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Recipe for Aji de Gallina (Peruvian yellow pepper chicken stew)

Although Peruvian cuisine is largely known for seafood this dish is an underrated star of our cuisine. Aji de gallina, literally translated as 'pepper of hen' is an awesome and unique Peruvian dish. I am unaware of anything like it.  For this reason, I have researched the history of this dish but only found very little that is consistent aside from the fact that it is of Peruvian origin. One of the most interesting origin stories I encountered was that during French revolution many chefs that cooked for the French royalty fled France for the Americas, often to wealthy colonial families.  One such chef, while working for a family in Lima, concocted this delicious dish. Growing up when I was a little kid in Peru this was my absolute favorite dish and I am excited to share how to make aji de gallina (pronounced ahee de gayina).  I hope our friend Brian, who was very anxious for this recipe, will appreciate it! 

I should mention that while this dish requires several steps it is straight forward to have these going on parallel (such as the boiling, chopping, shredding at the same time).  Accordingly, the sequence of steps presented here allows for an efficient use of time. I suggest reading through them before starting to get a sense of how the multi-tasking will take place. Enjoy.

Recipe Ingredients:

4 cups of chicken broth

2 lbs of chicken (2 full chicken breasts)

2.5 medium red onions, roughly chopped

¼ cup vegetable oil + 1 tbs oil

4 cloves of garlic, minced

3 tbs aji amarrillo (yellow pepper) paste

1 2/3 cups crumbs (crushed saltines* or plain bread crumbs)

4 cups whole milk (or evaporated milk)

1 ½ cups grated parmesan cheese

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ cup ground walnuts (optional)

2 large russet potatoes

2 eggs

2 cups of rice

Salt to taste

Serves: 6-8

 * one sleeve of saltines makes about this amount, see below.

Step 1: You start with  fresh chicken breasts. Bring four cups of chicken broth to boil in a large pot; add in chicken and boil until fully cooked (approximately 20 minutes). 

Step 2: While the chicken is boiling, rough chop the onion and mince the garlic. To mince garlic, you can either do it by hand or use a handy garlic press . If mincing by hand, peel the clove, then press down firmly on each clove with the side of your knife to flatten the clove. Then, finely chop the cloves.

Step 3: By this time the chicken should be almost done or finished boiling. Once cooked, remove chicken from broth and place it in either clean cutting board or plate so that it gets cool enough to handle. Meanwhile, after having removed the  chicken, drain the pot, setting aside the broth in which the chicken was boiled to use for later.

Step 4: Heat the emptied pot in which the chicken cooked on high for 15 seconds and then add ¼ cup vegetable oil and onion and heat over medium high heat. By adding the onion in at the same time as the oil, you avoid splashing yourself with hot oil later. Once the onion starts to sweat (around 5 minutes), add 4 cloves of minced garlic and reduce heat to medium. Heat the onion and garlic over medium heat, and stir periodically with a wooden or plastic spoon so as not to scratch the bottom of the pan.

 Step 5: By this time, the chicken should be cool enough to handle, so you can begin shredding the chicken. Personally, I shred the chicken by hand into medium sized pieces. Another way to do this is with two forks, but I find that using my hands is quicker.  A trick I sometimes use to make shredding the chicken easier is, instead of boiling the chicken, to use a pressure cooker to cook the chicken to the point where it starts to fall apart. With the chicken cooked to that extent, you hardly have to shred it on your own. Be careful not to overcook in the pressure cooker though!

 

 

Step 6: About a third of the way through the shredding, you should check in on the onion and garlic and stir. Also at this point, pour in 3 tbs of aji amarillo (Peruvian yellow pepper) paste. Keep in mind this pepper is very hot, but part of the flavor profile of this dish is that it is supposed to be spicy. The aji amarillo (yellow pepper) is also what gives this dish its vibrant yellow color. The reason you add in the yellow pepper at this point is to let it cook and release the essential oils so that the flavors can meld together.   As you continue to shred the chicken, make sure you periodically check in on the onion, garlic, and aji amarrillo saute. 

Step 7: Once the chicken is shredded, gradually add it to the pot with the onion, garlic, yellow pepper mixture. After the chicken is added, there should be significantly more chicken than onions. Also add in four cups of the broth that you had set aside after boiling the chicken and stir together all ingredients. Increase heat to medium high to bring mixture to a boil.

Step 8: While pot is coming to a boil, crush the saltines (about a full sleeve of crackers), if you are using them for your crumbs. This dish requires bread or similar types of crumbs- you can use unflavored bread crumbs or saltines.  If you are using saltines, simply crush the crackers in your hand into a bowl.

Step 9: After crushing the saltines, the chicken mixture should be boiling or almost boiling. Wait until it’s at a rolling boil, and then begin to add in 1 2/3 cups cracker crumbs

Step 10: Immediately after you throw the crumbs in, add in 4 cups of whole milk little by little and stir thoroughly. (You could also use evaporated milk or a combination of evaporated and whole milk. From experience, I do not recommend using reduced fat or skim milk, as it will not result in a creamy final dish). 

Step 11: Let the mixture heat to a low boil. Once at a low boil, add 1 ½ cup of grated parmesan cheese and stir thoroughly. Use this instead of hard, shredded parmesan cheese, as it will blend better. Also at this point add ¼ tsp ground black pepper and (optionally) add ¼ cup crushed walnuts or almonds. Stir thoroughly. Reduce heat to low and cook for about 20 minutes (or longer, if you wish), stirring periodically so that the mixture does not stick to the bottom of the pan. The idea here is that the mixture needs to cook together so that all of the different ingredients blend together for a unified dish. You’ll know it’s done when the parmesan, onions, crumbs, and milk have become one thick, creamy sauce. 

 Step 12a: While the creamy mixture of chicken is simmering, peel the potatoes (with vegetable peeler works best) and place peeled potatoes and eggs in water in a medium saucepan.  Add room temperature water and boil for 10-15 minutes until the potatoes are tender. NOTE: it is critical that you do not overcook the russet potatoes since they will fall apart.  As soon as the potatoes begin to feel tender almost to the center turn off the burner since they will continue to cook once removed from the heat. To test for the tenderness I usually poke them with wooden skewer. When in a bind I will use a fork. After the burner turned off carefully drain the hot water and fill the sauce pan with cool water from the sink to allow the eggs and potatoes to cool. Once cooled enough to handle, cut the potatoes into about 1/4 inch rings and peel eggs and cut into quarters.  

 Step 12b: Once the potatoes and eggs are left to boil begin making two cups of rice. To cook the rice see our 'how to cook rice' blog entry here. 

Step 13: By the time the you are done with preparing the potatoes and eggs and the rice is done cooking the chicken mixture should be ready. What you are looking for is a mostly smooth texture. 

Depending on the broth that you use, you may want to add some extra salt at this point(to taste). Now you are ready to assemble the dish! First begin by placing a bout 1/2 a cup of rice on a plate along with 2-4 rings of potato (depending on size of rings).

Next, place about one or two ladle-fulls of the chicken pepper mixture over potatoes. Finally, place quarter egg on one side. This dish is typically garnished with a black olive on the side. Happy eating!