Chicken with Pumpkin Seed Sauce (Chicken Pepi├ín) — The Sunday Meal That Marks the Turning

March 2023. Spring ball with a team that returns most of its key contributors, and Diego in his junior year, which is the year everything crystallizes for a high school player. The skills are built. The body is ready. What the junior year produces is a complete player — one who knows what he's doing, not just what he's supposed to do. There's a difference. You can see it in the first spring practice. I can see it in Diego from where I stand.

He has six scholarship offers now. Colorado, Colorado State, Utah, and three Pac-12 programs. He carries this with a poise that I find genuinely impressive — not because I'm his father, but because I've seen what this kind of attention does to seventeen-year-old players and most of it is not poise. He talks about the offers with the specificity of someone evaluating programs rather than collecting trophies. He asks me about coaching staff turnover rates and graduation rates and what the average senior's draft position looks like. These are not the questions of a player being flattered. These are the questions of a player building a decision.

Sofia placed fifth at the state cross-country championship. Ninth grade, fifth in the state. I was there with Lisa. When she crossed the finish line she saw us and immediately asked, "What was my split at the three-mile?" I had been timing on my phone. I read it out to her. She nodded and said, "I need to run more miles in June." I hugged her, which she allowed briefly and then extracted herself from. She had work to do. The work is the point. I raised her and she became this and I could not be more proud of anything.

Pozole rojo on Sunday. Post-state-championship weekend, end of spring, the meal that marks transitions. We ate it on the back porch in the first real warmth of March. The twins wore shorts for the first time this year and acted like this was a major accomplishment. It is, in the way all firsts are.

When I wrote about that Sunday—the pozole rojo, the back porch, Sofia’s fifth-place finish still hanging in the air like something sacred—a few people asked me for the recipe. What I can tell you is that the spirit of that meal lives in any dish that is patient, layered, and made from things the earth gives you in the right season. This Chicken Pepiín, with its deep, toasted pumpkin seed sauce, carries that same gravity. It is the kind of food you make when something real has happened and you want the table to honor it—not loudly, but with substance.

Chicken with Pumpkin Seed Sauce (Chicken Pepiín)

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 40 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 2 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks
• 1 cup raw hulled pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
• 3 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
• 1 poblano pepper, halved and seeded
• 1/2 white onion, roughly chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 2 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
• 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth, divided
• 1 tbsp neutral oil (such as avocado or vegetable)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano (Mexican preferred)
• 1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• Cooked white rice and warm tortillas, for serving

Instructions

1. Toast the pepitas. Heat a dry skillet over medium heat. Add the pumpkin seeds and toast, stirring frequently, for 4–5 minutes until fragrant and lightly golden. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
2. Char the aromatics. In the same dry skillet over medium-high heat, place the tomatillos, poblano halves (skin-side down), onion, and unpeeled garlic cloves. Cook undisturbed for 4–5 minutes until charred in spots, then flip and cook another 3 minutes. Peel the garlic once cool enough to handle.
3. Rehydrate the chiles. Place the guajillo chiles in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Let soak 10 minutes until softened, then drain.
4. Blend the sauce. Combine the toasted pepitas, charred aromatics, rehydrated guajillo chiles, cilantro, cumin, oregano, salt, pepper, and 1 cup of chicken broth in a blender. Blend on high until very smooth, 60–90 seconds. The sauce should be thick and deep green-brown.
5. Sear the chicken. Pat the chicken dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large, deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear the chicken, skin-side down, for 5–6 minutes until golden brown. Flip and sear the other side for 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
6. Simmer in the sauce. Reduce heat to medium. Carefully pour the blended pepiín sauce into the skillet (it will spatter). Stir in the remaining 1 cup of chicken broth. Return the chicken to the skillet, nestling it into the sauce. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 25–30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened.
7. Adjust and serve. Taste the sauce and adjust salt as needed. Serve over white rice with warm tortillas alongside, spooning plenty of sauce over each piece of chicken.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 390 | Protein: 34g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 11g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 480mg