If you visit my restaurant Cabra in Los Angeles or Chicago you can order a fun dish inspired by the Peruvian classic tacu tacu, a dish originally created to use up leftover rice and beans. It’s not traditional, but I love making tacu tacu with Thai sticky rice for great crunch outside and a fun sticky-rice feel inside. I’m all about texture, so I’ve also crisped up some pigeon peas to serve over top. This dish requires a small rice cooker to make sure the rice comes out with the perfect consistency. The recipe uses a total of two cans of pigeon peas across three elements of the dish — the tacu tacu, the stew and a fried pigeon pea topping — so be sure to reserve the extras after you open each can.
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Directions
Special equipment:
a small rice cooker; a deep-fry thermometer
When ready to serve the completed dish, have the Chicken Stew hot in a pot on the stove.
Place a large nonstick sauté pan over medium heat. Add a few tablespoons of oil to the pan. Before the pan gets too hot, carefully dislodge one of the chilled and molded Tacu Tacu rounds into the oil. Allow to crisp and turn golden brown before carefully flipping and repeating on the other side. Transfer to a rimmed platter and repeat with the second Tacu Tacu round.
Portion stew over the top of the crispy Tacu Tacu. Drizzle with Tasty Crema and sprinkle with Fried Pigeon Peas, torn mint and cilantro. Serve immediately.
Chicken Stew:
Mix the ground chicken with aji panca, tamari, vinegar and Peruvian seasoning blend. Brown over medium heat in a large heavy pot with a splash of oil. Remove and set aside, leaving the drippings in the pot.
Add the butter to the pot and brown it with the chicken drippings. Once browned add the onion, apple, ginger, garlic and Chicken Spice Mix and sweat for 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Season with salt. Add the tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes more. Add the chicken broth, pigeon peas and browned ground chicken and let everything simmer until the liquid has reduced and thickened, 25 to 30 minutes. Add the kale at the very end of the cooking time and simmer until just tender. Taste for seasoning and salt as needed.
Chicken Spice Mix:
Yield:1 cup
Mix the bouillon powder, hondashi powder, lime powder, Peruvian seasoning blend, aji amarillo, coriander and cayenne together. Store in an airtight jar in a dry place.
Tacu Tacu:
Add the dry rice, Chicken Spice Mix, chicken broth and 3/4 cup water to a rice cooker and run a white rice cycle. Once complete, open and mix in the pigeon peas.
Spray two 6-inch cake pans with oil. Press half of the rice-and-pea mixture into each pan and transfer to the refrigerator to chill completely.
Tasty Crema:
Yield:1 3/4 cups
Whisk the sour cream, milk, spice mix and lime juice together and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Fried Pigeon Peas:
Yield:1 to 1 1/2 cups
Pour the oil into a small pot or a skillet. Heat to 350 degrees F. Carefully add half the pigeon peas and fry until crispy, about 1 minute. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and repeat with the remaining peas. Toss the hot crispy peas with the Chicken Spice Mix.
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