Recipe

North America → 🇬🇹 Guatemala → Sacatepéquez (Antigua)
Pepián de Pollo
Guatemalan · medium · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 50 min
~602 cal · 64g protein · 30g carbs · 23g fat (estimated, per serving)
🍽️
Dark red-brown pepián stew with chicken, rice, and tortillas
🇬🇹 Sacatepéquez (Antigua)
Pepián descends from pre-Columbian ceremonial cooking, its body built from pepitoria (toasted squash seeds) and sesame ground the way the Maya ground them on stone. Antigua serves it for saints’ days and Sunday lunch alike, always with rice and tortillas.
Sign in to save recipes to your book and leave reviews.
Make it yours
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
Ingredients
Serves 4 —
•
2 lbs chicken thighs, bone-in
•
3 tomatoes
•
4 tomatillos
•
2 dried guaque or guajillo chiles
•
2 dried pasa or ancho chiles
•
1/2 cup pepitas (squash seeds)
•
1/4 cup sesame seeds
•
1 corn tortilla (to thicken)
•
1 onion
•
4 cloves garlic
•
1 cinnamon stick
•
3 cloves
•
for 4 rice + tortillas, to serve
Instructions
1
Simmer the chicken (or vegetables) in salted water to cover, 25 minutes. Keep the broth.
2
Dry-char the tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, and garlic on a hot comal until blistered black in spots.
3
Toast the chiles, pepitas, sesame, cinnamon, cloves, and the tortilla in the same pan until fragrant and deeply colored — the toast IS the flavor.
4
Blend everything charred and toasted with 2 cups of broth until smooth; simmer this sauce 15 minutes until it darkens and thickens.
5
Return the chicken and simmer 10 minutes. Serve with rice and warm tortillas.
Antigua, Sacatepéquez tradition.
Ratings & reviews
Sign in to rate this recipe once you’ve cooked it.
No reviews yet — be the first to cook it.
🌏 While it simmers — know your destination
📍
Sacatepéquez (Antigua). Colonial Antigua, where pepián simmers for saints’ days.
🗺️
Guatemala. Mayan spice pastes ground on stone, still.
🌍
North America. A collision of Indigenous, colonial, and immigrant tables.
The story behind this dish is up top — worth a read while the pot works.
👩‍🍳
Richard Moore & Kelsey Tucker
Recipes cooked, tested, and researched by the creators of Spin the Globe. How we build our recipes →
More from Guatemala
Desayuno Chapín
The full Guatemalan breakfast plate: eggs, soupy black beans, fried sweet plantain, fresh cream, and warm corn tortillas.