Pechugas de Pollo en Crema Poblana - 180

If you read yesterday's blog about HUEVOS CON MIGAS, you may have noticed that I mentioned having charred and peeled some chiles poblanos. We had done so because I had been planning to make the PECHUGAS DE POLLO EN CREMA POBLANA for a few days, and the main ingredient for the crema were the chiles poblanos. In case you've never done this grilling / charring process followed by the peeling and seeding of the chiles, I will include a link at the end of today's blog.

Before I launch into the recipe and techniques, I need to give some credit to Señora Lourdes en Morelia, Michoacán, México. I stayed with Lourdes, her husband Carlos, and her two grandchildren for three weeks while I was chaperoning a group to Morelia. She was a very good cook, and I don't think we ever had the same meal twice in three years. When I left, she made me a gift of a nicely photocopied version of her favorite cookbook, which had gone out of print years before. She will never know how much that gift has meant to me. The PECHUGAS DE POLLO EN CREMA POBLANA is a recipe from her kitchen.

Since our skies had cleared up considerably yesterday, Javier was able to light the grill to do the chiles outdoors, but an added "bonus" was being able to grill the chicken breasts - las pechugas de pollo - on the grill, too. As soon as they were done grilling (having been very lightly seasoned with sal y pimienta) we locked them into a plastic container with their own juices to keep them moist for dinner.

The CREMA POBLANA is made by blending the charred and peeled chiles poblanas (about 2-3 of them) with 1 clove of garlic, 1/2 cup of cream, a small amount of the juices that were retained in the plastic container (about 1 T), some sea salt, cilantro, and a tiny bit of oregano. The idea is to blend it all into a creamy, smooth sauce to serve over the grilled chicken breasts. I reheated them in a non-stick skillet, thenpoured the blended sauce over all, covered the skillet, and allowed it all to heat through for about 20 minutes.

Normally I would serve this dish with rice, but since we'd had rice (and even an ARROZ CON POLLO dinner a couple of nights before) I decided to make some boiled potatoes. They were boiled in between a just done and an about-to-fall-apart stage that made them perfect for absorbing the CREMA POBLANA sauce. I also sauteed some onions and yellow and green squash to go on the side. Javier ate his pollo with some corn tortillas, but I'm still trying to mount a successful defense against the holiday pounds! No es tan fácil...

Here is a link for roasting (charring) and peeling the chiles poblanos:
http://www.learn2grow.com/projects/edibles/recipes/RoastedGreenChiles.aspx