Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Belize is the place everyone seems to flock to come vacation time. The allure of the sandy beaches and deep blue waters, who wouldn't want to go there? Belize is also one of the least populous countries in the Americas, even better, who wants to shove their way through hoards of people on their vacation? The more I learned about the climate and the more pictures I looked at, the more I thought that it makes sense why so many people would want to go there for vacation. Not to mention it's a country of great biological diversity because of the Barrier Reef and all the forests. So of course I had to cook something from Belize if I couldn't go there myself, this place sounded too desirable to pass up!

The cuisine in Belize takes use of a lot of rice and bean dishes and to keep in line with the tropical climate, plantains and coconut milk are used frequently. I've actually had fried plantains before and they are a delicious snack and also have a significant role in the cuisine so if you've never had them, give them a go. Now aside from fried plantains, a staple of Belize is stew chicken. In fact there are so many ways to prepare stew chicken in a single country it's a little astounding. In fact this dish can be as simple or elaborate as you want it. Some recipes call for few ingredients and herbs, others add an assortment of vegetables, then there are those recipes that use a thick paste called recado. I figured a recipe with this many Mexican spices would redeem me from my practically flavorless encounter with Vatapa from Brazil.

Having never tried recado before and being near Mexico where the more unique spices are available, I decided to give one of the many recado based stew chicken recipes a go. Now recado, or more accurately, red recado is an annatto and ancho based paste. In some cases, already prepared recado mix can be found in stores and all you do is add water, I looked and couldn't find any so I went the homemade route. I was able to find both ground annatto and ancho chili powder here in Flagstaff which was a complete contrast to Africa when I couldn't find anything. Annatto, which may also be called Roucou or even achiote (which is what I found it as), is described as "slightly peppery with a hint of nutmeg". I personally couldn't find any nutmeg flavors, but I can say smelling this stuff is a little potent on the nose and made me sneeze a good couple of times. In a lot of dishes it's actually used for color as well as flavor. Ancho on the other hand is a very common chili grown in Mexico and begins a sort of purple, but matures to a dark red. The powder is also a very dark red color and considered mild and smokey. Together with plenty of garlic, this makes a wonderfully thick paste and smells fabulous.

In fact this was probably one of my favorite dishes and it's definitely thanks to the red recado since it adds loads of flavor to the chicken. I actually have some leftover recado paste and I will be finding another recipe to try with it. The chicken is stewed until it's falling apart and wonderfully tender. I ate my stew chicken with rice (I didn't have beans to add to the rice sadly), but the juices from the pot were enough to give it plenty of flavor. The chicken is also cooked with a habenero pepper which definitely adds some heat, in fact I could almost go without the pepper because the dish has plenty of flavor without the spiciness. Overall, this is a dish to be reckoned with, one I will be making again. The stew chicken can also be eaten on Johnny cakes, which are dense biscuits, but I could easily see myself eating it on a nice freshly baked roll much like barbecue beef. Definitely flavorful and definitely unique with the recado!