Guaymas Restaurant in Tiburon is my favorite Mexican restaurant in Northern California and their Chile Poblano is the best item on the menu. It is a green poblano chili stuffed with a picadillo and covered in a walnut creme sauce and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds. I have loved this dish for years and and finally found the recipe in Diana Kennedy’s The Cuisines of Mexico. Guyamas’ version uses a ground chicken picadillo, while Diana Kennedy’s version uses a pork picadillo. “Chiles en Nogada” (chilies in walnut sauce) is traditionally made with pork and is a specialty of Puebla. According to Ms. Kennedy,
The recipe is said to have been concocted by the grateful people of Puebla, who were giving a banquet in honor of Don Agustin de Iturbide’s saint’s day, August 28 in 1821. He and his followers had led the final revolt against Spanish domination; as self-proclaimed emperor he had just signed the Treaty of Cordoba. All the dishes at the banquest were concocted of ingredients of the color of the Mexican flag; in this dish were the green chilies, the white sauce, and the red pomegranate seeds.
This dish is a bit involved, but the effort is worth it. It really is an extraordinary blend of flavors. And if you ever get to Guyamas Restaurant in Tiburon, Mill Valley California, by all means order it! You won’t be disappointed.
Chiles en Nogada (Chilies in Walnut Sauce) Recipe
You must start this dish one day ahead by soaking the walnuts for the nogada sauce overnight.
Ingredients
The Picadillo:
- 2 lbs of boneless pork
- 1/2 onion, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1 Tbsp salt, or to taste
- 6 Tbsp of lard or the fat from the broth
- 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- The cooked meat (about 3 cups - note if you use more than 3 cups, you will need to increase the amounts of the other ingredients)
- A molcajete (mortar and pestle)
- 8 peppercorns
- 5 whole cloves
- 1/2 inch stick cinnamon
- 3 heaping Tbsp of raisins
- 2 Tbsp blanched and slivered almonds
- 2 heaping Tbsp acitron or candied fruit, chopped
- 2 tsp salt, or to taste
- 1 1/2 pounds of tomatoes, peeled and seeded
- 1 pear, cored, peeled and chopped
- 1 peach, pitted, peeled and chopped
Method
1 Cut the meat into large cubes. Put them into the pan with the onion, garlic, and salt and cover with cold water. Bring the meat to a boil, lower the flame and let it simmer until just tender - about 40-45 minutes. Do not over cook. Leave the meat to cool off in the broth.
2 Strain the meat, reserving the broth, then shred or chop it finely and set it aside. Let the broth get completely cold and skim off the fat. Reserve the fat.
3 Melt the lard and cook the onion and garlic, without browning, until they are soft.
4 Add the meat and let it cook until it begins to brown.
5 Crush the spices roughly in the molcajete and add them, with the rest of the ingredients to the meat mixture. (If you don't have a molcajete, you can use the blunt end of a pestle to crush the spices in a bowl.) Cook the mixture a few moments longer.
6 Add chopped peach and pear to the mixture.
The Chilies:
- 6 poblano chiles (you MUST use this type of chile)
7 Put the poblano chiles straight into a fairly high flame or under a broiler and let the skin blister and burn. Turn the chiles from time to time so they do not get overcooked or burn right through. (See How to roast chile peppers over a gas flame tutorial using Anaheim chiles.)
8 Wrap the chiles in a damp cloth or plastic bag and leave them for about 20 minutes. The burned skin will then flake off very easily and the flesh will become a little more cooked in the steam. Make a slit in the side of each chili and carefully remove the seeds and veins. Be careful to leave the top of the chili, the part around the base of the stem, intact. (If the chilies are too hot - picante, let them soak in a mild vinegar and water solution for about 30 minutes.) Rinse the chilies and pat them dry.
9 Stuff the chilies with the picadillo until they are well filled out. Set them aside on paper towels.
The Nogada (walnut sauce)
The day before:
- 20 to 25 fresh walnuts, shelled
- cold milk
10 Remove the thin papery skin from the nuts. (Note, these are Diana Kennedy's instructions. I have found it virtually impossible to remove the skins from the fresh walnuts that come from our walnut tree. The above photo shows the sauce which includes the skins. I think it would be creamier without the skins, but what can you do? We found that blanching the walnuts did not help get the skin off. Completely cover the walnuts with cold milk and leave them to soak overnight.
On serving day:
- The soaked and drained nuts
- 1 small piece white bread without crust
- 1/4 lb queso fresco
- 1 1/2 cups thick sour creme (or creme fraiche)
- 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
- Large pinch of cinnamon
11 Blend all of the ingredients in a blender until they are smooth.
To Serve
To assemble the dish, cover the chilies in the nogada sauce and sprinkle with fresh parsley leaves and pomegranate seeds.
Wow that looks good. I shall pass that along to my step dad…he loves his chile poblanos and rellanos.
Both my mother and I have made this recipe and it is delicious, although as you pointed out, very rich. My husband bought some chilies today in anticipation of making some again this weekend.
moo
Hi Jo, let us know if your step dad tries the recipe and if so, how it turns out for him.
Hi Moo, oh yum, these chiles on top of Thanksgiving weekend no less. That’s an extended feast.
I always make this very same recipe for our Christmas dinner in Houston, Texas. It is one of my favorite dishes in the world, BUT, I do hate peeling those walnuts! Does anyone know of a source for buying them already peeled/blanched? I have tried the soaking-overnight method, but it still takes hours and hours to get the skins off. Thos little pickers that go with the old-timey wooden nut bowls help, but nothing helps ENOUGH. Today, I read an article that suggests that you should drop the shelled nuts in boiling water for 2 minutes and then dip them in ice water. I’m going to try that, to see if it’s any better. Also, last year, I was advised to buy FRESH walnuts, and that seemed to help some. I was able to find them at our local Farmer’s Market, and I paid a little extra to have them shelled. No hope for getting them peeled, though.
Any ideas, Anyone?
Marian
Hi Marian,
I feel your pain. We have 5 walnut trees here so our walnuts are as fresh as they get and I still can’t get the skins off. I have seen walnuts where the skin just slides off, but I don’t remember where. Perhaps it has something to do with altitude and humidity? We’re in the humid lowlands. Let us know if the ice water method works!
This sounds so good! One question – it’s supposed to be served room temp, correct?
Hi Vicki,
I think I remember the chilis being slightly warm, and the sauce being slightly cool when we made it. It’s been a while since I had it at the Guyamas Restaurant, so honestly I don’t remember if the whole dish is supposed to be at room temp.
I had it at Guaymas a couple of weeks ago and the chiles were definitely warm and the sauce was slightly cooler, perhaps just from the chiles. Either way, the dish itself was not room temperature. Great dish and Guaymas was a great restaurant. Best tamales I’ve ever had!!
Hi Drew, thanks for the report back on Guaymas. I love everything I’ve ever had there.
On a recent visit to San Antonio, I stayed at a wonderful B&B named Bonner Gardens and the proprietess recommended LaFonda restaurant where I had my first Chile de Nogada!!! It was a special for Mexican Independence Day. It was a feast for the eyes as well as the palate! I will try to reproduce it at a later date and thanks for ALL your tips!!
This blog is GREAT! I feel like I’m in on a phone call about my favorite subject…Mexican food. I live in Ohio and I’ve tried poblano peppers out here and have been always disappointed in the flavor compared to western poblanos. I don’t know if they were locally grown (probably). I really want to try this recipe but, I don’t want to go through all the trouble for a bad pepper. I probably will anyway. Well as usual I’m blabbing, I was wondering if anyone can direct me to a real good Mexican food recipe site. This one is the best so far for authenic recipes. Thank you and pardon me for my spelling.
Chiles en nogada can be served cold or, preferably, at room temperature. They shouldn’t usually be served warm. This applies to both the chiles and the “nogada” or walnut sauce. If you are using fresh walnuts, you should most definitely peel the skins from the nuts, as the skins will give the sauce a bitter flavor. However, if you are using shelled walnuts from a bag, you can go ahead and use them with the skin and all. The only difference will be a slightly less white sauce with some very small, almost undetectible brown speckles. Hope this helps. Buen provecho!
Just tried this dish @ the red cabbage restaurant in Puerta Vajarta and it was fantastic. Can’t wait to make it myself. The chilies were served cold and the sauce was room temprature. delicious!!
Ok, so, I am actually from Puebla and your recipe sounds good, though not completely accurate but, ok in essentials, I mean, you´re supposed to add manzana panochera (a kind of mix between a red and a yellow apple) and platano macho (a harder, darker type of banana) to the picadillo and it is supposed to be capeado in the end, that is covered in beaten egg whites then fried in a lot of oil until golden then you pour the nogada on top of it and so on… ok I’m not that great with English but you get the idea right? By the way your roast beef recipe is awesome!!! (the main reason I found this page)
I have been wanting to try Chiles en Nogada for so long and now that I have the recipe I will! I saw the movie Como Agua Para Chocolate and that’s where I saw this dish and it looked soooooooo good I can’t wait to make it.
Elise, thank you for this- it sounds wonderful. I’m planning to make it! I saw it also in the out-of-print cookbook, California Rancho Cooking, without the sugar in the sauce. I bet both ways are good.
I have learned to make Chiles en Nogada as a mother to mother tradition in the family (though we don’t really know who was the first). When we are able to find fresh walnuts we peel them at once and freeze them in milk to prevent them from drying. But if we use dry ones in a bag, we put those in the blender to make the sauce. However, we make a not so sweet nogada since the filling should be a little sweet from the fruit and put in the blender the fresh cheese, half a small cream cheese, the nuts, sour cream, a little bit of milk and salt and pepper.
You will find thousands of different ways to eat Chiles en Nogada, my family eats them battered in egg whites as well as without batter and at room temperature, but some people eat them warm.
I believe you should try to find which way they taste better for you and enjoy them since they are only eaten between august and september when you find all the ingredients fresh in Mexico
The original recipe calls for peeled walnuts because the skin makes the sauce bitter. The best way to peel them is to leave the walnuts in cold water for ona night, on the next day the skin will ve soft and will peel easily. I have done this and its not difficult at all.
Saludos, disfruten el platillo.
To peel walnuts, the easiest way is to toast them. I learned this technique from “The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen” by Peter Berly (Harper Collins, 2000) Place shelled walnuts on a cookie sheet in a 350° oven for about 7 or 8 minutes, stirring halfway through so nuts toast evenly. The bitter skins become brittle and the oil released by the nuts help to loosen their skins. Toasting the nuts also brings out the flavor carried by the oil. Using a crumpled net bag helps to rub the skins off as well. It is still tedious. Toasting this way works for pecans as well. But almonds need to be blanched and skinned before toasting.
For all lovers of this recipe, I highly recommend reading or viewing “Like Water for Chocolate,” the novel by Laura Esquivel, and the movie with a screenplay written by the same. This traditional dish is served at a wedding feast, and the description of the preparation (and the enjoyment) will have your mouth watering and you will be clamoring to enjoy such a wonderful delicacy! Also, a traditional recipe is included in the book, though it’s for 25 chiles, and the directions are actually scattered throughout the chapter. Nonetheless, food lovers (and all lovers) should read this book or see the movie, or better yet, both! (The book is what sent me in search of a recipe I could follow more easily than that in the book. I simply must try it!)
I just got back from Puerto Vallarta and also had these at the Red Cabbage Restaurant. The single most incredible combination of flavors I have ever experienced. The restaurant has a cookbook, which credits the nuns of Puebla with this dish, among many other culinary creations. Much credit goes also to the fantastic chef Chuy at the Red Cabbage.
I’m a San Francisco native with Chiles en Nogada as my utmost favorite Mexican dish. I’ve been living in Mexico for about 11 years and I’ve tried the walnuts here. They are definitely of a different variety, though I can’t say which. The flesh is so much softer and whiter when you buy them fresh, unlike the ones I’ve tried back in California, and they peel like a charm. They are called “nuez de la Castilla” here (well, at least in Mexico City; can’t be sure of the rest of the country) and their texture is even a bit rubbery. There is no one recipe for Chiles en Nogada because everyone in Mexico seems to have their own variation on the recipe, like every other dish here. And that, I think, is the beauty of cooking.
So for everyone who has been having trouble with the walnut peeling, just know that it’s the variety of nut and not the blanching or or the soaking.
Absolutely the best dish I have EVER made. If you make the filling a day ahead of time it would be less time consuming. I am considered an excellent cook and this is now my favorite dish. Only problem, can only make it when pomegranites are in season in the fall. Thank you so much.
I was in Mexico City at the end of August and had Chiles en Nogada for the first time at a little hole-in-the wall cafe/restaurant in the middle of a market near Frida Kahlo’s house. I thought I had died and gone to heavan! I even took pictures of the dish so I could remember it, and asked the cook to tell me, on video, how she prepared it. Then I had the pleasure of eating at Las Mananitas in Cuernavaca – where I promptly ordered Chiles en Nogada again. (I also highly recommend their Mojitos) Absolutely riquisimo! It was served very warm at the cafe, though the sauce was cold. Las Manaitas served the entire dish cold. Both were fabulous.
I had this in Tepoztlan, except it had ground beef. I’m not going to lie. I hated it because it was way too sweet for me. I think this is just personal taste that I, in general like my meet savory or spicy and not sweet. To each their own.
— STUFFING —
Ground Beef and/or pork (Picadillo… very small)
Olive Oil
Onion
Garlic
Potato
Tomato Puree
Carrot
Salt
Pepper
>>> FRUITS (Mix into stuffing at the end, cook for 6 mins)
Apples
Pears
Peach
Plantain
Candied Cactus Leaves “Acitron”
Raisins
Almond and/or Pecans
Sugar
>>>> SPICES (bouquet garni or mortar and pestle)
Cinnamon
Thyme
Marjoram
Bay leaf
Cloves
Allspice
— POBLANO CHILIES —
Roast in a sauce pan with olive oil on high.
Put in plastic bag 20 mins.
Devein and peel in cold water.
— NOGADA — (Blended sauce)
Queso Fresco
Sour Cream
Half and Half or Creme Fresh (optional)
Worcestershire (optional)
Ground Pecans or Walnuts
Honey (optional)
Milk can be added to thin out the sauce
White Wine (optional)
Salt and Pepper
— GARNISH —
Pomegranate Seeds
Cilantro or Parsley
Pine Nuts
Elise, you can imagine how excited a was to discover that this recipe was available to me. I just last weekend discovered Tiburon and the Angel Island ferry. We capped off a magical family bike/ferry trip with a trip to the candy store and probably the best mexican food I have ever tasted.
It was pure luck that I picked the Chile Relleno, something I hardly ever order. Guyamas staff, location and food are perhaps one of the most amazing dining I have experienced in years. Que Rico!
Yummy! I just love this dish, and although it is a lot of work, it is worth all of it. This was made up by the nuns in a convent, where they cooked for Iturbide, and actually, it is the most famous kitchen in Mexico, all covered in talavera tiles.
The nuts are Nueces de Castilla, is a variety, hard, rugged shell, almost yellowish, very hard shell, but easy to peel. Otherwise, I use pecans, but either way it is easier to soak them overnight, next day peel them, and then soak them in milk.
Chilies are not supposed to be fried, they are served either warm or at room temp. They are GREEN, the sauce is WHITE and the pomegranate is RED, our flag colors, and the sauce must be eaten within two days because it curdles.
Enjoy!
I LOVE chilies en nogada. We make sure we’re in Vallarta every year during Mexican holiday just so we can have chilies en nogada at the best place ever! Of course, I can’t think of the name. I just know it’s on the Malecon. At that restaurant, the nogada dish is served warm and is less “sweet” and is absolutely delicious. At another place, in Nuevo Vallarta, the dish is served cold, with the salads, and is a bit sweeter. I now make it every Christmas Eve and am on my way to the grocer for the ingredients today. I usually soak the walnuts in milk overnight and use a new fingernail brush to scrub them clean. It’s a pain but worth it.
I just had this dish for the first time a few weeks ago in San Miguel de Allende. I’m still thinking about it. I’m pleased to learn that Guaymas restaurant makes it and plan to try it there soon. For more information about the restaurant where I enjoyed it and for the recipe used there (which uses ground beef), check out my blog
http://travelswithcarole.blogspot.com/2009/10/good-eats-bugambilia-san-miguel-de.html
Can I combine the chiles en nogada with wine? if so, which one?
Great question, I have no idea. I usually drink beer with Mexican food. If anyone else has suggestions, please chime in. ~Elise
If you put a cream cheese (8 oz)and 2 liters of heavy cream to the shelled walnut 250grs. ,1 teaspoon of clove , 1 spoon of cinamon, and sugar to taste and mix everything in the mixer. You will love it.
A Mexican friend of mine suggests using blanched almonds instead of the walnuts because of the peeling problem. She said it isn’t perfectly authentic, but is a lovely dish in its own right. I haven’t tried it, but she is a GREAT cook. Everything she ever made for us has been fantastic, so I’m guessing this would work.
Hi amigos:
I love them! so good, one the best delicatessen we have in mexican gastronomy ..a tip, to remove the skin from walnuts, you have to put them in very hot water for 3 min, try to smash them with your fingerprints, moving your fingers, and voila! the skin is believed to be soured, that is why you have to remove it; the chiles with the stuffing can be cold, or at room temp, but the walnut sauce has to be hot, definitive! and its got to be pork, or at least meat, or half & half, never chicken. greetings
I think if you will pick the walnuts a few days before they are fully ripe, they will peel easily. I have done that here in California. the meat is white and has a lovely cartilagenous texture; the flexibility of the young nuts allows the skin to come off easily. I use these peeled nuts also in making the famous Italian walnut sauce for pumpkin ravioli.
My absolute favourite Mexican dish. First tried it in a restaurant at the base of the mountain temple in Tepoztlan. Has anyone ever tried using fresh chestnuts instead of walnuts? Is this totally blasphemous or does anyone think it will work?