Aji de Gallina is a traditional Peruvian dish that we grew up eating at my cousins' house in Dallas. I always loved it, but never tackled the recipe myself- until today. It turned out to be pretty easy. And came out delicious. The hardest part was combining the 3 different recipes that I was given, and translating both the language and the foreign measurements (like kilos). The simplified version is below. Happy eating!
Note: I ordered the aji paste from a gourmet foods site online (which is really second best to using the real aji peppers).
Aji de Gallina
Ingredients:
-
4 chicken breasts
-
2.5 yellow onions
-
1 large box of chicken broth (32 oz)
-
4 garlic cloves
-
4 slices of white bread, with out crust
-
2 cups of chopped walnuts
-
2 cups of shredded parmesan cheese
-
1 can of evaporated milk
-
aji paste (to taste)
- 4 russet potatoes, boiled and chopped - optional
Directions:
-
boil chicken breasts in chicken broth with salt
and 1/2 quartered onion
-
Once chicken is cooked, remove from liquid and
set aside to cool
-
Shred chicken thickly, and set aside
-
In a separate bowl, shred bread and allow to
soak up a bit of chicken broth
-
Finely chop 2 cups of walnuts in a food
processor. Set aside.
-
In a skillet, heat oil
-
To skillet add 2 onions chopped and 4 pressed
garlic gloves
-
Once onions are translucent, add aji paste to
taste (start with 1 spoonful; I used 6)
-
Once onion and aji mixer has cooled, blend in food
processer
-
Add soggy bread to processor and blend as well
-
In a skillet over low heat, add shredded
chicken, can of evaporated milk, parmesan cheese, chopped walnuts, and onion &
bread mixture (add optional potatoes here too)
-
Once all ingredients are blended together, taste
and add more aji paste if necessary
-
Season to taste (for more heat, I decided to add
a bit of cayenne pepper)
-
Traditionally, this dish is served over rice,
with chopped hard boiled eggs and olives sprinkled on top (I never liked those
toppings, so feel free to skip)
