Frango na Moranga

Pumpkin Chicken

1 medium sized pumpkin (about 5 lbs)
8 ounces Philadelphia cream cheese
3 tbs cooking oil
1 chopped onion
1 c sliced mushrooms
3 c cut up chicken
6 large ripe tomatoes
1 tbs chopped parsley
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
salt and pepper

- Cut the lid off the pumpkin and clean out the seeds. Use your hands to rub the room-temperature cream cheese inside the pumpkin.
- In a frying pan cook the onion, and garlic in the cooking oil.
- Add the cut up chicken and fry, seasoning with salt and pepper. Add mushrooms.
- Whip the tomatoes in a blender and add to the chicken mixture with the chopped parsley.
- Pour this mixture into the pumpkin, replace the lid and bake for about an hour in a 350 degrees oven, or until the pumpkin is tender, but not overcooked.

Serve with Brazilian rice. When you dish this up from a buffet table, be sure to scrape some of the pumpkin into the chicken mixture as it is delicious. This is a real favorite at our house and with all of our married children when pumpkins are ready for sale.