Sopes de Pollo

After seeing GWiv's feast at Taqueria San Juanito I decided I had to have sopes for dinner.

Pillaging several Bayless recipes for different ideas, I ended up thusly, after a quick trip to the local hispanic market for crema, queso cotija y masa.

Serves 4-6

1.5 lbs chicken breasts (a little more if bone-in)
small onion, quartered
1/4 tsp peppercorns
bay leaf
1/4 tsp oregano

8 guajillo chiles
4 large cloves garlic, unpeeled
1/2 tsp oregano
pinch each cumin and black pepper
1.5 tbs oil
sugar to taste (about 1 tbs)
salt to taste (about 1/2 tsp)

2 lbs Fresh Masa para tortillas
1 tsp salt
1/4 oil
cotija cheese
shredded lettuce
cilantro leaves
sour cream or crema

In a medium saucepan, place onion, chicken peppercorns, 1/4tsp oregano and bay leaf, and cover with water. Bring to a simmer, cook for ten minutes covered, allow to sit covered for at least 10 more. Reserve 2C broth, shred chicken when cool enough

Meanwhile, heat a griddle, and place the garlic on it, turning occasionally until there are black spots on each side. Tear the chiles into inch-square pieces, discarding seeds. Briefly toast the chiles on the ungreased griddle, pressing down on each side with a spatula until you hear some sizzle and pop. Place in a bowl of hot water for 30 minutes.

Still meanwhile, knead the salt into the masa and divide into 16 pieces, rolled into balls. Cover with plastic wrap so they don't dry out.
Make sure the griddle is very hot.
For each ball, flatten into a disc about 4" across, less than 1/4" thick.
Place on the griddle and briefly cook on each side to brown slightly, but definitely not cooked through, about 1 1/2 minutes each side. Remove to a towel (which absorbs a little steam) and let cool a bit while the next ones are cooking. Squeeze the edges and pinch up to form a rim about 1/4-1/2" high. Let sit covered until everything else is ready.

When the chiles have soaked, drain, and combine in a blender with garlic (peeled now), and about 1/2 cup of the broth. Blend until smooth (the blender should stop slowing and speeding when it's through chopping up all the chiles). Bayless suggests putting the sauce through a strainer, but that's too much work. Heat a medium saucepan to medium with 1.5 tbs oil, and when hot, add all the chile puree. Let cook several minutes until it darkens and thickens, and the oil separates out. Add the remainder of the broth and cook for 5-10 minutes, adjusting salt and sugar to taste. Ladle the sauce into a bowl containing the shredded chicken, just enough for there to be a little loose sauce at the bottom -- you'll probably only use about 2/3 of the sauce.

Heat that griddle up again and put about 1/4 cup of oil, so that there's a thin layer over all. When hot, fit as many sopes on as you can, and put about 1/4 cup chicken, and 1/2 tsp cotija cheese in each one. Cook for a couple minutes, until the bottoms are browned.

Serve with shredded lettuce, cilantro leaves and sour cream or crema.
Eat while hot.

JoelF wrote:Pillaging several Bayless recipes for different ideas, I ended up thusly, after a quick trip to the local hispanic market for crema, queso cotija y masa.

Joel,

I read through your Sopes de Pollo recipe twice, sounds delicious. Though if someone simply glances at the recipe it might seem complicated, it's really quite straight forward and not difficult to make. Compliments on your recipe writing style.

Enjoy,
Gary

Thanks -- the hardest part for me of adapting the original recipes was to make it in time for dinner -- if I did each step separately (making a guajillo sauce, poaching chicken, then making sopes), dinner wouldn't have been served until 9 PM.

I made mid-sized sopes: kind of large for a cocktail party finger food, small for a main course (we each ate three). I've had ones in restaurants about the size of personal pan pizzas (5-6"). I'm guessing that those may get deep-fried after shaping to make sure they're cooked through, especially since I recall them being crisp overall instead of just the bottom.

Note: I did this all using one griddle, one saucepan, a blender, and a couple of glass mixing bowls. When the chicken and broth came out of the pan, the sauce went in (after a brief cleaning). Kept the overall busy-ness of the stove down. Now if my new kitchen is ever ready, with six burners and a big griddle, I'll be tempted to do more things at once.

Joel,

Very nice recipe. I look forward to trying it once Lent is over. Many thanks for the clear and detailed post.

A