Gallina en pipián (chicken in pumpkin seed sauce)
Tonight I made for the first time gallina en pipián, which is a chicken dish stewed in a sauce of pumpkin seeds, peanuts, and red chile purée. The recipe comes from “Simple Mexican Dishes.” I've actually never eaten this before, so I had no idea what it's supposed to taste like. The chile purée I made from a recipe in the same book; I used mild dried chiles but included the seeds and membrane instead of getting rid of them. It gave it a very slight bit of oomph that I liked. Instead of using a three pound chicken, I used three chicken breasts.
This time around the recipe made 6 cups of chicken and sauce. By my calculation that should be about 225 calories per half cup serving.
In terms of taste, for someone who has had it for the first time, I think it's okay, but that once you've had it three or four times you will like it more and more. It's kind of like peanut butter that way. By itself it's not so interesting, but with constant exposure it becomes tasty and comfortable.