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Guatemalan chicken stewed in a green sauce, jocón, served with white rice
Prep25 min
Cook1 hr 15 min
Serves5 servings
CuisineGuatemalan
Latin America & Caribbean

Jocón: Guatemalan Chicken in a Green Sauce

A recipe for jocón, Guatemala's chicken stew. Shredded chicken simmers in a green sauce of tomatillo, cilantro, scallions, and green chiles, thickened with toasted pumpkin seeds, sesame, and tortillas. Covers its Maya ceremonial roots, how it differs from pepián, and how to get the sauce thickness right.

Total: 1 hr 40 minLevel: Intermediate

Cooking flow

Cooking steps

STEP 11 / 6

Poach the chicken

Poaching bone-in chicken in a large pot and skimming the scum
Clear juices after a skewer is pushed in mean it is cooked

In a large pot, combine 1.2 kg bone-in chicken, 4 cups water, and 2 tsp salt over medium-high heat. Once it boils, reduce to medium-low and poach for about 40 minutes, skimming off the scum from the surface. Push a skewer into the thickest part of the meat: the chicken is cooked when the juices run clear and there is no pink near the bone.

STEP 22 / 6

Shred the chicken and strain the broth

Shredding the poached chicken by hand and straining the broth
Remove the bones and skin, then shred into large pieces

Lift the chicken into a bowl and let it cool for about 10 minutes, until you can handle it. Remove the bones and skin and pull the meat into large shreds by hand. Strain the poaching liquid through a sieve and set aside 2–2 1/2 cups for the sauce. The rest can be used as the cooking water for the rice.

STEP 33 / 6

Toast the pumpkin seeds and sesame

Toasting pumpkin seeds and sesame in a skillet until lightly colored
The sesame pops and the pumpkin seeds puff up and take on a light color

Put the pumpkin seeds and sesame in a dry skillet over medium heat and toast for 3–4 minutes, shaking constantly. When the sesame starts to pop, the pumpkin seeds puff up and take on a light color, and a toasty aroma rises, turn off the heat. Left in the hot pan they will scorch from residual heat, so move them to a plate right away. When cool, grind them to a fine powder in a spice grinder.

STEP 44 / 6

Make the green sauce

Blending tomatillos, cilantro, and ground seeds into a green sauce
A smooth, deep green sauce with no visible bits

In a blender, combine the ground seeds and sesame, the squeezed tortillas, tomatillos, cilantro, scallions, green chiles, and 1 cup of the poaching liquid. Blend for 1–2 minutes until you have a smooth sauce with no visible bits. If the blender struggles, add the poaching liquid 2 tbsp at a time or blend in two batches.

STEP 55 / 6

Simmer the chicken in the sauce

Simmering chicken in green sauce and stirring from the bottom of the pot
The sauce stays thick and coats the chicken well

Return the chicken to the pot and pour in the green sauce. Add the remaining 1–1 1/2 cups poaching liquid and stir, thinning it until the sauce falls from the spoon in a slow ribbon. Simmer over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring from the bottom now and then. A sauce full of seeds and tortilla settles and scorches easily, so do not stop stirring. It is done when the sauce stays thick and clings well to the chicken.

STEP 66 / 6

Adjust the seasoning and serve

Jocón in a deep plate with rice and tortillas
Served in a deep plate with rice and tortillas

Taste and adjust with salt. If the sauce has become too thick, thin it a little at a time with poaching liquid or hot water. Serve in deep plates with white rice and warm tortillas. Simmering dulls the green of the sauce a little, so finish with finely chopped cilantro to bring the color back.

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Ingredients

Ingredients

1 / 3

Chicken poaching liquid

Ingredient Amount Substitutes & notes
Bone-in chicken 1.2 kg Drumsticks or bone-in thighs. Chopped into pieces is fine
Water 4 cups (about 950 ml)
Salt 2 tsp
2 / 3

Green sauce

Ingredient Amount Substitutes & notes
Pumpkin seeds (hulled) 1/4 cup (about 35 g) If you have none, double the sesame
White sesame seeds 1/4 cup (about 35 g) If using sesame paste or tahini, use a little less
Corn tortillas 2 Tear into small pieces, soak in water, and squeeze dry
Tomatillos 1 cup (about 200 g) If canned, drain first
Cilantro 1 bunch (about 50 g) Roughly chopped, stems included
Scallions 1 bunch (about 100 g) Roughly chopped
Green chiles 1–3 Seeded and roughly chopped. Jalapeños work
Chicken poaching liquid 2–2 1/2 cups (about 480–600 ml) 1 cup for the blender, the rest for thinning
3 / 3

To serve

Ingredient Amount Substitutes & notes
Cooked rice 5 bowls (about 750 g) Cooking it in the leftover poaching liquid adds flavor
Corn tortillas 10 Warm before serving
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Once tomatillos, cilantro, scallions, and green chiles start spinning in the blender, a bright green sauce comes together in no time. Add ground toasted pumpkin seeds and sesame plus soaked tortillas, and the sauce turns a deeper, slightly muted green and thickens. Return shredded chicken to the pot to simmer in it, and you have jocón, the green stew that Guatemala's Maya people have handed down. It is served with white rice and tortillas.

A Maya Stew Whose Name Means "Green Sauce"

Jocón with white rice and tortillas on a Guatemalan family table

The name jocón is said to come from "jok om" in K'iche', one of the Maya languages, meaning "green sauce." The Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre describes jocón as a dish built from green ingredients: miltomate (tomatillo), green pepper, scallions, cilantro, and celery. As the name says, the color on the plate is the dish's whole personality.

In Guatemala, the sauce for a stew like this is called a recado. Antigua-based photographer Rudy Giron, on his blog, tells the two apart as "the brown Maya curry," pepián, simmered in a brown recado, and "the green Maya curry," jocón. Calling them curries is only a figure of speech, but the method of grinding toasted seeds and aromatics into a sauce really is close to curries that toast and grind spices.

Good to know

What Guatemalans call miltomate is what Mexicans call tomatillo: a green fruit wrapped in a thin, papery husk like a ground cherry, with a bright tang. Cilantro is sometimes called culantro in Guatemala.

From Ceremonial Dish to a Specialty of Huehuetenango

A traditional plate of jocón with corn tamalitos

According to Prensa Libre, jocón was originally made only for ceremonies. Over time it spread to everyday tables and became a signature dish of Huehuetenango, the department in northwestern Guatemala on the Mexican border.

Traditional jocón is made with hen and eaten with small corn tamales (tamalitos). A Spanish-influenced version uses young chicken and is paired with white rice. It is interesting that tamalitos or rice shows you the layers of history the dish has passed through. This recipe uses the easier combination of chicken and rice.

The biggest obstacle when making it outside Guatemala is the tomatillo. Fresh ones may be hard to find where you live, but canned or jarred tomatillos are available at many Latin American grocers and online. With those, you can get quite close to Guatemala's green sauce.

Ingredients (serves 5)

Jocón ingredients: bone-in chicken, tomatillos, cilantro, scallions, green chiles, pumpkin seeds, sesame, and corn tortillas

This formula is based on a recipe (serves 4 to 6) from Whats4Eats, a US website for home cooking from around the world, adapted to measures that are easy to use.

Tip

Use hulled pumpkin seeds, sold as "pepitas" in the nut or baking aisle or at Latin American grocers. Toasting the pumpkin seeds and sesame before grinding them gives the sauce its toasty flavor and its body.

Warning

Sesame is a common allergen. Do not serve this to anyone with a sesame allergy. Green chile heat lives in the seeds and white pith, so keep your hands away from your eyes after cutting them.

How to Make Jocón

Allow about 25 minutes of prep and about 75 minutes to poach the chicken and simmer it in the sauce. While the chicken poaches, toast the seeds and prepare the sauce ingredients to keep things moving.

Warning

A thick sauce at a simmer can bubble and spit hot droplets. Keep the heat at medium-low and stir with a long-handled wooden spoon.

Tips for Color and Thickness

Comparing jocón sauces of different thickness on a spoon

The color of jocón sauce is decided mostly by how much cilantro and scallion you use. The trick is to use plenty of cilantro, stems and all. The stems carry aroma too, and they deepen the color. The longer the sauce simmers, the duller the green becomes, so keep the simmer to around 20 minutes.

Tip

Tortillas and the ground seeds do the thickening. If the sauce seems thin, soak one more tortilla, blend it, and stir it into the pot. If it is too thick, thin it with the poaching liquid.

If it needs more brightness, add 1–2 tsp lime juice for freshness.

Tip

Over-toasted seeds and sesame turn bitter and make the sauce brownish. Take them off the heat at the stage when they have just taken on a light color to keep the sauce green.

Variations: With Pork, or With Only Sesame

A variation of jocón made with cubed pork

You can also make it with cubed pork shoulder instead of chicken. Use the pork as is without shredding, and poach it longer than chicken until tender. The fat's richness melts into the sauce for a fuller result.

If you cannot find pumpkin seeds, increase the sesame to 1/2 cup. If you use sesame paste or tahini in place of sesame seeds, use a little less. In either case, the toasted seeds are the core of the toasty flavor, so we recommend not skipping the toasting step.

How to Eat It

Finished jocón with white rice and tortillas
Served with white rice and warm tortillas

Spoon plenty of sauce over white rice. Scooping up the sauce with a tortilla is also a very Guatemalan way to eat it. If you cook the rice in the leftover poaching liquid, the chicken's savoriness carries into the rice and blends well with the sauce.

For another Guatemalan stew, try making it side by side with pepián, which is simmered in a brown recado. Even with sauces built from toasted seeds and chiles, the color and aroma are completely different. Kak'ik, the red turkey soup, is another Guatemalan dish that carries on Maya tradition.

FAQ

Canned tomatillos, hulled pumpkin seeds, and white sesame laid out

Can I make it without tomatillos?

The tang and green aroma of tomatillos are the foundation of jocón's flavor, so get canned ones if you can. There is no easy substitute for tomatillos, so canned or jarred ones from a Latin American grocer or online are the reliable choice.

Can I adjust the heat?

Adjust it by the number of green chiles. If you do not like spicy food, use 1 and remove the seeds and pith completely. For more heat, add more.

Can I make it ahead?

Once cool, refrigerate in an airtight container, and thin with a little water or poaching liquid when reheating. We cannot give a firm number of storage days, so finish it soon. Reheating dulls the green further, so scatter chopped cilantro to restore the look.

What if I do not have a blender?

An immersion blender works too. Put the ingredients in a deep container and blend a little at a time. If you use a mortar, grind the ground seeds, cilantro, and scallions first, then add the tomatillos and tortillas.

Sources

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