My friends at Semilla de Dioses in Merida make the most beautiful recados. You dilute them with various things like lime juice or stock and rub them over other things like chicken or pork and you get some great meals. If you're in Merida, they have a little tiendita where you can taste and buy things. In Mexico City, you can get some of their things at the famous La Nicolas store, after your comida at Nicos. Stateside, you'll need to wait but in the meantime you can use a brick of the recado you see in many grocery stores and in every Mexican bodega. In desperation, there's always the Internet.

As head chef this weekend, I decided to take some of the paste and thin it with our banana vinegar. I added some garlic for good measure and mixed it to a thick liquid and marinated a cut up chicken for about 6 hours.

I cooked the chicken in a pre-heated oven of 400F for about 20 minutes and then turned the temperature down to 375F. You can check and see if the breasts are done and remove them if they are, otherwise, cook for another 30-40 minutes.

The kids loved it. I decided to serve plain buttered boiled potatoes and simple peas to make sure there were plenty of bland things to balance out the intense recado. It worked!

I think there's room for experimentation here.