Ajiaco Bogotano

Bogotá's three-potato chicken soup, thickened by the criolla dissolving into the broth and scented with guascas, served with capers and cream

Origin: Bogotá & the Sabana de Bogotá

From the journey of Potato.

Ajiaco is a chicken and potato soup, and the whole of its technique is that it uses three different potatoes for three different purposes. Papa criolla, the small yellow Andean potato, dissolves completely and thickens the broth to a golden opacity; papa pastusa holds partly and gives body; papa sabanera stays in firm pieces you can eat. Substituting one potato for all three gives a soup that is either thin or a purée, and Bogotanos will tell you so. The herb is guascas, Galinsoga parviflora, a plant most of the world regards as a garden weed and which grows wild across the Sabana de Bogotá. It has a faint artichoke and hay smell, it is used in no other dish of consequence anywhere, and without it the soup is chicken and potatoes. It is sold dried in Colombian shops and dried works perfectly well. The accompaniments arrive separately and are stirred in at the table: capers, thick cream, and a wedge of avocado, with an ear of corn sitting in the bowl. The combination of capers and cream in an Andean soup is unexpected and is entirely standard. The soup is associated with Bogotá specifically rather than with Colombia generally. Elsewhere in Latin America ajiaco means something else again, a Cuban root-vegetable stew in one place and a Peruvian potato dish in another; the word travels but the recipe does not.

Ingredients

Broth

  • 1.4 kg chicken thighs and breasts on the bone
  • 2.5 litres water
  • 2 spring onions, whole
  • 1 onion, halved
  • 4 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 small bunch coriander stalks

Potatoes

  • 500 g papa criolla or small yellow potatoes, peeled
  • 500 g floury potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced
  • 500 g waxy potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced

Body

  • 3 ears of corn, cut into thick rounds
  • 4 tbsp dried guascas

Seasoning

  • 2 tsp salt, or to taste
  • 1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

To serve

  • 200 ml double cream
  • 4 tbsp capers, drained
  • 2 avocados, sliced
  • 1 handful coriander leaves

Method

  1. Simmer the chicken in the water with the spring onions, halved onion, garlic, and coriander stalks for forty minutes, skimming at the start.
  2. Lift out the chicken, let it cool, and shred the meat off the bones. Strain the broth and return it to the pot.
  3. Add the floury potatoes and the papa criolla and simmer hard for thirty minutes.
  4. Break the criolla up against the side of the pot as it softens. It is meant to disappear entirely, and the golden thickness it leaves behind is the whole character of the soup.
  5. Add the waxy potato slices and the corn rounds and simmer for a further twenty minutes, until the waxy pieces are tender but still whole.
  6. Stir in half the guascas and simmer for five minutes.
  7. Add the rest of the guascas, the shredded chicken, salt, and pepper, and simmer for five minutes more.
  8. Splitting the guascas in two additions gives both the cooked depth and the fresh hay scent; all of it added early goes flat.
  9. Taste and adjust the salt. The broth should be thick enough to coat a spoon but still a soup.
  10. Ladle into deep bowls, making sure each gets a round of corn and some of each potato.
  11. Serve the cream, capers, and avocado in separate dishes at the table for each person to add.
  12. Scatter with coriander leaves and eat at once.

Notes

Three potatoes doing three jobs is the recipe, and the papa criolla is the one that cannot be skipped; frozen papa criolla is sold by Colombian grocers and works. Guascas is the other non-negotiable and is sold dried. Break the criolla into the broth deliberately rather than waiting for it to happen. Add the guascas in two goes. Capers and cream are stirred in by the eater rather than by the cook, and the amount is a matter of taste that people are firm about.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
© 2026 The Gastrographer. All original research, narratives, and illustrations. All rights reserved.