Boom! Done! Your sancocho is ready to serve! Looks so good, doesn’t it? So hearty, a big stew of meat and veggies ready for you to dig in. This will fill you up for sure. Sancocho is an iconic dish in Latin American cuisine of root vegetables, meats and other vegetables simmered in broth. The name somewhat gives it away, as “sancochar” means “to parboil” in Spanish. It is a dish from the Northern Andes’ colonial times, brought from Spanish settlers and adapted by natives with local ingredients. You’ll find versions all over Latin America, reaching into the Caribbean and South America, including places like Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela, Trinidad and many others. It’s growing popularity has even reached places like the United States and the Philippines. Recipes vary from region to region and from cook to cook, but the overall feel of the dish remains the same. It can be a rustic dish, or as complex as you like, served as simple comfort food, holiday meal, or special occasion. This particular recipe is more of a Puerto Rican sancocho, as I’ve adapted this from a couple different cookbooks, one from Puerto Rican cuisine, and another South American. Let’s talk about how to make sancocho, shall we? Alternatively, add the sofrito if using in place of the onion and pepper combination. Cook for 5 minutes to soften, stirring. Garlic and Cilantro. Add the garlic and cilantro and stir. Cook for 1 minute. The Meats. Add the beef, pork and chicken pieces with the oregano. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, to brown the meats. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low heat, cover and simmer for 2.5 to 3 hours too let the meat cook, or until the meats and vegetables are tender. Serve. Serve with white rice and crusty bread, or as desired. See the Recipe Notes. Got any questions? Ask away! I’m happy to help. If you enjoy this recipe, I hope you’ll leave a comment with some STARS. Typical root vegetables include yautia root, name root, taro, pumpkin, arracacha, yuca, yams, squash, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots and others. You can easily swap them for others available to you. They are best when you peel and cut into 1-inch pieces, or bite sized to your preference. The Meats. Sancocho is often made with a variety of traditional stew meats, though you can focus on a single protein if you’d like. I have seen many recipes for chicken sancocho, beef sancocho, pork sancocho, or a mix of pork, beef and chicken. Try it with slices of pork sausage, chorizo, short ribs and others. The Chicken. Most recipes I see use whole bone-in chickens, cut up into pieces. This is great, of course, but when I am incorporating other meats, I prefer to use boneless chicken to keep the overall sancocho more consistent in texture. The Corn. This recipe calls for adding the corn in with the root vegetables for a long simmer. However, another option is to add the pieces of corn toward the end of the cook and simmer them for 30 minutes for somewhat firmer corn. Vegetables. As mentioned, recipes for sancocho vary quite a bit from region to region and can include other vegetables of choice. I’ve seen some recipes with chickpeas, cabbage, dried meats, rice, coconut milk and so much more. Feel free to really make this recipe your own with your favorite ingredients. Serve some crusty bread on the side, or even try it over other grains or noodles. You can also freeze it for 6 months in sealed freezer containers. I freeze big batches all the time. That’s it, my friends. I hope you enjoy this sancocho recipe. Let me know if you make it and how you made it your own. I’d love to hear it. Soups and stews are the best comfort food.
Puerto Rican Cuisine in America: Nuyorican and Bodega Recipes, by Oswald Rivera The South American Table, by Maria Baez Kijac
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