Cinnamon Roasted Chicken with Pasilla Pan Sauce

Submitted by Sgt. Pepper

• Ready In: 1hr 55mins
• Ingredients: 15
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 1 chicken (about 3 pounds)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1⁄2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cracked black pepper
• 1 corn tortilla, cut in quarters
• 2 plum tomatoes, quartered lengthwise
• 1⁄4 white onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 ounces wild mushrooms, stemmed and chopped
• 3 pasilla chiles, stemmed and seeded
• 1⁄4 cup pumpkin seeds
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar

directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Split chicken down back, open up, place bone side down and press firmly to flatten.
3. Make two slits in skin near tail and tuck ends of legs through holes.
4. Combine cinnamon, chili powder, salt and pepper.
5. Brush chicken with 1 Tbsp olive oil and rub chicken with spice mixture.
6. In an oven-proof skillet large enough to hold the chicken, evenly spread tortilla pieces, tomatoes, onion, garlic, mushrooms, pasilla chiles and pumpkin seeds.
7. Drizzle 2 tablespoons olive oil over vegetables.
8. Place chicken on top of vegetables and roast until chicken is done.
9. Remove chicken from pan and brush with some of the pan juices.
10. Keep warm.
11. Add chicken stock to pan and stir up ingredients and browned bits from bottom of pan.
12. Transfer to blender and puree until smooth.
13. Return to pan, bring to boil, add brown sugar and reduce heat to low and simmer for 15- 30 minutes to thicken.
14. Cut chicken into pieces, add back to sauce to warm.
15. Serve.

Reviews

[P48422]

Sorry for the other review. I was new here at the time and didn't realize I had to write something. FWIW - I LOVE this dish! I have made it several times, and it's so good it makes you want to lick the saute pan to get every drop of sauce. Actually, you can throw out the chicken when done and just use the sauce! It's incredible. I do decrease the amount of cinnamon to 1/2 tsp, because I don't like that much cinnamon in my savory dishes. This dish goes together very quickly. As a matter of fact, I may make it again tonight!

 

[Arabannie]

This was another great recipe Mean Chef. I cut back on the cinnamon, but still found it a little overpowering for my personal taste, but that is just me. The sauce was perfect. I think it was the pumpkin seeds that really gave it an earthy flavour. I didn't have any wild mushrooms, so I used regular white mushrooms and a few dried porcini. I will definitely make this again and again.

 

[COOKGIRl]

Where do I begin with this recipe? Firstly, thank you for clear directions. The sauce reminded me of mole, but better! At first, I didn't understand why the tortilla was used, but it later became clear that it was used as a thickener. I slow roasted the chicken close to 3 hours on 325 degrees. For mushrooms, shiitakes and portabellas. For a 5# chicken I used the same amount of seasoning and it was perfect. Used my own pure chili powder blend. Did increase the brown sugar by 1 teaspoon for better balance of spicy and sweet. Served with Baked Basmati Rice (except I used morelos rice from Mexico) and Bergy's Roasted Asparagus. Sublime! Oh, the best part was slicing up pieces of the chicken, placing in a freshly steamed corn, NOT flour tortilla, adding some sauce and a few sprigs of cilantro! Please try it this way!