Ají de Gallina (Peruvian Creamed Chicken in Ají Amarillo)

// SUPPLY LIST

// OPERATIONS

1. 1 Put the chicken, halved white onion, celery, carrot, peppercorns and 1 tbsp salt in a 5 litre heavy pot and cover with 2.5 litres cold water, adding more if the chicken is not submerged by at least 2 cm, then bring up over medium heat until the surface just shivers with a bubble breaking only every few seconds, 80-85°C / 176-185°F. Hold it there for 18-22 minutes, checking from 15 minutes, until the thickest part of a breast beside the bone reads 72°C / 162°F. Never let it boil: a rolling boil is the single most common way this dish is ruined, because it squeezes the breast into dry threads that will not take up sauce. Slide the pot off the heat and leave the chicken to cool in its broth for 30 minutes, during which carryover carries it a further 2-3°C / 4-5°F and the meat reabsorbs liquid. If you are using a real hen, hold it at the same shivering heat for 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours instead, until the meat pulls from the bone with light pressure.
2. 2 While the chicken cools, put the crustless torn bread in a bowl, ladle 150 ml of the warm poaching broth through a sieve over it, and pour over 250 ml of the evaporated milk, setting the remaining 150 ml of milk aside for the finish. Leave it 15 minutes, pressing once or twice with the back of a spoon, until every piece has collapsed into a wet paste with no dry white centres — dry cores turn into lumps that no amount of blending will rescue.
3. 3 Toast the pecans in a dry 20 cm skillet over medium heat for 4-5 minutes, shaking often, until they smell nutty and are one shade darker, then tip them straight onto a cold plate so they stop cooking. Cool for 5 minutes, then blend them with the soaked bread and all its liquid for 60-90 seconds, until the purée is completely smooth and a smear rubbed between finger and thumb has no grit left. The mixture is still warm, so fill the jug no more than two-thirds, take out the lid's centre cap and cover the hole with a folded cloth, and start on the lowest speed: a sealed jug of warm liquid builds steam and can throw the lid off on start-up.
4. 4 Lift the chicken out of the broth, discard the skin and bones, and pull the meat along the grain by hand into strips 4-5 cm long and about 5 mm thick. Do this with your fingers, not a knife or a food processor — cubes or mince give you a paste, and the dish is defined by long shreds that carry sauce. Strain the broth through a fine sieve, set aside 600 ml for the sauce and keep it warm; refrigerate or freeze the rest for another use.
5. 5 In a 28 cm heavy sauté pan or wide pot, heat the oil over medium-low, about 140°C / 285°F, then add the diced red onion and 3/4 tsp salt and cook for 12-15 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes, until the onion has collapsed to about a third of its volume, turned translucent and tastes sweet with no crunch left. Do not let it colour: browned onion turns the finished sauce beige and slightly bitter, and the whole point is a clean yellow. Stir in the garlic and cook 1 minute more, until fragrant but not coloured.
6. 6 Add the ají amarillo paste, palillo, cumin and white pepper and fry over medium-low for 6-8 minutes, stirring often, until the paste darkens from bright yellow to deep amber and a film of orange oil separates at the edge of the pan. This is the step that separates a good ají de gallina from a raw-tasting one — cut it short and the sauce keeps a green, sharp edge that milk and cheese cannot cover. Keep the pan below a lazy sizzle, because the paste is sugary enough to catch, and scorched ají turns the whole pan bitter.
7. 7 Whisk in the bread-and-nut purée and 250 ml of the reserved broth and bring to the barest simmer over low heat, about 85°C / 185°F, with only an occasional blip at the surface. Cook 10-12 minutes, dragging a wooden spatula across the whole base of the pan every 30 seconds — bread purée settles and scorches within seconds, and one scorched patch flavours the entire pot. It is ready when a spatula drawn across the base leaves a channel that takes about 2 seconds to close.
8. 8 While the sauce simmers, put the potatoes in whole and unpeeled, in a pot of cold water salted at 1 tbsp per litre, bring to the boil and cook 20-25 minutes, until a skewer slides into the centre with no resistance while the skins are still intact. Drain and peel them while still hot with a small knife: the skins slip away cleanly at that point and tear the flesh once cold. In a second small pan, lower the room-temperature eggs into simmering water and cook at a gentle boil for 9 minutes, then cool in iced water for 5 minutes and peel — fridge-cold eggs crack on contact with hot water, which is why they come out of the fridge in advance.
9. 9 Turn the heat to low and fold in the shredded chicken, the remaining 150 ml evaporated milk and the grated Parmesan, warming through for 4-5 minutes and stirring gently, holding the sauce at about 75°C / 167°F. Do not let it bubble — once the cheese and milk are in, a boil makes the sauce grainy and can split it. Loosen with the reserved warm broth, 50 ml at a time, until the sauce falls thickly from a spoon and coats the shreds without any free liquid pooling; it should flow, not stand in peaks.
10. 10 Taste and correct with salt only, since the cheese, the olives and the salted potatoes all bring salt of their own, adding it in 1/4 tsp increments and expecting to need 1 to 1 1/2 tsp in total. Take the pan off the heat and rest it, uncovered, for 10 minutes; the bread keeps swelling and the sauce tightens noticeably, so check the consistency once more after resting and loosen with a splash of warm broth if needed.
11. 11 Slice the warm potatoes into 1 cm rounds and lay 3-4 overlapping on each of 6 plates, spoon the ají de gallina generously over them, and set a mound of the hot white rice alongside. Garnish each plate with 2 botija olives and 2 quarters of hard-boiled egg, which is exactly what 3 eggs yield, and tell the table the olives still have their stones. Serve at once, because this is a plate that is eaten hot, and it is traditionally the whole meal, needing nothing more than a glass of chicha morada.

// CLASSIFICATIONS