Pollo con Crema

Pollo con Crema is a Mexican dish I discovered at La Sierrra in Dundee Oregon. It is like a Mexican Alfredo sauce. It has a sourness to it. It is chicken, a cream sauce, onions, bell peppers and mushrooms. It is usually served with Spanish/ Mexican/ red rice and refried beans. It is one of my mother’s favorites. The cream sauce is usually made with crema Mexicana (Mexican crema). Typically the store bought varieties have quite a few additives. In preparing for this dish, I found some recipes to make my own crema Mexicana. It is like a cross between heavy cream, sour cream, and buttermilk. Two of those are ingredients to make the crema.

Pollo con Crema

I have been choosing to make more dishes that my mother likes. Luckily I chose to make this on Mother’s Day weekend of 2016. I had two recipes and was fusing elements from both. My first batch was made on May 6, 2016. The ingredients were homemade crema Mexicana, olive oil, chicken breasts, sweet onion, mushrooms, paprika, chicken base, chipotle powder, and sour cream. I made the crema the night before using a recipe from Mexican Cooking for Dummies by Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken. It is heavy cream and buttermilk left out for 8 to 12 hours. The crema came out perfect. The two sides I made were calabacitas ralladas (shredded sautéed Mexican zucchini) and Mexican style red rice (also from Mexican Cooking for Dummies). I added grated cotija cheese. The cotija plus the salt the dish called for made it slightly saltier than I had wanted

On Sunday May 8, 2016, I made the second batch with twice the onion. I also used yellow onion instead of sweet onion for more flavor. I used less chipotle powder and more sour cream. The sides were another batch of Mexican style red rice and refried black beans. The reason for the onion changes were mom did not notice the onion in the previous batch. Much of it was cooked down to nothing. Plus she did not taste it as much. Sweet onion is mild in flavor, so I decided to go with yellow onion instead. There was a little less mushrooms and chicken for this batch too. I also did not add cotija cheese to the sauce. I used it more as a garnish in the second batch.

Mexican Red Rice

I was happy with both batches, but mom and I preferred the second batch. Traditionally Mexican cuisine uses mushrooms, but the most common edible fungus is huitlacoche. Huitlacoche is a corn smut that grows on ears of corn. It is a staple in Mexican cooking. There are other varieties of mushroom common in Mexican cooking, but they differ from the varieties found in the U.S. This was a successful outing and this dish will be in my list of recipes. It may get a few more tweaks, like adding bell peppers, Anaheim chiles, or poblanos chiles. Time will tell.

Pollo Con Crema Ala Donna
Pollo A La Crema
Mexican Red Rice (Baked)
Mexican Red Rice (Stove Top)