Pastel De Choclo-paul Boston's Version

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Pastel De Choclo-paul Boston's Version Ingredients

Pino	2 teaspoons Salt
2 pounds Ground beef	-- Chicken Pieces --
2 large onions chopped	8 pieces Chicken thighs or quartered breast
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce	1/4 cup Vegetable Shortening
1 teaspoon Chili powder	-- Corn Topping --
2 tbs Soy sauce	2 pounds Frozen corn thawed
2 tbs Picapeppa Sauce	1/2 cup Milk
6 tbs Raisins	6 tbs Sugar
1/4 cup Vegetable Shortening

Instructions for Pastel De Choclo-paul Boston's Version

The order of preparation is as follows. Prepare the pino or chilean beef filling first and set it to cool in the refrigerator or other cool place. Next prepare the chicken pieces and remove from pan reserving juices. Then puree the corn with milk and cook until the consistency of porridge in the pan used to cook the chicken. Next place one piece of chicken in each small casserole or loaf pan, or place them in two rows of four in a lasagna pan or one of similar size. Surround the chicken pieces with enough pino to result in a flat surface for the corn topping to be spread on about one to one and a half inches thick. Sprinkle sugar liberally but evenly on the topping and place the casseroles in a 350? oven for one hour or until dark golden on the top.

Pino preparation: Place raisins in a small cup of warm water to soak. Place chopped onions and manteca(crisco or lard) in a large cold cast iron pan. Heat over medium heat stirring constantly until onion is translucent. Then add ground beef and break up and cook until completely browned. Add spices and drained raisins and taste. Take pino from pan and place in a bowl to cool, either in a refrigerator or other cool place. Turn heat off under the pan and begin the chicken.

Chicken preparation: In the same pan used for the ground beef filling, add manteca and washed and dried chicken pieces. Really any part of the chicken can be used, the important point is that they should fit the casseroles or small loaf pans leaving some space for the pino to go around them. I sometimes use large thighs cut in half along the bone, resulting in a bone in and a boneless piece, I have also used wings removing the tips, or legs or halved breast halves, whatever you like, as long as it fits the casseroles as described. Turn the heat on to medium under the pan and cook the chicken turning frequently so that it yellows but does not brown. After about ten minutes it should be partially cooked and can be removed from the pan. Turn off the heat but do not discard the chicken fat, pieces of stuck skin, or manteca. These will be incorporated into the corn puree topping.

Corn topping preparation: Place corn which has been thoroughly thawed, (partially thawed corn will result in corn ice cream which will not work) along with milk in a food processor and puree. You may need to do this with half of the corn and milk at a time. Place all the pureed corn and milk in the pan with the chicken fat and juices and cook over medium heat, stirring constanly and scraping so that it incorporates the fats and does not stick and burn, until it darkens slightly and reaches the consistency of cooked cereal, then turn off heat and move pan off the burner.

Assembly: Preheat the oven to 350? and begin assembling the Pastel de Choclo. Choclo is a kind of Chilean Corn which is not really available outside of chile, but regular frozen corn kernels are a quite acceptable substitue. A pastel is a pie. At any rate, in each small loaf pan or in the large casserole as described above, place the chicken. One piece to a loaf pan of course. Next surround each piece with cooled pino, it doesn't have to be cold, bringing it up the sides of the chicken pieces to make a flat surface on which to spread the corn puree topping. If you have extra filling you may cover the chicken, just leave a flat surface for the topping. Then using a large spoon, spread a thick layer of the pureed corn over the top of the chicken and pino base. Make it nice and thick, one to one and a half inches is fine. Lastly, sprinkle the sugar evenly over the topping. Place casseroles or casserole in the middle of the preheated oven and cook for one hour, or until the topping turns a beatiful golden brown.

Remove from oven and let rest fifteen minutes before serving. They may be kept warm in the oven for some time, it is a quite forgiving recipe. Enjoy! This is one of our favorites.

Main Ingredient: BeefCuisine: Chilean

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