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Mexican Chicken Soup

Time2 hours 45 minutes
YieldsServes 6 to 8
Mexican chicken soup
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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Every culture has its own version of comfort soups. In Mexico, it is puchero, a peasant stew with a variety of vegetables and meat. The origins of puchero come from Spain, with nearly all its former colonies creating their own twist on it. In the Philippines, the stew has chickpeas and is made of beef, while in Argentina it has chorizo and blood sausage. In Mexico, puchero varies from region to region, with campechanos eating it as a pork, beef and hen stew augmented in the end with chopped onion in orange juice, radishes with chiles and cilantro. Oaxaquenos add chickpeas and indigenous herbs. The one common characteristic is that you need a giant pot to make it.

In my family, a puchero always meant chicken, but more important, it meant pampering. What gave my mom’s puchero its dense flavor was the cabbage (more Eastern European than Mexican) and the whole chicken (skin and bones) that she would toss into the enormous pot. A little puchero, like all chicken soups, would cure any cold, right all wrongs in the world and lift my spirits.

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1

Rinse and dry the chicken. Place the chicken in a very large pot and fill the pot with water so it covers the chicken by a few inches. Bring the water to a simmer over high heat, then reduce the heat to a constant simmer. Cook for about 10 minutes, then gently skim the top of the soup, discarding any scum.

2

Add the garlic, cabbage, one-half (quartered) onion, zucchini, corn, bay leaf, carrots, potatoes, green beans and celery. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and one-half teaspoon pepper, and drop in the bouillon cubes. Add additional water, if needed, to keep the chicken and vegetables covered by 2 to 3 inches water. Cover the pot loosely and simmer for about 2 hours, until the chicken and vegetables are tender and the broth is a rich golden color. Taste and season with 1 to 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper, or to taste.

3

The finished soup will be very rustic; remove the chicken bones if desired and cut up the meat, or serve the chicken in pieces with the soup. Serve the soup with the finely chopped onion, cilantro, serrano chile and lime or lemon wedges on the side to be added as garnishes.

This recipe requires a very large (16-quart) stock pot.