Mexican caldo de pollo recipes

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Dallas chefs share treasured caldo de pollo recipes

For therapy in a bowl, you can't go wrong with Mexican chicken soup

11:10 AM CST on Wednesday, February 6, 2008

By JOYCE SÁENZ HARRIS / The Dallas Morning News

Homemade chicken soup is one of those soul-filling dishes that reach

across generations and transcend ethnicities. Whether it's made by you

or your mama, or by grandma, bubbe or abuela, the rich, golden broth

soothes and satisfies like nothing else. In its Mexican incarnation,

homestyle chicken soup is called caldo de pollo.

It's a bowl of chicken broth containing plenty of vegetables and rice,

and it traditionally includes a large piece of dark, bone-in chicken.

In Dallas, it is served mostly at small, mamí y papí places, which

most commonly make caldo only on weekends.

However, a few Mexican restaurants in Dallas have caldo de pollo on

their daily lunch and dinner menus, including Los Lupes and 's

Aca y Alla.

Los Lupes, a family-owned chain, has been in business 35 years and has

eight locations in the Dallas area.

Its caldo de pollo was developed from treasured family recipes that go

back several generations, says Los Lupes senior vice president

.

Most of the mainstay dishes are more traditionally Mexican than

Tex-Mex. For example, Los Lupes always has menudo and carne asada.

But, Mr. says, " We had to add fajitas a few years back because

the trend created a demand for them. "

Caldo de res, or beef vegetable soup, is made from one of the family's

oldest recipes and has been on Los Lupes' menu a long time. The caldo

de pollo " had not been on the menu for 20-plus years, " Mr.

says. " We just added it a year or so ago.

" We already had tortilla soup, and people asked me: 'Do you really

want to have two chicken soups?' But it's different. "

Los Lupes' version of caldo de pollo is a traditional vegetable soup

that includes pieces of red potato, carrot, zucchini and celery and

features a piece of bone-in, dark chicken in each serving. The flavor

added by the chicken bones is important, Mr. says. He notes

that Los Lupes' caldo de res always includes huesos, or soup bones,

that add an essential, rich, marrow taste to the beef broth.

's Aca y Alla in Deep Ellum also serves a version of caldo de

pollo daily at lunch and dinner, although it's a more contemporary

version than Los Lupes'.

Caldo de pollo is " more than a tradition in Mexico, " says 's Aca

y Alla restaurateur Greene. " People use it to cure everything

in Mexico. "

Including hangovers. Menudo, or goat-tripe soup, may be the

better-known Latin folk remedy for the morning after a night of

overindulgence. But Ms. Greene, who grew up in Mexico, swears by caldo

de pollo.

" In Mexico, you go out at 11 p.m. and party all night, until 4 or 5

a.m., " she says. " Then you go to the market when it opens at 6, and

they give you a big bowl of caldo. It's like a restorative. You might

sprinkle a little dried chile on top, too, to make you sweat. "

Ms. Greene has definite opinions about what is and what isn't " real

Mexican caldo de pollo. " The authentic soup, she says, is made from

chicken-stock base: " Tomatoes are never used for a clear-broth caldo

de pollo. "

True caldo should be served with a wedge of lime on the side to

squeeze into the soup, and it always includes plain rice, although

rice is a separate side order at 's Aca y Alla. A garnish of

sliced avocado or thinly sliced radish is, Ms. Greene says, a final

touch of authenticity. Slightly stale tortilla strips sometimes are

used as garnish, as are bits of fresh jalapeño.

But real caldo de pollo " never has cheese, " she says firmly, although

the caldo at 's Aca y Alla includes white cheese as well as

tortilla strips and avocado. That recipe, the restaurateur says, has

been adapted to suit the tastes and expectations of American

customers. The recipe Ms. Greene shares is the one she would make at

home for family and friends.

For Ms. Greene, caldo de pollo is true comfort food, entwined with the

memories of nursery days. Just talking about it, " transported me back

in time to the spell of a place where fragrant herbs, fresh hanging

chickens and colorful vegetables were sold at the traditional Mexican

market, " she says.

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