and salted.
16. Each deep bowl given a JOINT of chicken and a piece of EVERY vegetable, then the broth ladled over.
17. Rice spooned in at the table, with lime, onion, coriander, salsa and tortillas.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes