Caldo Tlalpeño

A whole chipotle steeped in the broth and lifted out, with the avocado added at the table and never in the pot.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name, chicken.

Ingredients

the broth

• 1 kg chicken thighs, on the bone
• 2 litres water
• 1 onion, halved
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• a sprig of epazote
• 2 teaspoons salt

in the pot

• 400 g cooked chickpeas
• 2 carrots, in thick rounds
• 200 g green beans, in short lengths
• 2 courgettes, in thick chunks
• 3 chipotles in adobo, LEFT WHOLE, plus 1 tablespoon of their sauce

at the table

• 2 avocados, in thick slices
• 150 g crumbly white cheese
• lime wedges
• 1 white onion, finely chopped
• corn tortillas, as on their own page

Method

1. THE CHIPOTLES GO IN WHOLE AND ARE LIFTED OUT, AND THE AVOCADO GOES IN AT THE TABLE. Both halves of that are about control. Three whole chipotles steeped in two litres of broth give a clear smoky perfume and a moderate, even heat, and they can be fished out the moment the pot is hot enough -- which is how one pan feeds people with different tolerances. Chopped in, the heat climbs for the whole simmer and cannot be reduced. And avocado simmered in broth goes grey, slumps and turns the liquid cloudy and faintly bitter within five minutes; sliced onto each bowl at the table it stays green and firm and is the cool thing against the smoke.
2. THE BROTH IS SKIMMED AND KEPT CLEAR. Brought slowly to the boil and the grey foam lifted off two or three times. This is a soup you can see the bottom of, with distinct things sitting in it, and a cloudy broth makes it look like something else entirely.
3. THE CHICKPEAS ARE ALREADY COOKED WHEN THEY GO IN. Dried chickpeas need an hour and a half and would have to be started before the chicken, by which time they shed skins into the broth and cloud it. Cooked separately or from a tin, rinsed, added for the last fifteen minutes.
4. THE ADOBO SAUCE GOES IN BUT ONLY A SPOONFUL. One tablespoon of the tin's sauce carries vinegar and tomato and is what stops the broth tasting merely smoky. More than that and it tints the broth and stops being a clear soup.
5. THE EPAZOTE IS IN FOR THE LAST TEN MINUTES ONLY. A sprig, lifted out with the chipotles. An hour in the pot and it dominates a broth this delicate; ten minutes and it sits behind the chicken.
6. The chicken put in a pot with the water, onion, garlic, bay and salt.
7. Brought slowly to the boil and SKIMMED two or three times until the foam stops rising.
8. Simmered gently 35 MINUTES. The chicken lifted out, the meat shredded off the bone, and the bones returned to the pot for 10 minutes then removed.
9. The onion halves and bay lifted out.
10. The carrots added and simmered 10 MINUTES.
11. The chickpeas and green beans added -- 8 MINUTES.
12. The courgette added, with the WHOLE chipotles and the tablespoon of adobo -- 7 MINUTES.
13. The epazote sprig added for the last 5 minutes.
14. TASTED for heat. The chipotles and epazote LIFTED OUT as soon as it is hot enough.
15. The shredded chicken returned and warmed through. Tasted and salted.
16. Ladled into bowls and taken to the table, where the AVOCADO is sliced on, with cheese, lime, onion 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