🇲🇽 Mexico · Gulf coast of Mexico, Veracruz (also Tamaulipas)
ChilpacholeVeracruz crab soup
A spicy seafood soup of the Mexican Gulf coast: crab (shrimp, fish or a mix are also used) in a tomato broth of dried chile (guajillo and ancho, or chipotle), garlic and epazote, thickened with fried blended corn tortilla and masa.
Origin and history
Chilpachole is a crab soup typical of the Gulf coast of Mexico, a seafood stew common on the coast of Veracruz and found in parts of Tamaulipas, which one site calls a Mexican take on bouillabaisse. According to Veracruz journalist Francisco Javier Santamaría (1886-1963), the name comes from Nahuatl chili, chile, and patzolli, which he translated as tangled or mixed-up food. It is served at Veracruz-menu restaurants, including in Mexico City.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 servings
- Total time
- 1 h
- Hands-on
- 40 min
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil, plus a little more for the sauce
- 4 whole small crabs (jaibas), cleaned; blue crabs or similar
- 1 onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 4 tomatoes, cut in pieces
- 5 dried chipotle chiles, stemmed, seeded and deveined
- 2 dried guajillo chiles, stemmed, seeded and deveined, torn in pieces
- 2 corn tortillas
- 1 tbsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 liter (4 cups)4 cups fish or shellfish broth
- 1 cup (about 150 g)1 cup crab meat (pulpa de jaiba)
- 400 g14 oz peeled shrimp, optional
- 5 leaves epazote, El Gourmet's amount; or 1 sprig
- salt, to taste
- fresh cilantro, lime wedges and tostadas or totopos, to serve
Method
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1. Heat the 2 tbsp oil in a large pot over medium heat and fry the whole crabs until they turn red. Lift them out and set aside.
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2. In the same pot cook the onion, garlic, tomatoes, chipotle, guajillo and tortillas until everything changes colour and softens.
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3. Blend this with 2 cups (500 ml) of the broth until smooth, then strain.
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4. Return the sauce to the pot with a little oil and cook, stirring, until it boils.
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5. Add the remaining broth, the pepper, the crab meat, the fried crabs, the epazote leaves and the shrimp if using.
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6. Simmer over medium heat for about 20 minutes, then season with salt.
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7. Serve in large bowls, each with a crab, and garnish with cilantro and lime, with tostadas on the side.
Notes
- The soup is thickened by the blended fried tortillas. El Gourmet's version thickens with 50 g of corn masa dissolved in a little broth instead, and the Profeco consumer magazine's version uses toasted tortillas and about 100 g of liquid masa; if your broth stays thin, whisk in a spoonful of masa dissolved in cold water.
- Other forms: El Gourmet's recipe is similar but uses 3 crabs, 3 chipotles in adobo and 250 g of crab pulp; Profeco's version boils crab meat in 5 litres of water with a cheesecloth bag of crushed shells for flavour, adds epazote and parsley, and finishes the crab separately in a second sautéed guisado with bay, capers, olives and cinnamon. A chef's recipe in Grupo Animal (Aquiles Chávez) uses 1.5 kg of crabs, roasted tomatillos and serrano chiles in place of tomato and dried chile.
- Shellfish: crab is the traditional choice, but Vamonos a Mexico says the broth can be of crab, shrimp or fish, or all three, and some cooks add octopus, mussels or clams; Chilango also mentions oysters.
- Chiles: chipotle with guajillo as here; other cooks use ancho, guajillo and pasilla, and some tint the broth with achiote.
- It is usually served in large bowls as a main course; eat the crab with your hands.
- Make ahead: the sauce can be made a day in advance; add the shellfish only at the end so it stays tender.
Adapted from Vamonos a Mexico, Chilpachole de jaiba, Revista del Consumidor (Profeco), Platillo sabio: Chilpachole de jaiba, January 2022, and El Gourmet, Chilpachole de jaiba.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.