One of my favorite Guatemalan dishes, Pepian is full of rich, earthy flavors, colorful spices and aromas. It’s similar to Mexican moles but does not include chocolate.

The recipe looks complicated but it is relatively easy to make as long as you have all the ingredients. I have most of them always available in my pantry but you can find them in most grocery stores.

Pepian can be made with different meats including chicken, pork, or beef, or even keep it vegetarian. When I make it with chicken I like to use the whole bird with the bones as it adds more flavor. For pork-based, then something like the pork shoulder works really well. My favorite, even though I didn’t make it this time is with Beef short ribs.

The first thing you want to do is prepare and cook your meat. For Chicken Pepian you start with placing pieces of chicken in a cold pot of water, add 4-5 clothes of garlic, half an onion, some spices like oregano, thyme, bayleaf, black peppercorns, and a teaspoon of salt.

Cook on medium heat for about 30 minutes to develop flavor in the soup.

Separately, in a preheated cast-iron skillet, without oil, you can blacken the chilies, onion, garlic, cloves, tomatoes, miltomates (tomatillos), sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds. Do not crowd, if you have more pans, then use them. You want hot, dry and blackened surfaces. The chilies may begin to smoke and cause you to cough, so watch them from smoking.

Some recipes called for toasting tortillas, or day-old bread, this is optional, but it helps to thicken the sauce and adds some more flavor.

Once your seeds are toasted, set them aside and let them cool. You don’t want to burn them. Set aside the rest of the ingredients and let them cool too.

When your chicken is fully cooked remove it from the liquid and either use a colander to remove your herbs, onions and garlic or you can just pull them out with tongs.

Using a blender or a hand blender combine all the blackened ingredients with a little broth and puree until the smooth.

Once you have a smooth purée, at that point, you can add fresh cilantro and blend that too.

Prepare the vegetables: cut the chayote squash and potatoes into 1/8ths. Trim the ends off the green beans.

You can cook the vegetables separately in boiling water, in separate batches to cook evenly, or you can add directly to the pepian sauce. I would just start with potatoes first, after 5 minutes add chayote and green beans 10 minutes before serving so they don’t overcook.

Return the cooked chicken back to the pot and let it simmer again in the sauce for another 20-30 minutes on low with the vegetables, so the flavors really develop and your pepian reduces a little. Try to avoid adding salt as it will get saltier as your sauce reduces. Best to add salt at the end to taste.

Finally serve your Pepian in a bowl with a side of rice and tortillas. You can decorate it with a few of the sesame seeds and cilantro to give it color

if you like your food spicy I recommend habanero sauce or jalapeños so you don’t change the flavor too much

Pepian can be made a day in advance and can also be frozen. Enjoy!

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Ingredients

Serves 8

For the soup base:

4 pound whole chicken, cut into quarters or your choice of dark or white meat.

One small or half a large white onion

Four cloves of garlic

Three sprigs of fresh thyme or a teaspoon of dried thyme

One Bayleaf

Two twigs of fresh oregano or a teaspoon of dried oregano

Six peppercorns or a few cracks of black pepper

4 cups of water or just enough to cover the chicken in a small 8 quart pot

For the spice mix

Two chilis pasilla

Two chilis Guajillo

Four cloves buds

One white onion

Six cloves of garlic

1/8 cup of sesame seeds

1/8 cup of pumpkin seeds

Optional half stick of cinnamon or a dash of ground cinnamon after you blend the other spices

Two corn tortillas or a slice of old bread

Six plum tomatoes

Three green tomatoes

Vegetables

One chayote squash

3 Yukon Gold potatoes

Two handfuls of green beans