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Sancocho - a soup of meat and root vegetables - is a meal packed with as much flavor as it is history. A traditional Saturday lunch made by the matriarchs of Colombian families, Sancocho is meant to utilize whichever ingredients were available; chicken, beef, fish, sausage, green plantain, yuca, pumpkin, and Andean corn were all staples, but there is no one single recipe for Sancocho, so choose seasonal ingredients based on your taste.
This stew is phenomenal and liable to make someone fall in love with you if you make it for them, so choose your dinner guests wisely.
Here is what you’ll need for about 8-10 servings:
2 chicken breasts (or 3-4 boneless skinless thighs), cut into cubes
Optional: 1 pound of cubed stew beef
1 andouille sausage, cut into 1/2 inch slices
1 yuca or butternut squash, peeled and cut into cubes
1 plantain (preferably green), peeled and cut into chunks
3 small red potatoes, cut into fourths
2 ears of corn, cut into fourths
Optional: pumpkin, carrots, parsnips, or other root vegetables
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3-4 bulbs of garlic, minced
Optional: 1-3 small habanero peppers (depending on your spice tolerance), sliced
4 tablespoons of sofrito
1 packet of Goya sazon y achiote
Spice mix: 1 teaspoon cumin, 1 teaspoon paprika, 1 teaspoon dried oregano
12 cups chicken broth
Optional: squeeze of lime and chopped cilantro on top
NOTE: I would highly recommend prepping all ingredients and putting them in bowls or plates before beginning the cooking process, as the first half of this recipe requires a fairly quick succession of adding and removing ingredients to and from the pot. You don’t want to be struggling to cut an onion while your garlic and sofrito are burning, feel me?
Start by lightly covering your cubed chicken breasts (and stew beef) in salt, and any other appropriate spices to let them marinate for about 15 minutes (could be chili powder, Tajin, garlic salt, etc.)
In a large pot, heat some olive oil on medium. Add the chicken (and beef), searing for about 5 minutes while stirring to brown all sides.
Add the andouille sausage and cook for another 2 minutes.
Remove the meat from the pot and set aside in a separate bowl.
Add sofrito, garlic, sazon, and spice mix to the pot. Cook for about 1 minute, stirring.
Add diced onions, and saute for about 5 minutes.
Pour in the broth, return the meat to the pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes.
Add habaneros, squash, pumpkin, corn, and plantains (IF GREEN ONLY), then let simmer for about 10 minutes.
Add yuca, other root vegetables, and plantains (IF BROWN ONLY). Cover and continue simmering for another 20-30 minutes until the meat and vegetables are tender.
Taste the broth and adjust the spice to your own liking.
Serve with a chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime on top (optional).
Certified Silk Road Gourmet Foodstuffs from the Soul
Although different versions have been adopted by cooks overtime, it is believed that the dish was birthed in the Canary Islands and brought to Latin America, and originally entailed boiled fish and plantains. This recipe has made its rounds throughout Latin America, but it is believed that the modern iteration of it, the one that our recipe is based off of, is a Colombian innovation.
Sancocho is meant to be a thick soup, with it’s consistency aided by the starchy vegetables that are essential to making a fulfilling family meal, and is meant to turn even the toughest meat into a palatable texture. Some traditional ingredients would be papa pastusa or papa sabanera (native Colombian varieties of potatoes), freshly ground cumin, yuca, pumpkin, Andean corn, culantro leaves, and of course green plantain. But every cook has their own local version based off what regional ingredients are available, the time of the year, and their family’s tastes.
Here in the states we don’t have the best access to these kinds of traditional ingredients, especially in the Pacific Northwest where I live, so I’ve formulated my recipe to mainly consist of items that can be found in most grocery stores in the country, but keep in mind that Sancocho is meant to be varied and malleable based on your own setting and instinct! So long as you use starchy vegetables and some kind of hard squash, it will come out right.
While I don’t have access to Andean corn, sweet yellow or white corn on the cob - cut into fourths - is an essential part of this dish, not only to add a depth of texture to the pot, but also part of the fun is zobbling up the broth with the gnawed-on cob. And while the plantains that can be found in chain grocery stores are not always green, ripe brown work just fine for us uncultured Americans. If you’re going to make this, however, I would recommend trying to find a Hispanic market in your area, you will have a better choice of ingredients that fit well in Sancocho.
The key to getting the right flavor is staple Hispanic spices and flavorings - namely sofrito (a tomato cooking base with peppers, onion, herbs, and olive oil) and sazon (meaning “season”, sazon consists of coriander, cumin, achiote [annatto], garlic powder, oregano, salt & pepper). If you are unable to find sofrito in your store, you can make a sort of makeshift sofrito using tomato puree or tomato sauce, olive oil, garlic, chili powder, and paprika. I am an iron-stomach mans, so I always add a couple habanero peppers as well, but they are not essential if you are averse to spiciness.
This is a fantastic meal for a large family, but honestly it’s so good that I would even make it for a first date to impress them with my cooking skills. Thank you for reading this far if you have, and I hope you enjoy our recipes that don’t blow you up with pop up ads and useless information.
𝕊𝕀𝕃𝕂 ℝ𝕆𝔸𝔻 𝔾𝕆𝕌ℝ𝕄𝔼𝕋
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