Chicken

Chicken is the favorite meat of Oaxaca. And no wonder. The chickens that are available there are range-fed, plump, and fresh-killed just before cooking. The quality is indescribably better than what we have in the United States. Not one mass-produced, force-fed, anemic frozen chicken has ever soiled the land.

The difference in quality gave me some problems in translating recipes for use in United States kitchens. As I point out elsewhere, the soul of the great traditional Oaxacan dishes is usually the sauce. Whatever meat or poultry you are serving is often simply boiled or poached, then just placed in the sauce (which may have been made with some of the cooking liquid). Try this with U.S. supermarket chickens! These take only about half as long to cook as chickens do in Oaxaca, but they badly need help in the flavor department.