First, know this: Gallina Pinta, the recipe under consideration here, translates from Spanish to English as “painted chicken.”
Now consider this: Gallina Pinta, a traditional stew from Sonora, the northwestern Mexican mainland state bordering the U.S. Southwest, is an anomaly in that it’s a traditional recipe featuring not only pozole (the ancient corn product also known as hominy), but also beans, in this case pintos. That makes my culinary heart flutter.
Gallina Pinta is an anomaly on another front: It is the rare pozole dish that features beef — shanks and oxtails — NOT the usual pork or chicken you usually find in representative pozole recipes.
That’s right: There’s absolutely NO chicken in this dish known locally and colloquially as “painted chicken.” (The common, less-than-convincing explanation suggests that the finished preparation resembles a colorful generic chicken dish on the plate, this likeness not immediately apparent to even a casual observer.)
So as not to participate in further deception, neither is the recipe offered here in any way an “authentic” Sonoran version of the dish.
My first by-the-book attempts yielded underwhelming results based on the promise of the combination of ingredients. The beef shanks and oxtails were, even to a confirmed carnivore, a bit heavy, and the first substitution was cubed beef chuck, a typical cut for stew.
I did include some oxtails, which have a high fat content and provide a lot of gelatinous beef tastiness, but they’re not everyone’s “cup of meat” (to purloin a Bob Dylan lyric) and are expensive and, to my mind, strictly optional.
The stew itself also seemed a bit under-spiced, compared to other pozole recipes. That was easily corrected by a judicious addition of ground cumin and chile powder, which consists of pure ground chiles, as opposed to chili powder, which is a blend of chile powder and other spices.
Ancho chile powder was my first choice; chipotle would have been second, with just a little making a big difference and working nicely with the blended tomato, onion, garlic and chile “salsa” added near the end of cooking.
It’s not a particularly fiery stew in any case. Neither the slow-cooked Anaheim chile nor the pureed one in the salsa provide an inordinate amount of heat, and the dried spices offer the opportunity to adjust it to your taste.
Vegetarians, please take note: The initial attraction of this recipe for me had always been in the bean-pozole combo, and I am 100 percent certain that this would be a great addition to the vegetable-forward canon without any meat.
This is especially true considering the suggested garnishes, which are as much a necessity to the dish as an afterthought and provide welcomed texture, flavor and freshness that complements the long-cooked stew. And, as has been said about this feature, when it comes to pozole, it’s best to put your salad in the same bowl.
As for that painted chicken, there’s just no fooling the eye — or the tongue.
Gallina Pinta
- 1 cup dried white pozole, soaked overnight (makes about 3-4 cups cooked)
- 1 cup dried pinto beans, soaked overnight (makes about 2-3 cups cooked)
- 2 large white onions, 1 peeled and halved; 1 chopped in a rough dice
- 1½ pounds cubed beef
- (Optional: 1/2 to 1 pound oxtail)
- 1 whole head of garlic, top 1/4 sliced off, plus 2 to 3 whole cloves, peeled
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon good chile powder (Ancho or chipotle or a blend, not chili powder)
- 6 cups beef stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 medium Anaheim peppers (substitute poblano or cubanelle)
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro, tied with kitchen twine
- 3 Roma tomatoes
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano (or Oregano Indio)
- Garnishes: Shredded green or red cabbage, chopped fresh cilantro, diced red or white onion, seeded and diced tomatoes, thin sliced radishes, diced ripe avocado and dried flaked chiltepín chiles (substitute minced serrano or habanero peppers). Lime wedges for serving.
Serves 6-8
1. Up to a day in advance, prepare the pintos. Cook as you would any other dried bean until done — but not mushy. Drain and reserve the beans in some of their liquid (refrigerate if overnight). Cook the pozole: Bring 16 cups water to a boil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the pozole and half of the chopped white onion. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes, lower heat and simmer 1 to 2 hours (adding 1 tablespoon salt after an hour), adding water as necessary to keep covered by 1 to 2 inches until the kernels begin to “pop” (or “blossom”). Drain and reserve in its own broth (or refrigerate if overnight).
2. To cook the beef and assemble the Gallina Pinta: In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat 3 to 4 tablespoons oil over medium; brown the beef (and oxtails, if using). Remove and reserve the meat. Add the other 1/2 diced onion and cook until translucent. Add the cumin and chili powder; stir to mix and sweat the spices for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the beef stock and bring to a low boil. Add other ½ onion, one whole Anaheim (or substitute) chile, the garlic head, bay leaves and the tied bunch of cilantro. Return meat to the pot; cover and cook over medium heat until tender, 1 to 1½ hours.
3. Remove onion halves, whole chile, whole garlic, bay leaves and bunched cilantro. Discard. Add reserved and drained beans. (Reserve the soaking liquid to add if needed.) Bring to a steady simmer making sure the meat and beans are covered by an inch or so, adding bean liquid or water as necessary.
4. Meanwhile, stem, seed and roughly chop the remaining chile and tomatoes. In a blender, combine the chile, tomatoes, remaining onion half, 2 garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper and 1 cup of the broth from the beef and bean stew. Blend until smooth.
5. After about 30 minutes, add blended salsa and oregano to the pot. Bring all to a simmer again, add drained pozole and cook for another 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve in individual bowls with garnishes of choice and finish with a squeeze or two of lime.
