Baked Chicken with Pecans
Pechugas de Pollo con PacanasIn this dish, chicken breasts are baked with a thick sauce made of pecans, tomatoes, and spices. Serve the chicken with rice. For a special meal, start with Hearts of Palm Soup.
Ingredients
Makes 4 servings
- 1 large poblano chile roasted and peeled
- 4 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper or to taste
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano Mexican variety preferred, crumbled
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- 2 1⁄2-inch thick slices baguette bread
- ½ cup pecan pieces
- ½ pound plum tomatoes cored and quartered
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ cup chicken broth canned or homemade
Instructions
- Prepare the chile and reserve.
- Then, season the chicken with salt, pepper, and oregano.
- Rub all over.
- Put on a plate and drizzle evenly with the lime juice.
- Turn to coat.
- Let marinate about 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°.
- In a skillet heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat.
- Fry the bread until golden brown on both sides.
- Transfer to a blender.
- In the same skillet, fry the pecan pieces, stirring, until slightly toasted, about 1 minute.
- (Do not let them burn.
- ) Transfer to the blender along with the remaining ingredients.
- Purée until nearly smooth, but with some texture.
- Spread about 3 tablespoons of the purée in the bottom of a shallow greased casserole dish large enough to hold the chicken in one layer.
- Put the chicken on the sauce.
- Spread the remaining sauce evenly over the chicken.
- Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until the chicken is no longer pink inside at the thickest part.
- While the chicken bakes, remove the stem and seeds from the chile and cut into thin strips.
- Serve the chicken with the sauce spooned on top.
- Garnish with the chile strips.