Cocido Bogotano

Name: Cocido Bogotano
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 2 h
Total time: 2 h 20 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Colombia
Ingredients: 300 g dried chickpeas (garbanzos), soaked overnight; 150 g dried habas (fava beans) or frozen broad beans; 600 g bone-in chicken pieces; 200 g chorizo (optional: traditional in some households); 4 papa criolla (Colombian yellow potato) or small waxy potatoes; 2 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered; 2 mazorca (corn on the cob), cut into 3cm rounds; 3 carrots, peeled and cut in chunks; 2 plantains (ripe or green), cut in thick rounds; 1 onion, quartered; 3 cloves garlic; 1 tsp cumin, ground; 1 tsp sweet paprika; 1.5 tsp salt; 2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped; 1 avocado, sliced, for serving

Bogotá's highland chickpea stew: garbanzos, papa criolla, mazorca and chicken slow-cooked at 2,600 metres elevation on the Sabana de Bogotá, the Spanish cocido tradition transformed by Andean altitude and indigenous crops into something entirely its own

Origin: Bogotá, Colombia

From the journey of Chickpea.

Cocido bogotano is one of the most direct surviving links between the Old and New World culinary traditions: a preparation that arrived in the Sabana de Bogotá with the Spanish colonisers of the 16th century and was transformed over two hundred years by the altitude, the climate, and the indigenous crops of the Colombian highlands into something neither fully Spanish nor fully Andean. The dish retains the Spanish cocido's essential logic (chickpeas as the protein-legume anchor, meats and root vegetables cooked together in a single pot) but replaces the Castilian ingredients with what the high plateau provides: papa criolla (a small, waxy yellow potato of extraordinary sweetness indigenous to the Colombian Andes), mazorca (fresh corn on the cob, a New World crop unknown to the original Spanish cocido), habas (fava beans, themselves introduced by the Spanish but quickly adopted), and the leaner highland chicken of Bogotá's Savanna. The result is a lighter, more vegetable-forward stew than its Castilian ancestor (the fat from chorizo and morcilla replaced by the clean flavours of the Andean crops) that is eaten as Sunday lunch in Bogotá homes from La Candelaria to Usaquén, typically preceded by ajiaco (the other great Bogotá stew) in the inexhaustible Colombian tradition of one-pot highland cooking.

Ingredients

Legumes

300 g dried chickpeas (garbanzos), soaked overnight
150 g dried habas (fava beans) or frozen broad beans

Protein

600 g bone-in chicken pieces
200 g chorizo (optional: traditional in some households)

Vegetables

4 papa criolla (Colombian yellow potato) or small waxy potatoes
2 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 mazorca (corn on the cob), cut into 3cm rounds
3 carrots, peeled and cut in chunks
2 plantains (ripe or green), cut in thick rounds

Aromatics

1 onion, quartered
3 cloves garlic

Spice

1 tsp cumin, ground
1 tsp sweet paprika

Seasoning

1.5 tsp salt

Garnish

2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped

Serving

1 avocado, sliced, for serving

Method

Place the soaked, drained chickpeas and habas in a large pot with the chicken pieces. Cover generously with cold water. Bring to the boil, skimming the foam as it rises. Add the quartered onion, garlic, cumin, paprika, and salt. Reduce to a steady simmer.
Simmer for 60–75 minutes until the chickpeas are three-quarters tender. Add the chorizo if using at the 60-minute mark.
Add the carrots and corn rounds. Cook for 15 minutes, then add the papa criolla, regular potatoes, and plantain rounds. Continue cooking for 20–25 minutes until all vegetables are completely tender.
Taste and adjust salt. The broth should be well-seasoned and slightly thickened from the starchy potatoes. Scatter fresh coriander over the pot.
Serve in deep bowls with sliced avocado on the side, white rice if desired, and ají (Colombian hot sauce). Hot chocolate or agua de panela on the side is the traditional Bogotá accompaniment.

Notes

Papa criolla (Solanum phureja) is a small, thin-skinned yellow potato of extraordinary sweetness and creaminess, indigenous to the Colombian Andes. It is sold frozen in Latin American grocery stores worldwide and is worth seeking out for this dish. Regular small waxy potatoes are an acceptable substitute but lack the characteristic flavour. Plantain (both green and ripe) is a common addition in the northern Colombian and coastal traditions of this dish; omit if unavailable.

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control