Aguadito de Pollo — The Peruvian Soup for the Week Between

The week between graduation and Vanderbilt orientation. I have nothing scheduled for the first time in four years. Mama is at the diner Tuesday through Saturday on her usual schedule. Cody is at his Saturday and Sunday morning shadowing shifts at the Tulsa restaurant. Iris went to a writing camp at the University of Iowa for ten days, the prestigious one for high schoolers, and is working on a single piece for the entire camp. The house is quiet at noon for the first time since I started high school. I have spent four mornings reading on the back porch with the cordless phone next to me in case anyone calls about a catering job. I have spent three afternoons cleaning out my high school closet for the move to college, sorting clothes into “take to Nashville,” “leave at home,” and “donate to the Sapulpa thrift store.” I have spent one whole afternoon at the kitchen table writing in the Moleskine.

The Moleskine has become a kind of pre-college diary. I’ve been writing in it about Mama’s recipe-card project, about the techniques I want to remember, about scenes from the senior trip and graduation that I don’t want to forget, and about what the cooking actually means to me beyond just feeding people. The writing in the Moleskine is the kind of writing I haven’t allowed myself to do in a public space because it’s for me alone. Mr. Briggs would call this “the writer’s second drawer” — the things you write that you don’t publish. Every serious writer needs a drawer. The Moleskine is mine.

Sunday I made aguadito de pollo — a Peruvian green chicken-and-cilantro soup — because I’d seen the recipe in a library cookbook called “The Soups of Latin America” that I’d checked out three weeks ago and that’s due back Friday, and I wanted to make something I’d never made before in this kitchen for the first dinner of the in-between week. Aguadito is Peru’s most traditional Sunday soup. The cookbook says it’s the dish a Peruvian grandmother might make to revive someone after a hangover or a long emotional day, which felt fitting for the post-graduation week even though I haven’t had a hangover and the long emotional day is now a week behind me.

The soup is built on a green broth: a half-bunch of fresh cilantro (stems and leaves both, you use the whole bunch), a half-bag of fresh spinach, two cloves of garlic, a tablespoon of aji amarillo paste (which is the Peruvian yellow chile paste that’s the soul of the dish and that’s not available at IGA — I substituted with one yellow chile from the Walmart produce section, seeded and chopped, plus a teaspoon of fresh lime juice and a quarter-teaspoon of turmeric for color), and a cup of chicken broth. The whole thing goes into the blender and pureés into a vivid emerald-green liquid that smells like a windowsill herb garden in July.

The technique: poach four bone-in skin-on chicken thighs in seasoned water for fifteen minutes, then remove and shred. Reserve the cooking liquid. Build the rest of the soup in a heavy pot: olive oil, one diced onion, one diced red bell pepper, two cloves of minced garlic sweated for ten minutes. Add a half-cup of long-grain white rice and toast it in the spice oil for two minutes. Pour in the green pureé and the reserved poaching liquid, plus enough additional chicken broth to reach about six cups total. Add two diced Yukon Gold potatoes and bring to a simmer. Simmer fifteen minutes until the rice and potatoes are tender. Add the shredded chicken and a cup of frozen peas. Heat through five minutes. Off the heat, finish with the juice of one lime and a fistful of additional fresh cilantro chopped fine.

The color stays emerald green. The flavor is bright, herbaceous, vegetal, and savory all at once, with a low gentle heat from the chile that settles in the back of the throat without being aggressive. The lime acid keeps the green vivid (acid stabilizes the chlorophyll; without the lime, the green would dull to army green within an hour). The rice and the potatoes give the soup body. The chicken makes it filling. The whole bowl tastes like nothing I’ve ever made before in this kitchen.

Mama had never seen a green soup before in her life and stood at the counter looking at the Dutch oven for a moment before she ladled herself a small testing portion. She tasted it cautiously. She ate the testing portion in three bites. She came back for a full bowl. She had a second bowl after that. She told me at the table, “Baby, this is different than anything we eat. I want this in the rotation.” Cody, home from his shadowing shift, ate two bowls and asked for the recipe to take to school in the fall — he’s starting his second-year associate-degree program in August at TCC after a summer of paid kitchen work, and he wants a green soup in his repertoire that nobody else in his class will know.

Cilantro stems and all. Lime to keep the green vivid. Here’s the green-broth blend and the build.

Aguadito de Pollo (Peruvian Chicken and Rice Soup)

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 2 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks
• 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves and stems, packed
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup frozen corn kernels
• 3/4 cup long-grain white rice, rinsed
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 aji amarillo paste (or 1 serrano pepper, minced)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• Lime wedges, for serving

Instructions

1. Blend the cilantro. Add the cilantro and 1/2 cup of the chicken broth to a blender. Blend until completely smooth and set aside.
2. Sear the chicken. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy pot over medium-high heat. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Sear in batches until golden brown on all sides, about 3—4 minutes per side. Remove chicken and set aside.
3. Build the base. Reduce heat to medium. In the same pot, add the diced onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, aji amarillo paste, cumin, oregano, and turmeric. Stir and cook 1—2 minutes until fragrant.
4. Simmer the soup. Return the chicken to the pot. Pour in the remaining chicken broth, the water, and the blended cilantro mixture. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Add rice and vegetables. Stir in the rinsed rice, frozen peas, and frozen corn. Cover and continue simmering on low for 20—25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the rice is cooked through and has thickened the broth.
6. Shred and finish. Remove the chicken pieces. Discard the skin and bones, then shred the meat and return it to the pot. Taste and adjust salt as needed.
7. Serve. Ladle into deep bowls and serve immediately with lime wedges for squeezing over the top.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 340 | Protein: 28g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 28g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 520mg