Pepián

History

Pepián is considered one of the most iconic dishes of Guatemala, a meat stew (chicken, beef or pork) topped with a complex sauce made by dry-toasting and then grinding together pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, dried chilies, tomatoes and tomatillos.

This dry-toasting-before-grinding technique, inherited directly from Maya culinary traditions, gives the sauce a smoky depth and slight bitterness quite different from simply simmered sauces; recognized as intangible cultural heritage of Guatemala, pepián remains a celebration dish prepared for major family and religious occasions.

Ingredients — serves 6

• 1 chicken, cut into pieces
• 3 tbsp pumpkin seeds
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 3 dried chilies (guajillo, pasilla)
• 4 tomatoes, 4 tomatillos
• 1 onion, 2 cloves garlic
• Potatoes and green beans, as accompaniment

Pepián, step by step

1. Brown the chicken pieces in a little oil, then set aside.
2. Dry-toast the pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and dried chilies in a pan until fragrant.
3. Toast the tomatoes, tomatillos, onion and garlic whole in the same pan.
4. Blend all the toasted ingredients together with a little water until smooth.
5. Return the chicken to the pot, cover with the sauce and let simmer until thickened.
6. Add the potatoes and green beans toward the end of cooking, then serve with rice.

Cooking method

Technique: systematic dry-toasting of the seeds, chilies and vegetables before grinding, a direct legacy of Maya culinary techniques.
Traditional equipment: a comal (clay or metal griddle), a grinding stone or blender.
Signs it’s ready: the seeds and chilies should smell fragrant and darken slightly without burning, or the final sauce turns overly bitter.

Nutrition, per serving

Calculated from the raw ingredient quantities above, divided by six servings.

Notable amount: roughly 6 g of fiber per serving, unusually high for a meat stew, driven by the ground pumpkin and sesame seeds that thicken the sauce rather than flour or cream.

Economic context

The dry-toasting technique that defines pepián is itself a way of extracting maximum flavor from modest, shelf-stable ingredients — pumpkin and sesame seeds, dried chilies — rather than relying on costly fresh additions, consistent with a dish recognized as intangible cultural heritage but still cooked as an everyday celebration food.

Source: World Bank / FAO, Food Prices for Nutrition database (Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet) v4.0, 2024 data, CC BY 4.0, DOI 10.57966/41AN-KY81. Retrieved 29 July 2026. This figure describes the cost of a healthy diet in Guatemala generally — it is not a costing of this specific recipe.

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