Chicken Pepitoria Recipe: Homemade, Easy & Tasty 🍖

Ingredients

🍗 1 chicken, cut into pieces (1.7 kg.)
🧅 1 large onion
🥚 2 eggs
🧄 2 cloves of garlic
🍞 1 piece of bread
🌾 A few strands of saffron (about 5–6 strands)
🌰 15 almonds
🍷 1 glass (250 ml) of white wine (preferably Galician)
🥣 1 glass (250 ml) of chicken broth or water
🫒 100 ml of extra virgin olive oil
🧂 Salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)

If there is an absolutely traditional dish in the Spanish cookbook, it is the chicken pepitoria: a recipe with chicken embedded in tradition.

$It is a shame that we hardly find this stew in the daily recipe book anymore, let alone on restaurant menus… it is disappearing little by little. From the blog I want to give it the space it deserves and I have chosen the recipe that grandmother Pilar prepares for us many Saturdays at her house. I assure you that it is one of the most successful dishes, and that is with 18 of us giving our opinion.

There are a lot of chicken recipes on the blog , but this is perhaps one of the best. If you are passionate about this bird, you cannot miss preparing our classics, from chicken chilindrón , the helpful chicken with garlic , the delicious chicken a la jardinera , the successful roast chicken , the exotic chicken curry or those chicken croquettes , a super recipe for leftovers.

Although its origin is not very clear, it is suggested that it came from France, since the word “ petite oie ” (small goose) exists in Old French, which would be the precursor of the word. Others believe that it is more likely to have Hispano-Arabic origins, since it appears in their recipe books around the 13th century.

In its original recipe this stew was prepared with the traditional chicken , especially with old chicken that gives better broth. In the blog you can find the traditional recipe for chicken in pepitoria , some delicious chicken meatballs in sauce or chicken in pepitoria with mushrooms . Over time it was replaced by chicken, reducing cooking times and because it is less fibrous and juicier. I hope you like it, let me know. 

Preparation of Chicken in Pepitoria

1. We cut the chicken into pieces at home or ask the butcher to cut it for us when we buy it. We clean the pieces well of any traces of fat and remove the skin (except for the wings). In reality, removing the skin is optional, but I think it adds unnecessary excess fat to the dish. We season the pieces lightly with salt and pepper.
2. Brown the chicken in a pan with plenty of hot olive oil, turning the pieces from time to time so that they cook on all sides. Remove them from the pan and set aside.
3. While the chicken is browning, we will chop the onion and peel the garlic. We can use whole garlic cloves, just crushing them a little to release their flavour better, or add them to the casserole in pieces.
4. If you add them whole, they will be easier to locate and remove if someone would prefer not to find them. Remove the excess oil from the pan where you browned the chicken if necessary, leaving the equivalent of 3–4 tablespoons.
5. Add the chopped onion and garlic and fry everything for 10–15 minutes until soft. Using a wooden spoon, scrape off any bits that have stuck to the bottom of the chicken and brown it. This way, you can incorporate all of that caramelized essence into the stew.

Mashed to accompany the Chicken

1. To prepare the mash, toast the almonds in a small frying pan, always controlling the temperature so that they do not burn.
2. We cook the eggs for 15 minutes and reserve the yolks.
3. Lightly toast the saffron threads for a few minutes. You can also infuse them with a little hot water. Set aside.
4. In a small frying pan, add 2 tablespoons of the oil that we used to brown the chicken and add the bread cut into small pieces. Fry the bread until it is toasted, taking care not to burn it. Set aside.
5. Put the toasted bread, the cooked egg yolks, the toasted almonds and the saffron threads in a mortar. Crush everything until it becomes a paste.

Cooking and final presentation

1. With the onion and garlic ready, add the chicken, the mash that we have prepared and the glass of wine. Cook for a few minutes until the wine reduces and add the chicken broth or water.
2. Let it cook for 35–40 minutes depending on the type of chicken. Remember that you can prepare this recipe with free range chicken or hen. Although it will take longer to cook, as the meat is tougher. Keep tasting until you see that the chicken meat is tender.
3. Optionally, if you want to use the egg whites from the cooked eggs, you can chop them and add them on top of the chicken when serving.

More Chicken Recipes

Garlic Chicken Recipe  |   Andalusian Stew Recipe  |  Chicken Minced Meat Soup  |  Catalan Stew Recipe  |  Chicken Shawarma Recipe  |  Chicken Pepitoria Recipe  |  Chicken Döner Kebab Recipe  |  Chicken Stir-Fried Rice Recipe  |  Grandma’s Chicken Recipe  |  Chicken Mushroom Stew Recipe

Tips for a delicious chicken in pepitoria

• The good thing about this dish is that you can cook it in advance. The sauce settles overnight and the flavours intensify. Like most stews, it is even better than freshly made.
• According to the RAE, “ A stew made with all the edible parts of the bird, or only with the offal, and whose sauce contains egg yolk .”
• The process is based on the preparation of meat enriched with hard-boiled egg yolk, almonds, croutons in many cases, garlic and saffron as a seasoning.
• Rosa Bernal says that her mother added one or two chicken livers to the mixture. It helps to enhance the flavour of the sauce and bind the ingredients well. Although it is optional, it is usually included in the original recipe.

Chicken Pepitoria Recipe: Homemade & Easy 🍖