Name: Chicken and Fruit Stew (Estofado de Frutas)
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: One 4-pound chicken, cut in serving pieces; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; 4 large ripe tomatoes (about 2 pounds), roasted and peeled; One 3-ounce tablet Mexican chocolate; 2 tart, firm green apples, peeled, cored, and sliced into 8 wedges each; 1 large ripe plantain, peeled and sliced into ½-inch rounds; One 1½-inch piece canela; ¼ to ½ cup homemade chicken stock or water, as needed; 2 medium onions, roasted and peeled; 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 4 sprigs fresh Mediterranean oregano, or ½ teaspoon dried Mexican oregano; ½ cup blanched almonds; 6 large sprigs fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried; 4 sprigs fresh marjoram, or ½ teaspoon dried; 8 garlic cloves, roasted and peeled; ¼ cup vegetable oil; 1 cup sesame seeds (about 5 ounces); ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

Preparation info

4 to 6
servings

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Food and Life of Oaxaca

By Zarela Martínez

Published 1997

About

It’s fascinating how Oaxacan cooks give so many different spins to European-inspired sauces thickened with nuts or seeds. Tomatoes and chocolate are the native American accents in this truly sophisticated dish from Lucila Zárate de Fuentes in Oaxaca City.

This is one case where I probably would use fresh Mediterranean oregano—it is not quite right as a substitute for Oaxacan oregano, but the fresh herb is closer in effect than the dried.

If you have made up a batch of my