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Recipe: Escabeche de pollo
Escabeche de pollo belongs to a family of dishes with Spanish influence in which the main ingredient is marinated in acid, usually vinegar. In Perú, escabeche dishes contain thick slices of red onion, vinegar and Peruvian chillies, either amarillo, panca or both. Escabeche de pollo (chicken escabeche) is usually served at room temperature with boiled potatoes or sweet potatoes and/or rice. When I was growing up, it was a common dish to serve at parties (a party in Perú is not a party if there’s no dancing and no food).
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Recipe: Salpicón de pollo (Peruvian chicken salad)
Salpicón de pollo is a salad with chicken, cooked vegetables and mayonnaise commonly found in many Latin American countries. In Perú it’s often served as an entrée but it makes a wonderful main meal particularly during warmer months. This recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free. It keeps well in the fridge for a few days, especially if you dress it just before eating. On that note, I recommend you make your own mayonnaise (it’s super easy!) because most commercial ones are made with less-than-ideal ingredients.
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Recipe: BBQ chicken drumettes with coleslaw
Chicken drumettes are the fleshy part of chicken wings. You can use it in place of regular wings any dish, for example these BBQ chicken drumettes with coleslaw. The recipe features a quick BBQ sauce that doesn’t need cooking or blending. In addition, it is lower in sugar than regular BBQ sauce if you can get your hands on a sugar-free ketchup (I used this brand). The coleslaw dressing is not made with mayonnaise, but with either kefir or buttermilk. Buttermilk is the classic choice but I prefer the tanginess of kefir. Either way, the dressing is light and great for summer. You can make this recipe as a main…
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Recipe: Asian baked chicken wings
I realise Asian baked chicken wings is not a very descriptive dish name but bear with me. This recipe was inspired by a Peruvian dish called “chicharrón de pollo”. As you may or may not know, there has been a large influx of Chinese migrants in Perú, particularly between the late 1800s and the early 1900s. I tweaked the recipe to use chicken wings instead of breast and baked instead of fried. The wings have enough fat (and there’s a bit of sesame oil in the marinade) so they don’t need to be fried. Serve it with steamed or stir-fried vegetables of your choice.
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Recipe: Tallarín saltado de pollo (Peruvian stir-fried noodles with chicken)
Let me introduce you to lomo saltado‘s cousin, tallarín saltado de pollo. Both dishes came to life thanks to the fusion that happened due to the large influx of Cantonese people in Perú between mid 1800s and early 1900s. They share the same core ingredients: beef, tomato, red onion, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, with the main difference being the starch: rice and potato chips in the case of lomo saltado and noodles in the case of tallarín saltado. Yes, I know I said one of the core ingredients of tallarín saltado is beef, but this recipe has chicken in it. This is a fairly common variant and is the one…
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Recipe: Estofado de pollo (Peruvian chicken stew)
Estofado de pollo is one of those dishes that I used to hate as a kid and now I crave when homesickness kicks in. I think the main reason I dreaded it was that my mum or aunties cooked it too often. I think mum has forgotten my aversion to estofado because she didn’t tease me when I asked for her recipe last time I spoke to her. Turns out that her recipe is simpler than what I imagined, and I managed to make it taste virtually the same. Except that now I like it 🙂
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Recipe: Fragrant roasted chicken with cinnamon pumpkin and broccolini
I’ve been using this awesome recipe for roasting chicken for the past few months. It’s simple and fool-proof, and it gives you the flexibility of using any spices you want. I often use a mix of rosemary and sage salts or a mix of rosemary and lemon salts. This time I used a mix of Moroccan spices and paired it up with cinnamon-y pumpkin and broccolini. Delicious!
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Recipe: Chicken and mussel aguadito with cauliflower rice
Aguadito is a typical Peruvian soup. It means something like “soggy”, not a very appealing name, but it describes the dish perfectly: in essence it’s a watered-down version of arroz con pollo. I’m convinced that one of the reasons there aren’t too many obese people in Perú is that we tend to eat more home-cooked meals. Parties are no exceptions, and it’s not uncommon that the brave people who stay until the next morning are rewarded with a bowl of aguadito. For the record, I’m lame and tend to bail fairly early from parties, so I’ve never enjoyed a bowl of “morning after” aguadito. Aguadito is often made with chicken…
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Recipe: Gluten-free chicken schnitzel and spinach mash
In Perú, chicken schnitzel = milanesa de pollo, which is different from the suprema de pollo because it’s made with a breast fillet instead of a leg/thigh fillet. I’ve always liked the milanesa better. The traditional way of eating it is with rice and chips. I prefer mine with mash, puré de espinaca (spinach mash) to be precise, a regular potato mash mixed with cooked spinach. For this recipe, I made a celeriac version that turned out great.
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Recipe: Gluten and dairy-free ají de gallina in the slow cooker
This is my first attempt to make a gluten and dairy-free version of the classic Peruvian dish ají de gallina (I posted a more traditional recipe here). Considering the original version contains bread, milk (evaporated!), and Parmesan cheese, this wasn’t an easy task. I used pecan meal instead of bread, coconut cream instead of milk and celery salt to compensate for the lack of the Parmesan’s umaminess. The result was good, obviously not as good as to fool someone who has tried the real deal, but hopefully, I’ll get there eventually.
