How To Cook Mollejas Mexican Style

Even if they might seem as a complicated dish, you can easily learn how to cook mollejas.

Mollejas are one of those foods that warm you up on a cold night. They fill you up when you find yourself to be quite hungry. It may look like an unusual food, but it is full of flavor and you may end up enjoying the texture of this stew-like dish a lot. 

So what are mollejas? These can be either the last bag of the stomach of the bird that’s made of tough muscle tissue, the neck, and/or heart of a pig.  

While in cuisine these are often overlooked because of their more robust texture, they are nevertheless full of flavor that really come into their own when cooked as part of a soup. This harder texture also means that they are very inexpensive when you purchase them. 

Good cuisine is all about exploration, and you never know if you’ll fall in love with not only the texture but the interesting taste that mollejas have. They’re not an acquired taste really, you just need to keep an open mind and enjoy the distinct flavoring that a mollejas dish has to offer.

Why Chicken Mollejas Are So Popular

In Mexico, the most common ones are chicken mollejas. These stews are generally called menudencias. It’s quite common for people who love the taste of mollejas to look forward to trying them in different states in order to explore new flavors. This rings especially true when it comes to the type of chili pepper, or peppers, that people like to use.  

When it comes to cooking them, there’s quite a lot of variation from state to state as different ingredients are favored. For instance, in the Central-East state of Tlaxcala chicken mollejas are used to prepare their red rice.

One never knows how they will taste with different ingredients, but one thing tends to remain the same, they are an explosion of flavor in the mouth when one sits down to eat.

There’s something truly special about a hearty soup. Mollejas is a dish that really does hit the spot in this way. A lot of people don’t necessarily imagine soup when they think of Mexican food unless they’re thinking about pozole or menudo. However, there are quite a number of popular ones that families are well acquainted with.

Mollejas guisadas are one of those meals that’s great to have prepared for whenever it is that your appetite strikes! A lot of people are put off. How so? For example, when they think about how they don’t eat these parts of animals for what they assume must be a good reason. 

Also, Mollejas are thought of as being pretty special. For instance, special stews with mollejas are cooked for special occasions and holidays.

Easy Recipe For Mollejas

Although mollejas are loaded with flavor. This is a good reason why so many people get a hankering for them when it gets cold out. So you may be under the impression that they must be pretty hard to cook well. While there are all kinds of recipes, and some are quite elaborate, anyone can make them. The trick is not to go overboard with the ingredients that they decide to use. 

They are actually pretty easy to prepare as long as you stick to a simple recipe like this chicken mollejas recipe. 

1. Wash the mollejas and boil them along with one clove of garlic in a pressure cooker for 30 minutes.
2. Remove them from the broth and keep the broth.
3. Separately, blend one cup of tomato puree with the broth.
4. Cut two onions, 4 Jalapeño chiles, and a little b¡it of cilantro and fry them on a frypan.
5. Add the tomato mix and let it boil for 5 minutes.
6. Add the mollejas and the remaining broth.
7. Let it all boil for 10 minutes.
8. And voila! You’re all set!

Tips And Tricks

Some people cook them along with the rest of the bird. However, there are many delicious recipes that call for them to be cooked separately.

To make sure that you use the largest kinds of chicken gizzards, you’re strongly encouraged to buy a whole chicken and then remove them. The pre-removed ones tend to be smaller as well as have less flavor. 

Mollejas are a pretty special way to step up your taco game. As a matter of fact, it’s pretty hard to find a taco place in Mexico that sells these kinds of tacos. For this reason, if you do come across one that does, you should take advantage and explore this delicious taste. 

Mollejas also make good snacks, when they are boiled with less ingredients added to them. They are quite tasty along with a good beer, particularly, you cover them with a salsa on top.

Conclusion

The ironic thing about mollejas is that despite being very inexpensive, they are full of nutrition, much of which many people lack in their daily diets. A portion of mollejas can provide 20% of the daily amount of vitamin A and niacin. However, the most nutrition that you receive is by way of proteins and minerals. It’s a great source of iron, zinc, and phosphorus.

Just make sure that you don’t eat too much in one sitting. Mollejas do have a high level of cholesterol which isn’t too healthy for proper circulatory function. 

It’s quite common in Mexico for people to drive around and serve up bowls for people who would like a meal that will warm them up on a cold night. However, there has been less interest as of late in this dish for health reasons. As a matter of fact, there are new generations that don’t even know what they are or even that they can ask for mollejas at their local butcher shop. 

All in all, when you want a savory meal that will fill you up, a bowl of chicken mollejas can make a great treat!

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