In Pati Jinich’s Family, Ashkenazi and Mexican Flavors Blend Together

Pati Jinich is best known for her award-winning PBS show “Pati’s Mexican Table” and her cookbooks, where she shares recipes from the Mexican kitchen. Some of the earliest kitchens Pati entered as a child in Mexico were a unique blend of Ashkenazi flavors and local flare. 

There was gefilte fish simmered in a piquant tomato sauce with pepperoncini peppers from her Polish grandmother Esther Morgenstern’s kitchen. Lali, as Pati called her other grandmother, came to Mexico as a World War II refugee from Austria. Like Esther, her new homeland inspired her cooking in dishes like mushroom and jalapeño matzo ball soup. She also enjoyed preparing elegant French meals. 

Lali was a gifted cook and that passed on to her daughter, Pati’s mother Susana, who learned a profound truth in the kitchen. Pati writes on her blog, “Having survived years of war, turbulence and the loss of most of her family, taught my mom a serious lesson: You can survive most hardships in life if you know how to cook, she had said, and mostly, if you know how to cook chicken from scratch.” Susana learned not only how to cook chicken numerous ways, but how to slaughter, pluck, and clean the bird.

A generation later, Pati no longer needs to pluck feathers from the chickens she cooks, but the legacy of cooking chicken in her family has left a mark.

Pollo con Salsa de Tamarindo, Chabacano y Chipotle (Chicken with Tamarind, Apricots and Chipotle Sauce)

Photos by Dave Katz

Pati writes that she wishes she could have served this chicken preparation to Lali. Pati learned the recipe, made sweet with apricots and tangy with tamarind from Flora Cohen, a cookbook author and cooking teacher who immigrated from Syria to Mexico. Like Pati’s grandmothers, Flora welcomed flavors from Mexico — like the chipotles in adobo in this recipe — into her kitchen.

Makes: 4 to 6 servings
Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients
½ cup safflower oil, corn oil or other neutral oil
1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
4 chicken quarters or 8 chicken pieces of your choice, bone-in skin-on
4 cups water
¾ cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons apricot preserves
¾ cup tamarind concentrate, homemade or store bought
2 tablespoons sauce from 1 can of chipotles in adobo sauce

Preparation
1. In a large heavy skillet, heat oil over medium heat.

2. Season all the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Once the oil is hot, place the chicken pieces into the pan, skin side down in one layer. Lower the heat to medium low and slowly brown the chicken, for up to one hour, flipping the chicken every 15 minutes, or until the chicken is deep golden brown on all sides.

3. Place about 4 cups of water or enough to cover the chicken pieces ¾ the way up into the pan. Increase the heat to medium high, and bring the mixture to a simmer. Add the apricots, apricot preserve, tamarind concentrate, chipotle sauce and stir. Reduce the heat to medium low or enough to keep the mixture simmering, and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the sauce reduces by a half, thickens and coats the back of a spoon. 

4. Serve the chicken hot with a side of white rice.