There is a difference between Mexican street food and Mexican cuisine. Mexican street food is simple, and tends to be quick bites—something you can eat on the go like Grilled Carne Asada Street Tacos. Mexican cuisine, on the other hand, takes a bit longer to make and is more complex. Chiles en Nogada is a perfect example of Mexican cuisine, and it happens to be one of my favorite dishes.
The Flavors
Chiles en Nogada combines a wide range of flavors. You get a deep, pork flavor studded with the the rich spices of clove and cinnamon. There is the sweetness of the fresh peach and pear, as well as the sweetness of the candied fruit. This is followed by the creamy, nutty taste of the nogada, surrounded by deep smokiness of the chile. Chiles en Nogada is not a spicy dish, but if you left a few seeds in, you might also get a spicy bite.
A Seasonal Dish
In Mexico, Chiles en Nogada is served in mid-September around Mexican Independence day. In the U.S., however, it’s usually on the menu of most Mexican restaurants year round. It looks seasonal and festive enough for the yuletide season. Most of the fruits used are still seasonal at this time but if they aren’t you can used jarred or canned fruit.
The Chile
Chiles en Nogada is made with poblano chiles. Poblanos are a mild chile, dark green in color and about the size of your hand. The tops are wide and generally are narrow the further down the chile so that they are roughly triangle shaped. They are frequently mislabelled as pasilla chiles, which is how they were labelled at my local grocery store. Regardless of the name, just visually inspect the chile. If it roughly matches the shape, and looks big enough to stuff, you most likely have a poblano. Find out more on this website on poblano peppers.
The Nogada
Besides the chiles, the main signature flavor and appearance of the dish comes from the nogada (walnut sauce). It’s important to peel the bitter walnut skin off the walnut meat for the nogada to be perfectly creamy and nutty. This process is easier with bigger pieces of walnut. I recommend you get the largest pieces of walnut you can. Fresh walnuts are easier to work with. Do not try this with prepackaged chopped walnut pieces.
To loosen the skin, pour boiling water over the walnut meat. Let it sit for a few minutes or so, then drain the water and start peeling of the skins by hand. I sat down at the kitchen table to do this with my daughters, which made this tedious process a bit more enjoyable. Peel the skins off, then let the walnut meat soak in a bit of milk overnight.
The next day before serving, drain the milk, then combine the walnuts with Mexican crema, farmers cheese, a bit of sugar and cinnamon, and a piece of crustless, white bread. Blend together and you’ll have your nogada sauce. (The photo below is of the walnut meat soaking prior to combining with all the ingredients.)
The Picadillo
Picadillo means “hash” and that is exactly what the meat filling is—a hash of pork, nuts, spices, and fruits.
This dish uses about three pounds of pork shoulder butt. Start making this dish by cooking the meat the night before. The photo below shows the sizes of chunks I cut the meat into prior to boiling it.
Once all that meat is simmered and cooked in water (about an hour or until the meat is somewhat tender), remove the meat and let the broth cool overnight.
Next morning, skim the fat off the top of the broth, and use it for frying the meat.
My tip…get out all the ingredients ahead of time and prepare them before you start cooking them. In the photo below, the fat is ready in the skillet, and all the ingredients are chopped and prepared to add.
Whole peppercorns and whole clove need to be crushed and ground down to add to the picadillo. Grinding and crushing them down releases fresh oils and is more flavorful. I used mortar and pestle for this step. You can optionally use a coffee grinder or spice grinder. In a pinch, you can also use pre-ground spices.
Roasted Chiles
I recommend roasting all the peppers first, before making the picadillo. This will give them time to cool off while you’re making the picadillo. Then, while the picadillo is simmering on the backburner, prepare the peppers. Remove the charred skins, stems and seeds, and place them on a baking sheet. Once they are prepared, you can stuff them and then set them aside in a warm oven until you are ready to serve.
When ready to serve, plate the chiles, pour the nogada sauce over, and top with fresh pomegranate seeds and Italian flat-leaf parsley.
Serving Sizes
In my experience, the preparation for the walnut sauce makes it too impractical to make this dish in smaller amounts, so I developed this recipe to create 12 Chiles en Nogada. The larger amounts make this more aligned with the celebratory dish it was intended to be. Estimate about one chile per person, and serve with rice, beans or both. This dish was a lot for my family of five! To use every bit of it, I roasted half the chiles (six) and served it. Then, I froze the picadillo, and later in the week, I roasted six more chiles, defrosted and reheated the picadillo, and served the rest. It was just as delicious. I did not freeze the walnut sauce, and I don’t recommend doing so. The pomegranate seeds were too delicate and didn’t last the week, so we skipped those.
In the better times to come, I hope to make it for friends and family when we can celebrate together again.
Chiles en Nogada
Equipment
- 6-quart Dutch oven
- blender or food processor
- mortar and pestle (or coffee grinder)
- large baking sheets
- 10-inch skillet
Ingredients
The Nogada (Walnut Sauce)
- 1/4 pound walnut halves (about 20-25 fresh walnuts)
- boiling water to cover
- 1/4 cup 1% milk to soak
- 1/4 pound farmer cheese
- 1 1/2 cup Mexican crema
- 1 small piece of white bread without the crust
- 1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 pinch ground cinnamon optional
The Picadillo (Hash)
- 3 pounds boneless pork shoulder butt
- 1/2 medium onion sliced
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and sliced
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- water to cover
- 2 tablespoons reserved fat (can use extra virgin olive oil instead)
- 1/2 medium onion chopped
- 5 whole cloves
- 8 whole peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt to taste
- 1/2 inch cinnamon stick
- 14 ounce canned whole, peeled tomatoes crushed
- 3 heaping tablespoons golden raisins
- 2 tablespoons almonds blanched and slivered
- 2 heaping tablespoons candied fruit (acitrón) chopped
- 1 pear peeled and diced
- 1 peach peeled and diced
The Chiles and Topper
- 12 chiles poblano roasted with skins, seeds, and stem removed
- 1 small bunch of Italian parsley chopped
- 1 cup pomegranate seeds You can buy the seeds separately, or extract them from one small pomegranate
Instructions
**Night Before**
Prepare the walnuts
- Cover the nuts with boiling water and leave them to soak for about 5 minutes.
- Remove the papery brown skins.
- When the skins are removed, place in a small bowl and cover with milk, and cover the container. Leave them to soak overnight.
Prepare the Pork
- Remove any extra fat from the meat and cut into large cubes (about 2 inches).
- Put them in a Dutch oven, add the onion, garlic, and salt, and cover with water.
- Over medium-high heat, bring the meat to a boil and then turn down the heat and let it simmer, about 40-45 minutes or until tender.
- Set aside the Dutch oven with the meat and let cool.
- When cooled, strain the meat and set it aside in a tupperware bowl for the next day (serving day). Note: If you want your pork to be shredded, shred it now while it is warm.
- (Optional.) If you want to use the fat from the broth, transfer broth from Dutch oven to a storage bowl. Next day, skim off the fat from the broth and place in small bowl for use with the picadillo. Save the broth for other future use by putting it in a gallon freezer bag and freezing.
**Serving Day**
Roast the Poblanos
- Turn the oven on the broil setting (550 degrees Fahrenheit) and place as many poblanos as will fit (about 6) on a large baking sheet. Put in oven on the top rack and broil until blackened, about 5 to 7 minutes.
- Take out and flip over, roasting the other side in the same way.
- Set first batch aside to cool. Repeat the whole process again for the next 6 poblanos.
Make the Picadillo
- Roughly crush the peppercorns and cloves with a mortar and pestle, and set aside.
- In a small, non-reactive bowl, mash up the canned, peeled whole tomatoes with a potato masher (or your hands!), and set aside.
- Chop up the cubed pork into smaller, diced pieces.
- In a skillet over medium-high heat, melt 2 tablespoons reserved lard (or use extra virgin olive oil) and cook the onion and garlic until soft and just translucent.
- Add the chopped pork and cook for about 10 minutes until it starts to crisp and look golden.
- Add the crushed peppercorns, cloves, ground cinnamon, salt, and cinnamon stick. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the mixture is combined and fragrant.
- Add the tomatoes to the mixture and continue cooking for about 10 minutes.
- Add the nuts and raisins and mix to combine.
- Add the chopped pear, peach, and candied fruits and cook for a few minutes more. Put the skillet on low heat on the backburner while making the rest of the food.
Make the Nogada
- Drain the walnuts and discard the milk.
- In a blender or food processor, add the milk, farmers cheese, Mexican crema, sugar, pinch of cinnamon, white bread (without crust), and walnuts.
- Blend all together until they are smooth and set aside.
Assemble
- Turn oven to warm temperature.
- Carefully remove the blackened skins from the cooled chiles, leaving the meat of the chile. Then, slice open the chili and remove the seeds, as well as the stem.
- (Optional.) Stuff the chiles with the picadillo and place on a separate baking sheet. When the chiles are stuffed place in a warm oven until ready to serve. NOTE: This step is to keep all the chiles warm until ready to serve.
- When ready to serve, plate chiles and pour the nogada over them to your liking.
- Garnish with pomegranate seeds and chopped Italian parsley and serve.
Notes
Recipe adapted from “The Cuisines of Mexico” by Diana Kennedy.
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