Super Bowl frenzy is in full effect. With it comes a plethora of prep for Super Bowl parties. Sure, wings and chips will be staple foods at any gathering, but if you want your guests coming back for more — yeah we’re talking to you primos, tios and other Latino brethren — then you’d best add some Latino staples to your gathering. And then there is also proper tailgate cooking protocol. Who better to give you advice than master chef Aarón Sánchez?
Last year, Chef Aarón teamed up with Bud Light aboard the Bud Light Hotel for Super Bowl weekend to demonstrate how to prep a Pollo Pipian dish and also offered day-of pointers. ‘LLERO was in the room to get the skinny for you.
Pipián Sauce
Sure you could roll out the standard avocado or sour cream, but you want something with a kick — go pipián – which is piquant Mexican sauce traditionally served over roast chicken or enchiladas. It is part of a larger family of ground sauces known as moles.
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup green pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
1 pound tomatillos, husked and rinsed
1 serrano chile, stemmed
1/2 medium white onion, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups chicken broth, preferably organic, warmed
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Char Your Vegetables – Take the tomatillos, once rinsed, white onion, serrano chile and add olive oil, salt and pepper and put on your grill to char.
Toast the Pumpkin Seeds – Be sure to stir constantly, until they have expanded and begin to pop. Transfer the seeds to a plate and let cool.
Mix It All Together – In a medium, heavy saucepan, simmer the tomatillos, serrano and onions in salted water until the tomatillos turn a dark green color. Transfer the tomatillos, serrano and onions to a blender and puree with chicken broth, cilantro and toasted pumpkin seeds until smooth.
As noted before, you can add the pipián to enchiladas or chicken. For chicken, Chef Aarón recommends placing the pipián under the chicken, which allows skin on the chicken to stay crispy; if you pour it over the pollo it can flatten the skin.
Game Day Cooking Tips
OK, if we know you guys, there will be more than pipián at your bash. So Chef Aarón also offered up helpful tailgate cooking tips which any and every man should be incorporating into his repertoire – tailgate or otherwise.
Don’t Move It
For all those guys that love to grill, or simply think they can, Chef Aarón provided one of the best grilling tips we’ve heard in quite a while: “don’t move and don’t mess with your meat.” According to Sánchez you want the meat to char and caramelize, which provides the flavor. If you move the meat, it essentially prevents the caramilization process from happening.
Keep Your Grilled Food Dry
At least as it applies to the vegetables you’ve charred. While it’s normal to wash away some excess debris caused by charring Sánchez explains it “also has the effect of washing the flavor away.” Instead Sanchez recommends “tak[ing] a glass of water, dip your finger in it and gently wash away excess,” thus maintaining ese sabor you worked so hard to get.
Don’t Rush It
Sánchez noted, you can’t rush the flavor; you’ve got to let the layers of flavor naturally evolve which can’t happen if you’re impatient with the process itself.
On a final note, we didn’t forget the beer. For Sánchez it’s clearly Bud Light because “it was the beer he grew up watching his dad drink.”