Peruvian Aji de Gallina Recipe

Aji de Gallina is the ultimate comfort food. Leftover chicken is anything but boring when transformed into a delicious Peruvian pulled chicken stew, known as Aji de Gallina. Start off with a base of onions, garlic, turmeric and cumin. Keep a light hand on the turmeric which can make food taste bitter if too much is added. When you begin sautéing the garlic, onion and spices the scent is out of this world delicious! 

I went through a lot of trial and error to get the recipe just right. My Peruvian amigas tell me everyone's Aji de Gallina recipe is different, and it is a very flexible recipe that can easily be accommodated for vegetarians. Aji de gallina is traditionally made with French bread, but I use Ritz crackers.

Aji Amarillo is an orange Peruvian pepper with a unique fruity yet surprisingly spicy flavor. You can find frozen Aji peppers at Latino markets. Aji paste may also be used in this recipe and is available online. I prefer the flavor of the frozen peppers over the paste. If you don’t have Aji peppers or paste, green bell pepper pairs beautifully with chicken in my traditional Salvadoran cuisine. Green bell pepper is also a more kid friendly version of Aji de gallina. 

Aji de gallina is traditionally served with white rice, yellow potato, a hard-boiled egg, a sprinkling of crushed walnuts, and black olives. I personally love this dish with a side of sweet potato and pickled purple onions. 

You can also cheat and make your chicken broth ahead and freeze it. These days I am so busy as a new mom I super cheat: I use pre-made rotisserie chicken and boxed organic chicken broth. My trick to make this more homemade is to infuse fresh whole parley sprigs in the sauce and then remove them before I purée and add the pulled chicken. 

Tips: 

1. An immersion blender simplifies the sauce making. But a blender works as long as you allow the sauce to cool sufficient lychee blending. 
2. Do not substitute garlic powder for fresh garlic in this dish as it will sour the Aji sauce. 
3. If you don’t have Aji peppers handy, green bell peppers pair wonderfully with chicken and are a great way to make this more kid friendly. 
4. Use premade chicken stock and rotisserie chicken to simplify this recipe. 
5. Meal prep bags of pre-measured chopped onions and seeded Ajis ahead of time and store in your freezer for a super easy future meal. 

Makes 6 servings

Ingredients

Pulled Chicken and Broth

• 2 Chicken breasts* (substitute chicken with potatoes or guisquil/ chayote for vegetarian option)
• 4 Cups water
• 4 Celery stalks, halved
• 1 Tsp sea salt
• 3-5 sprigs parsley

Aji Sauce

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 Large onion, chopped
• 3 Garlic cloves, crushed
• 2-3 Aji chilies, seeded and chopped; or 1 tablespoon Aji paste.
• 1/4 tsp cumin, ground
• 1/2 tsp turmeric, ground
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 package Ritz crackers, crushed, or 2 slices of bread
• 6oz evaporated milk
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped for topping each plate.

Make It (4 servings)

Make chicken broth and reserve two cups

1. Boil chicken breasts, 4 cups of water, parsley, celery, and salt for 30 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked.
2. Reserve 2 cups of broth. Freeze the rest of your broth in 2 cup containers for future Aji de gallinas!
3. Remove chicken from broth and pull apart with two forks, set aside.

Make aji sauce

This is traditionally made in a clay pot, I use an enameled Dutch oven, but feel free to use whatever pot you have. 

1. Heat 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in a pot;
2. Sautee onions, aji peppers over medium heat for 5-7 minutes;
3. Add the garlic, turmeric, cumin over medium for another 1-2 minutes;
4. Add two cups of chicken broth, sprig of parsley and crushed crackers to pot, bring to a simmer, cook until crackers dissolve, about 5 minutes;
5. Remove parsley. Turn off  heat, add milk, parmesan cheese and purée sauce with immersion blender in pot.
6. Add pulled chicken and cook until warm for another 5 minutes.

For each person, serve over white rice, top with chopped walnuts, 4 olives, a halved hard-boiled egg and sliced potato.

Buen provecho!

Frozen Aji pepper from Latin market.