Pepian recipe

Guatemala national dish, a Maya-Kaqchikel stew whose sauce is built entirely on dry-toasted pumpkin and sesame seeds ground with charred tomatoes and dried chiles.

1 hour and 40 minutesmedium12 ingredients

Ingredients

• 100 g pumpkin seeds
• 50 g sesame seeds
• 3 dried guaque chiles
• 2 dried pasa chiles
• 500 g tomatoes
• 250 g tomatillos
• 1000 g chicken
• 1 onion
• 4 clove garlic
• 1 corn tortilla
• 1 stick cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp salt

How to make Pepian

1. Simmer 1 kg of chicken pieces in salted water for 30 minutes and keep the broth; you will need about 1 litre of it.
2. Toast 50 g of pumpkin seeds and 50 g of sesame seeds in a dry hot pan until they pop and colour. This toasting is what makes a pepián rather than a generic stew.
3. In the same pan toast 3 guaque chiles and 2 pasa chiles a few seconds per side, seed them and soak them in hot water for 15 minutes.
4. Char 500 g of tomatoes, 250 g of tomatillos, 1 onion and 4 garlic cloves on a dry comal until the skins are blackened in places.
5. Toast 1 corn tortilla until it is almost burnt; it is what thickens the sauce.
6. Blend the seeds, chiles, charred vegetables, tortilla and 1 cinnamon stick with 500 ml of broth until completely smooth, then push it through a sieve.
7. Pour the recado into a pot and cook it 15 minutes until it darkens and thickens to the body of light cream.
8. Return the chicken, loosen with more broth, salt, and simmer 20 minutes more.
9. Serve with white rice and corn tortillas.

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