Ají de Gallina

Shredded poached chicken in a thick yellow sauce whose bread is soaked in the poaching broth rather than in milk.

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

Ingredients

• 1.3 kg chicken breast and thigh, on the bone
• 1.5 litres water
• 1 onion, halved
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 slices stale white bread, crusts off
• 4 tablespoons ají amarillo paste, as on its own page
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 80 g walnuts
• 50 g parmesan, grated
• 150 ml evaporated milk
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• salt and black pepper
• boiled potatoes, rice, boiled eggs and black olives, to serve

Method

1. THE BREAD IS SOAKED IN THE POACHING BROTH, not in milk. Six slices of stale white bread in a ladleful or two of the broth the chicken came out of, then blended. That is what makes the sauce taste of chicken all the way through rather than of bread and milk with chicken in it -- and it is the step most recipes replace with milk, which gives a paler, blander, slightly puddingy sauce. The milk still goes in, at the end, but it is not what the bread drinks.
2. THE BREAD IS STALE AND CRUSTLESS. Fresh bread turns to glue; crusts leave brown flecks that will not blend out.
3. THE CHICKEN IS POACHED AND SHREDDED BY HAND, along the grain, into long threads. Cut with a knife it comes out as cubes that sit in the sauce instead of being part of it. And it is poached on the bone, because the bones are what make the broth worth soaking bread in.
4. THE SAUCE IS BLENDED AND THEN COOKED OUT. Blended smooth, returned to the pan, and simmered ten minutes until it thickens and a spoon drawn through the base leaves a channel. Served straight from the blender it tastes raw and floury.
5. AND THE CHICKEN GOES BACK IN AT THE VERY END, off the heat. Simmered in the sauce it dries out and shreds to threads that disappear.
6. IT SHOULD BE THICK ENOUGH TO HOLD A LINE ON THE PLATE. This is not a curry or a stew; it sits on rice beside a potato and keeps its shape.
7. Chicken simmered in the water with the halved onion and bay 35 minutes until cooked through. Skimmed as foam rises.
8. Lifted out and cooled enough to handle. The broth strained and kept.
9. The meat pulled off the bones and SHREDDED BY HAND along the grain.
10. The bread torn up and soaked in 300 ml of the warm broth 10 minutes.
11. The oil heated in a wide pan. The chopped onions cooked 10 minutes until soft and translucent, then the garlic 1 minute.
12. The ají amarillo paste made as on its own page added and fried 3 MINUTES, stirred, until it darkens slightly and smells sweet.
13. That mixture blended with the soaked bread and its broth and the walnuts, until completely smooth.
14. Returned to the pan and simmered 10 MINUTES, stirred, until thick. The parmesan and evaporated milk stirred in. Seasoned.
15. THE CHICKEN FOLDED IN OFF THE HEAT and warmed through 1 minute. Served over rice with a boiled potato, egg quarters and olives.

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 Peru · All recipes