Chilindrón
We present one of the oldest sauces in the kitchens of Zaragoza and that can accompany meat or fish dishes: lamb, chicken, cod, etc.
Defined by some as a sauce and by others as a stew, chilindrón is the perfect combination, a union of ingredients that, well assembled, guarantees the success of a good free-range chicken or a piece of lamb from Aragon, with Geographical Indication Protected. Zaragoza shares its devotion to chilindrón with neighboring Huesca, where it stars on the tables on the day of its main festival, and with Navarra, although it is cooked there with slight variations. In Zaragoza, the chilindrón represents the stew —or sauce— that concentrates the essence of its traditional cuisine: vegetable garden and farmyard, autarchic cuisine, sublimation of the humble.
One of the best chilindrón chicken recipes that is preserved is the one bequeathed to us by the writer and poet Julio Alejandro, screenwriter for Luis Buñuel, the perfect excuse to highlight Zaragoza's condition as a cinematographic city and to visit the water park that bears the name of the Calandino filmmaker, in the Ranillas meander. Without being clear, the origin of chilindrón cannot be very old, since the essential triad that makes it up —onion, tomato and pepper— has two ingredients imported from the Americas in the fifteenth century, but it would take another three centuries for them to settle in popular kitchens. Then the Romans who made ancient Caesaraugusta great would not taste the illustrious stew. However, walking along the Roman walls, the current visitor can go to the Lanuza or Central Market, a National Historic Monument built in stone, forge and glass, in 1895, to get hold of the essential ingredients that make up the chilindrón: chicken or lamb , pepper, tomato, garlic, onion and ham from Teruel with Denomination of Origin, all of them, now yes, local products.
And it is that, already in the outskirts, we find the first orchards that are part of the banks of the Ebro, one of the most extensive areas in fruit and vegetable production. Although, only three centuries ago, the tomato was exotic, now there is even an appreciated variety that bears the name of Zaragoza. We also show off a great production of peppers and, descending a few kilometers along the Ebro riverbed, we will obtain the best sweet onions with Designation of Origin, those from Fuentes de Ebro. of proximity and, every day, they are carried by the farmers themselves, from the Zaragoza regions, to Mercazaragoza, the large wholesale market that supplies the entire city and in whose facilities is the headquarters of the Regulatory Council of the IGP Ternasco de Aragón.
The route that goes from the walls to the Caesaragusta Forum museum crosses Plaza del Pilar, a good opportunity to visit the basilica of the same name, the Renaissance palace of La Lonja, La Seo and the museums of the Fluvial Port and the Baths, among others. other tourist attractions that overlook the Ebro. Several restaurants, which include among their proposals chicken or ternasco al chilindrón dot the Roman route of Zaragoza, perfectly reachable on foot and that, after passing through the museum of the Caesaragusta Theater, must culminate in the Museum of Zaragoza from the Plaza de los Sitios, which houses valuable remains from the Roman era, as well as works from other eras, among which those by the painter Francisco de Goya stand out.
The walk allows you to get to know the Plaza de España, where the Roman Cinegia Gate used to be, today converted into the Gastronomic Cinegia Gate, a unique space in which the ancient remains coexist in harmony with numerous stalls of bars and restaurants in the city. The door also gives access to the Paseo de la Independencia and its adjoining streets, an area full of catering establishments that, when the weather allows it, open their terraces to receive a public, the people of Zaragoza, street and welcoming. Any of these restaurants can be a good choice to enjoy a good chilindrón, paired with a wine from one of Zaragoza's three appellations of origin: Calatayud, Campo de Borja or Cariñena, or with a beer from the centuries-old brewery maña, one of the few independent from Spain.
