Bolivian Picante de Pollo or Chicken in Spicy Sauce

This Bolivian Chicken in Spicy Sauce (Picante de Pollo) is a family recipe. Serve the dish with chuño (frozen, dried potatoes), pasta, rice, boiled potatoes or your side dish of choice. You can make this as spicy as you want by alternating aji paste.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Bolivian, Latin American

Keyword Bolivian Picante de Pollo, Chicken in Spicy Sauce, Picante de Pollo

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 40

Total Time 50

Servings people

Calories 470kcal

Author Sonila

Ingredients

5 medium size chicken breasts if the chicken breasts are bigger than 1 portion, cut them in half
4 ozs aji amarillo paste or aji panca paste aji amarillo will be a lot spicier than aji panca so adjust accordingly
2 garlic cloves, minced
0.5 tsp salt
0.5 tsp black pepper
0.5 tsp cumin Cumin can be strong for a lot of people, so go slow on cumin. You can always add more later.
2 medium size potatoes
4 tbsps olive oil 2 tbsps of olive oil will be used for the sauce and 2 tbsps for the fresh salsa with tomatoes
2 roma tomatoes
0.5 medium size onion
0.5 cup green peas
2 tbsps freshly chopped parsley (optional for decoration and aroma)

Instructions

Start by boiling the chicken. Cover chicken breasts with water and boil for about 10 minutes.
In a separate pot, boil the potatoes, skin on.
Steam the green peas (i used frozen green peas) for 3-4 minutes, drain, set aside.
Get a skillet, put it on the stovetop and turn heat to medium. Add half a cup of water and 4 oz of aji paste (prefer Aji Panca for mild spice and Aji Amarillo for spicy). If you're making aji from scratch, please adjust quantities accordingly.
As sauce boils, lower heat a little bit so you don't burn the sauce. Add minced garlic and olive oil. Keep stirring slowly.
Add cumin and black pepper. Stirr slowly and taste to see if sauce needs any adjusting.
At this point the potatoes should be done. Turn heat off, rinse one potato until it's cool to the touch. Peel it carefully since it might still be hot, so rinse as needed. Use half the potato, smash it and add to the sauce. Keep stirring as you smash. This will thicken the spicy sauce.
Taste the sauce. If you made it too spicy and would like to lower the heat a bit, add half a teaspoon of sugar to make it less spicy.
If the sauce is too thick or you would like to have more sauce, add half a cup of chicken stock. Stir again. Another tip - if you want the sauce to be creamier, smoother you can blend it and return it to the skillet.
Finally, you can add the chicken to the sauce. I usually leave a chicken breast on the side, roast it for the kids since they can't have spicy. If you want the chicken to absorb more of the sauce taste, add it after boiling it to the skillet and cover really well with the spicy sauce. If you like your chicken to have a bit of a crust, you can fry it for a minute in each side in a separate skillet before transferring it to the spicy sauce.
Turn heat on low and let the chicken absorb the flavor of the sauce, leave simmering for at least 15 minutes.
Chop tomatoes and onion in julienne strips and put them in a separate bowl. Sprinkle with salt and add 2 tbsps of olive oil, Mix well.
Serve the chicken and spicy sauce over your favorite side dish. Cut the leftover boiled potatoes in circles and add to plate. Add green peas over chicken. Add a little bit of the tomato/onion fresh salsa over the dish. Sprinkle with parsley and dig in:). Enjoy!

Video

Notes

I didn't include instructions on how to cook chuño, pasta or rice. You can add your favorite side dish to this meal. Enjoy / Buen Provecho!!
Video was done about 18 months after initial recipe was posted. At the time I posted the recipe I couldn't find chuño but by the time I filmed the video I found chuño online:)

Nutrition