Bolivian · snack

Salteñas de Pollo

Salteñas de Pollo reads umami 6.2, richness 5.5 and salinity 5.4 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Bolivian snack, about 10 hr 1 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 6.2 · Richness 5.5 · Salinity 5.4 · Sweetness 5.3 · Allium 2.7 · Heat 2.3 · Marine & Briny 2.2 · Earthy 2.2 · Warm Spice 1.7 · Bitterness 1.5 · Herbaceous 1.4 · Funk & Ferment 1.3 · Fruity 1.3 · Floral 0.8 · Nutty 0.7 · Sourness 0.7

What's in it (18)

Time & effort: about 10 hr 1 min (1 hr 27 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 217.5 kcal, 6 g protein, 13.5 g fat, 18.1 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains egg — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (9 steps)

  1. A salteña is eaten standing on the street in La Paz between about nine and noon, and never after lunch. It is not an empanada by another name: the dough is sweet and orange with achiote, the crimp runs along the top like a cockscomb, and the filling is a stew that has been set solid with gelatin so that it melts back to soup inside the oven. That is the whole trick, and it is why you must eat it upright, bite the end and drink first.
  2. Make the filling a day ahead. Cook the onion in a little fat for 10 minutes until soft, add the ají paste, cumin, filling sugar and salt and fry 4 minutes until the fat runs red. Add the chicken and cook 5 minutes, then the stock, and simmer 10 minutes. It should be soupy — far wetter than any filling you would normally consider.
  3. Bloom the gelatin in 4 tbsp of cold water for 5 minutes, then stir it into the hot stew off the heat until fully dissolved. Fold in the potato and peas, pour into a shallow tray and refrigerate overnight until it is set firm enough to cut into cubes.
  4. For the dough, dissolve the sugar and dough salt in the hot water. Rub the remaining melted lard and the achiote-bloomed fat into the flour, then work in the water until you have a smooth, soft, deeply orange dough. Knead 5 minutes and rest 30 minutes.
  5. Divide into 16, roll each into a disc 14 cm across and slightly thicker at the centre than the rim, which is what stops the base from splitting.
  6. Spoon a cube of the cold set filling into each with a piece of egg and an olive half, wet the rim, and bring the edges up to meet over the top. Crimp along the seam by folding a small corner over on itself repeatedly, working from one end to the other, so a raised rope sits along the top. Pinch the ends firmly.
  7. Bake on a preheated tray at 220 C for 15 to 18 minutes, until the pastry is deep gold and shiny and you can see the filling bubbling through the seam. A hot oven and a fast bake are essential — a slow oven melts the gelatin before the dough sets and the salteña floods.
  8. Eat them within twenty minutes of leaving the oven, upright, over a plate, and bite a small hole in one end before you commit.
  9. Substitutions: butter can stand in for the lard; ají colorado paste can stand in for the ají amarillo paste.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.