28 Sep Aji de gallina: Peruvian creamy Chilli Chicken recipe
Aji de Gallina: Peruvian Creamy Chilli Chicken must be one of the most common plates among Peruvian households cuisine. For me, it is just like comfort food that would transport me to my childhood at home.
But this dish has more than two hundred years of history. It is a variation of a sweet Spanish plate called “Menjar Blanc”. Yes! a dessert! Crazy right? The dessert consists of hen or chicken stock with almonds, sugar and thickened with rice and flour to achieve a pudding texture. When it came to Peru, people replaced the almonds with nuts and the sugar with yellow Peruvian chilli (“Aji Amarillo”). The Peruvian Yellow Chilli will give that characteristic yellowish colour to the dish. To use the yellow chilli, you have to make a “sofrito”, a base of fried onions, garlic and yellow chilli.
Nowadays, most Peruvian households will prepare this dish, but instead of hen (gallina), people will use more tender and cheap chicken for cooking. Still, we will call this dish “aji de gallina”-Chilli Hen even if it has no hen because it is in our tradition to call it like that.
This “Aji de Gallina” Peruvian Creamy Chilli Chicken recipe is my version of this dish, the one I grew up with and the one I love, but you will see that they are some variants of the same recipe. Some people will use crackers instead of bread, just stock and not a combination of stock and milk, so it depends on what you like most, but I guarantee the version you made you will add it to your dinner rotation.
Normally, this dish will be served over slices of boiled potatoes, a side of cooked rice and garnish with slices of boiled eggs.
Common Questions About this Peruvian Creamy Chilli Chicken dish:
Chicken, Chicken Stock, Sofrito (Onion, Garlic and Peruvian Yellow Chilli “Aji Amarillo”
You can do it as spicy as you want because you can purchase the chilli paste without spicy or do it from scratch with the fresh yellow chilli. You can do a paste deveining all the chilli and discarding all the seed and let it seemer for a minute or two in hot water. Blend it with some water to make a paste, and you can use it and have the flavour without the heat. If you want some heat in it, leave some of the seeds, and you get it. Otherwise, you can buy the regular yellow chilli paste.
This time we use pecans, but you can use nuts or Brazilian nuts.
Yes, you can freeze it without a problem for a couple of months.
You can feel some crepes, empanadas, phyllo dough, etc., whatever your imagination wants.
Some Products I use for this recipe*:
- Non Stick Saucepan: https://amzn.to/3FA1kma
- Wooden Spoon: https://amzn.to/3p1hEGK
*The above link is an affiliate link, meaning Canguro Criollo makes a commission if you purchase via our link. This does not affect the price you pay in any way or our decision to recommend them. We will provide an exact product or something similar if the same product is no longer available.
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Aji de gallina: Peruvian creamy Chilli Chicken recipe
- Prep Time: 40 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Main
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Peruvian
Description
Aji de Gallina: Peruvian Creamy Chilli Chicken is one of the staples dishes of Peruvian Cuisine. You can prepare it full of flavour without the heat or add some spiciness to it. It is made with Peruvian Yellow Chilli (Aji Amarillo Peruano)
Ingredients
For the chicken stock:
- 1 chicken breast with bone
- 2 celery stick
- 1 little carrot, peeled
- salt
- water
For the dish:
- 4 bread slices, diced)
- 2 cups of milk
- oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
- 6 tablespoon Peruvian yellow chilli “aji Amarillo” paste
- 1 chicken breast, cooked and shredded
- 2 cups of chicken stock
- 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese, grated
- 4 pecans, diced
- salt and pepper
For garnish: (optional)
- cooked white rice
- Slices of cooked potato
- boiled egg
- olives
Instructions
- Stock: Wash the chicken breast and place it in a pot with covering water. Add the celery stick, peeled carrot and salt. Let it simmer at medium heat for 30 minutes or until the breast is thoroughly cooked. Let it cool down and reserve the stock discarding the celery and carrot. Deboned the chicken and shredded it completely.
- Bread: Meanwhile, put the diced bread in a bowl and pour the milk over it. Mix it well, so every piece of bread is damp with the milk. Reserve it for later.
- Sofrito: In a big saucepan over medium heat, drizzle some oil to make the sofrito and fry the onions till they are translucent. Add the garlic and chilli paste. Let it cook for a couple of minutes. Season it with salt and pepper.
- Bread Mixture: Add the bread mixture and let it cook for 2 minutes. (If you want, you can add an extra step and blend the bread mixture before pouring it to have a creamy and silky version, but I like the creamy and lumpy version, so it depends on taste.) The oil and chilli will come to the surface.
- Chicken Breast: Add the chicken and stock to the pot and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Add the cheese and pecans and check the seasoning.
- Serve with rice, some slices of potato and boiled egg.
Notes
You can buy the “aji amarillo” or Peruvian yellow chilli paste in any Latin product store
Keywords: Aji de gallina, peruvian chilli chicken, peruvian dishes
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Hi! I’m Valeria (aka Val) the photographer and recipe developer behind Canguro Criollo. My passion for food began when I was little at my home when everything will revolve around food and now I discover this new creative outlet of food photography. I wish you can follow my journey discovering unique ways of preparing Peruvian food abroad and some other family-friendly foods.
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