Ingredients:
3 dried chile ancho, de-seeded and de-veined (and de-stemmed, duh!).
4 small tomatoes, chopped.
1/3 of an onion, chopped.
A few pieces of cinnamon stick (look for Mexican canela, which is thinner and softer, otherwise, probably a 1 tsp. of ground cinnamon will do).
2 cloves of garlic.
1 tsp. dried thyme.
Salt to taste.
aprox. 1 cup hot water.
2-3 lbs. chicken, which or without bones.
Preparation
First, in a dry pan, brown the chile anchos–they’ll start to smell lovely but you don’t want them to burn, so flip them every minute or so. I left mine on the skillet for 4 or 5 minutes. When done, set them aside.
Using the same pan, add 1 Tbs. canola oil and sauté the tomatoes, onion, garlic, cinnamon, and thyme together for a few minutes.
In the blender, liquefy the sautéed mixture, the chile anchos, and about 1/2 cup of the hot water, for 1-2 minutes.
Now there are two ways to make it: on the stove or in the crock pot.
If you’re making it on the stove, add another tablespoon of canola oil in a pot. When it’s hot, drop the chicken pieces in and brown the chicken. Then pour the blended sauce over it and add salt to taste. Cook until the chicken is tender, adding hot water as needed if the sauce gets too thick. Probably this will require about an hour, or a little less.
With the crock pot, you simply set the chicken pieces inside, pour the sauce over it, add salt, put on the lid, and forget about for a few hours. (4 hours on high yielded very tender, falling off the bone chicken). Do stir it once every hour or two.
Pollo en asado goes well with rice, which you might want to make “Mexican-style” by frying the grains first with finely diced onion and tomato.
Recipe credit: Elba Martínez.
