Motsiyas, pronounced mowt-see-dzas, is a mixture of chopped chicken, lots of leafy greens like pumpkin tips or spinach, herbs like mint and tomato leaves, green beans, onions, seasonings, hot pepper, lemon juice, and coconut milk. A summary of an old recipe from the 1950s is that a whole chicken is deboned, leaving the skin attached to the neck. The legs, wings, bony parts, and giblets are saved to be browned and cooked in broth in a large pot. The white meat is chopped, mixed with diced veggies, and stuffed into the skin. This wrapped chicken is simmered in the pot with the rest of the chicken till done.
Another, more modern method, is to steam the chicken mixture wrapped in chicken skin, banana leaf, or foil. CHamoru motsiyas, in most recipes, end up cooking to something firm like a sausage. Motsiyas, the word, is very similar to the Spanish word, morcilla, a type of sausage.
I don’t recall having motsiyas as a kid. However, I do remember taking notes from a friend’s friend in 1995 – who ended becoming my mother-in-law, Doris Quinene, in 1996. My MIL cut the whole chicken in half, front to back, and I carefully took the skin off. She deboned the meat, chopped it up fine, did her magic in the pot, filled the skin, and secured the ends with shish kabob sticks. Finally, the packages were simmered, seam side down. My notes from 1996 said it was “GOOD” – with underlines denoting that it was really good.
I never got around to making this until now, 2020. I intended on wrapping my trial-run in banana leaves but ran out of time. Thus, I cooked it on the stove and ended up with such a delicious side dish. If you wrap this mixture in foil, I’m not sure that you want to put too much lemon juice in it – but the lemon sure does make it yummy.
This is a stove-top version of motsiyas that is thick, more like a side dish NOT a soup. I will be working on the wrapped version soon. There is not enough chicken in this mixture for it to become firm after cooking. This stove-top motsiyas recipe is delish with rice, fish, and dinanche.
This is an adaptation of my mother-in-law’s recipe from 25 years ago – omg!
Effective March 2021, PaulaQ will begin replacing Canola and vegetable/seed oils in recipes with pure lard from Reverence Farm, coconut oil, and avocado oil.
