This month’s recipe comes from Na’atik’s incredible homestay: the Tus Ku family. The wonderful Doña Maria showed us how to make her family’s favorite: Escabeche de Pollo. Escabeche is a marinated chicken dish served with onions pickled in the juice of bitter oranges, which is common here in the Yucatan. Ingredients:

• Roasted/charred whole bulb of garlic - skin on

• Roasted/charred chile xcatik (of the Yucatan) -  alternatively you can use a guero pepper or a yellow wax pepper

• Roasted/charred chile dulce or green pepper

• 6 large pieces of chicken, Maria uses leg or thigh

• 3 large white onions sliced

• 6 bitter oranges - or alternatively 6 juicy limes

• 4 cloves of garlic

• 4 leaves of dried oregano

• Cinnamon

• Salt

• Black pepper

• 1 red onion sliced

• Water

Method:

• Clean the chicken

• Prepare a paste using a teaspoon of pepper, the garlic cloves, oregano, a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a pinch of salt using a pestle and mortar - Maria uses dry oregano leaves from her garden to prepare the paste, which they call recado 

• Mix the juice of 3 bitter oranges with the paste, add more salt if required

• Marinate each piece of chicken with the juice by pouring it over and massaging it in before placing it in a large flat bottomed pot

• Layer with the sliced onion and put the roasted garlic, chile xcatik and chile dulce on top

• Pour water gently over the chicken so it just covers the chicken, enough so when cooked it makes a broth - you can add more water while it cooks if required

• Cook on the stove for an hour and a half on a medium-low flame. Cover with a lid

• While waiting for the chicken to cook, prepare the pickled red onion garnish or have a little snack if you're hungry like Doña Maria's little helper!

• Slice 1 red onion and place in a bowl. Cover the onion with boiling water and cover with a plate for 10 minutes

• Drain the water from the onion and add the juice of 3 bitter oranges and salt to taste and mix well

• Once the chicken, is cooked dish up into shallow bowls with plenty of the broth from the pot

• Serve with tortillas and enjoy!

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The best way to experience the Mexican lifestyle is in person, with a Na’atik Immersion experience. Not only do you live with a local Mexican-Maya family, sharing home-cooked meals and free time, but also receive expert instruction in your chosen language at our school. Best of all, every immersion experience helps fund our subsidized and free local education program, helping local students to access opportunities and make their own futures.