The Myths About Chile en Nogada: From a Tribute to Iturbide to Its Creation by Nuns

September 15th is approaching, the day Mexicans celebrate Independence Day. On this celebrated date, we tend to eat until we’re stuffed, from pozole to chiles en nogada; food is the main star of this celebration.

Some dishes have a rather peculiar history. For example, pozole is a pre-Hispanic dish made with meat from those captured during the Florida Wars in the Postclassic era. But there are other dishes that also have an interesting history. This time, we’ll tell you about the origin of the famous chiles en nogada, one of the richest and most representative dishes of September 15th.

A 19th-Century Dish

It was 1821, the year the first Mexican Empire emerged. The Creole Agustín de Iturbide spearheaded the short-lived project that would conclude just a year later with the Casa Mata Plan promoted by Antonio de Santa Anna.

At that time, Puebla de los Ángeles was the second-largest city in the nascent Mexican state, and although much of the cultural richness of Mexican food comes from indigenous cultures, chile en nogada is unique in that it is 90 percent made with Spanish ingredients.

“Not only chiles, but mole and many other dishes are Creole. Because they are made in the town, but their origin is in Spain, and chiles en nogada is one of those dishes,” says archaeologist Eduardo Merlo. But who came up with such a combination of ingredients? According to the Santa Monica Museum, which formerly housed the Santa Monica Convent, chile en nogada (a type of chile en nogada) was born in the heart of the capital when a group of Augustinian nuns were excited to welcome the first emperor of Mexico, Augustine I, a title held by Agustín de Iturbide upon coming to power.

Bishop Antonio Joaquín commissioned them to create a dish to celebrate Mexico’s Independence and welcome the emperor, who was passing through Puebla on his way to Córdoba, Veracruz, where he would sign the Declaration of Independence.

Excited by the news, the nuns began searching for the right ingredients to create a unique dish worthy of an emperor. It was then that one of the nuns came up with the idea of modifying a dish they called “stuffed chiles bathed in walnut sauce,” which combined Mexican, Spanish, and African cuisine. The resulting dish, after several experiments, was chile en nogada (a type of chile en nogada). The preparation highlights the texture of the walnut, the color of the pomegranate, the consistency of the cream, the sweetness of the peach, the flavor of the meat, and the aroma of the parsley.