Pipián verde fácil ("Easy" Pumpkin Seed Mole)

Pipián is a kind of mole that is made with a thickening base of a hulled pumpkin seeds (pepitas). though in Mexico City I knew it as made with peanuts. I call this recipe "easy" because it requires a lot less work than other pipiánes or moles: you basically put all the flavor ingredients in a blender, fry the sauce, add liquid and heat until thick. This is my go-to recipe when I need to cook something delicious with the minimum amount of work.

Whether to call this mole or not (Mexicans would not, but it is in the same category) is a matter of opinion. Moles usually have a combination of seeds, and the more complex ones (like mole poblano, the mole most people think of) have many more ingredients, but the same base of seeds to thicken the sauce.

The recipe comes from Diana Kennedy. I happen to catch her show (the one and only time), and she was making this dish. She used shrimp instead of chicken, and she identified the unusual way of making pipián from the north-western state of Tamaulipas.

Ingredients

1 cup of hulled, raw pumpkin seeds

1 cup chicken broth

2 thick slices from a medium onion

a handful of cilantro, without the thick stems (2-3 sprigs)

1 to 3 fresh serrano peppers, or 1 or 2 fresh jalapeño peppers

½ cup whipping cream

1 tbsp butter

2- chicken breasts, halved

½ cup white flour

1 tsp paprika

½ tsp pepper

½ tsp salt

Toast the pumpkin seeds on a skillet until you can barely touch them, before they change color. Set aside to cool. (See note.)

Mix the paprika, pepper and salt into the flour. Cover the chicken breasts with the flour mixture, shaking off excess flour, and sautée them on a pan with about ¼" of oil. Make sure all the surface of the breast is cooked. Set the breasts aside.

In a blender, puré together the pumpkin seeds, onion, coriander and fresh peppers with enough water to release the blades. Blend as thoroughly as possible.

In low heat in a pan big enough for the chicken, melt the butter in medium-low heat and do not let it turn brown. Fry the pumpkin seed sauce in the butter until it thickens, about 10 minutes. Add the broth and turn the heat up to medium. Heat the sauce for about 20 minutes, until it starts to look like it separated. Add the cream, check seasoning, then add the chicken and heat for another 10 minutes.

Mexican white rice and tortillas go well with this dish.

Notes

This dish really benefits from being cooked the day before, as it seasons as time goes by.

If you would rather make this dish with shrimp, take enough shrimp for 4-6 people, heads and shells on, and poach in the stock, at low heat, until they start to take color. Take them out and peel, take the head off and devein them. The shrimp will finish cooking with the sauce--just take care not to overcook them.

You make the dish even easier to cook by getting the pumpkin seeds already toasted (without salt), although this would change the taste slightly, but the result would still be good.:

It is not absolutely necessary to sear the chicken before cooking it. You could make the dish easier also by poaching the chicken in the sauce, adding it after the cream, then let it cook in the sauce until it is done. You have to be very careful, because overcooking the chicken will make it tough and dry. I like searing the chicken because then I don't have to be precise in heating, and the chicken stays tender through reheating.

You can control the heat by the amount of fresh peppers you add, or even by removing the seeds. You don't have to have fresh peppers at all; in fact, the original recipe didn't have them. I prefer to add a bit of piquancy, besides adding heat, the chiles add a nice, fresh flavor. You could also used pickled jalapeños, in a pinch.

You can make ahead the sauce up to adding the cream. You would then heat the sauce for 10 minutes without the chicken. Cool the sauce to put in the fridge. If you're going to sear the chicken, do so and add it to the cool sauce before putting it in the fridge. Before serving, take the pipián out of the fridge, let it stand for about 30 minutes to come to room temperature, then heat it and wait until the pipián is bubbling, simmer the chicken for about 10 minutes. If you're going to poach the chicken, have the sauce hot before adding the chicken and let it poach until tender and juicy.

There are versions of this pipián without the cream (in which case the sauce is more rustic), and in central Mexico it is made with tomato and peanuts. There are also other Latin American versions with different ways of making it.

Thanks Mela Pascoe for the editing work.