This classic Mexican recipe was featured in Marcela Valladolid‘s show on Food TV, Mexican Made Easy. It pairs a delicious sauce of cooked tomatillos and pumpkin seeds with boneless chicken breasts. I decided to adapt her recipe for sous-vide cooking, and was very happy with the outcome. The meat ended up perfectly cooked, not a hint of dryness. The sauce is simply to die for, if you are a vegetarian, skip the bird, but make the sauce. Roasted cauliflower would be amazing paired with a little pipian…
CHICKEN SOUS-VIDE WITH GREEN PIPIAN SAUCE
(adapted from Marcela’s Mexican Made Easy)
for the chicken:
4 boneless chicken breasts
4 little pats of butter (probably ok to skip it)
1 large lemon, sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
for the sauce:
1 + 1/4 cup green pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1 pound tomatillos, husked and rinsed
1 Serrano chile, stemmed
1/2 medium white onion, roughly chopped
1 + 1/2 cups chicken broth, warmed (I used a lot less)
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper, place them in sealable plastic bags, add a tiny pat of butter and a few slices of lemon over each breast. Seal the bags. Place in the water-bath set at 140 F for three hours.
While the chicken cooks, prepare the sauce (can be made a couple of days in advance). Preheat a large, heavy skillet over moderate heat until hot. Toast the pumpkin seeds, stirring constantly, until they have expanded and begin to pop, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the seeds to a plate to cool. Reserve 2 tablespoons for garnish.
In a medium, heavy saucepan, simmer the tomatillos, Serrano and onions in salted water to cover until the tomatillos turn a dark green color, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the tomatillos, Serrano and onions to a blender and puree with the chicken broth, cilantro, sugar and toasted pumpkin seeds until smooth (the sauce will be a little coarse). Season with salt and pepper.
To serve, slice the chicken crosswise on the bias. Transfer to a serving plate. Spoon the green pipian sauce on top and garnish with the reserved toasted pumpkin seeds.
ENJOY!
to print the recipe, click here
Comments: I am having a great time with my Anova sous-vide gadget. Most recipes I tried were big hits, a few disappointed me, but isn’t that true for any type of cooking? You cannot win them all. For boneless chicken breasts, it is hard to come up with a better cooking method. I included butter in the bag, but it would probably be just as nice and tender without it. With sous-vide, you will never get the beauty of grill marks or that copper, enticing tone that roasting or broiling would offer. But, in a recipe such as this one, in which the meat will be served under a sauce, the cosmetic aspect will be taken care of. Imagine a very delicately poached chicken, boosted with the flavor of a spicy sauce with the crunchy pepitas on top: Mexican heaven, in sous-vide form! No sous-vide around? Check Marcela’s original recipe using a regular oven. I am sure it will be amazing too…
ONE YEAR AGO: Classic Shrimp Gobernador Tacos (another Marcela Valladolid’s recipe!)
TWO YEARS AGO: A Walk Towards the Sunset
THREE YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen
FOUR YEARS AGO: Heavenly Home-made Fromage Blanc
FIVE YEARS AGO: A Perfect Sunday Dinner
Very clever!
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Glad you liked it…
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I can just imagine the creaminess added to the tomatillo sauce by the ground pumpkin seeds. Even without the sous-vide, it would be a delicious meal.
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Yes indeed…. the ground pumpkin seeds give this sauce a very unique texture and taste…
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I’m enjoying watching you master sous vide. I have no doubt you have mastered this and that this is delicious. The sauce sounds perfect and I love the thought of it over cauliflower. Enjoy the weekend Sally!
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Great weekend, even if the crane kicked my butt.. not sure what happened, I thought I was improving, but apparently the universe had a different path planned for me. That path did not involve the crane posture.. (sigh)
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I know you’ll get it! Miss A is working on it now too. 😉
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Can’t talk long.. have to go put pumpkin seeds on the grocery list!
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🙂 😉 😉
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Don’t cook sous-vide and, unfortunately, do not believe in this current rather popular method, but absolutely love the sauce and shall attempt soonest 🙂 !
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Sauce is great. Give it a try.
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A great way of cooking meat. That dish must taste wonderful and the chicken must be very moist.
Cheers,
Rosa
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Yes, it was super moist. Even leftovers next day were still very nice, although the texture was not as perfect.
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Am I the only one who didn’t get the temperature? ‘Place in a water-bath set at’ and then it fell off the Earth. I can sous vide small things in my Thermomix and I’m going to give this a try. It looks fantastic.
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big ooops… it was there in the beginning, I must have messed up something after posting. Anyway, it’s fixed… thanks for catching it! (the PDF version is ok)
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Wow! I love the idea of using those seeds to form the sauce. This looks so good, sweet lady!
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the sauce is a must-make, all the way! I am thinking that some grilled salmon would be superb with it too
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Ooh, now this is right up my alley!! I see tomatillos everywhere and I keep looking for a good excuse to use them :). Gorgeous combination of Mexican inspired ingredients in this sauce… and it sounds like the sous-vide really delivers – moist and juicy, just like we like it :). Can’t wait to try this Sally.
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Tomatillos are such amazing ingredients! I hope you have a chance to make this sauce….
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how fun and delicious. Love the crunch of the pumpkin seeds and the sauce looks divine. I could eat that by itself:) LOL!
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Totally agree! 😉
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I don’t think I’ll be going sous-vide anytime soon, Sally, but that sauce of yours is a different story. It sounds wonderful!
I’m still “missing” you and tried “unsubscribing/subscribing” again. I’ll know soon enough. Fingers crossed.
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I don’t think I am getting notifications of new posts by you either… frustrating!
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I’ve “found” you, Sally, and have started getting notifications of your posts again. I don’t know whether the “unsubscribing/subscribing” trick worked, it fixed itself, or the WP faeries were at work. You’re back now, though, and I’m very happy for it. 🙂
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I could take a bath in that sauce….YUM! I too am having fun with my ANOVA, made a rib-eye with mine last night that was sublime, a perfect M-Rare at 131 degrees.
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