Sancocho de Gallina

Panama's national soup: a stewing hen simmered for hours with ñame and a great deal of culantro, served with white rice and nothing else

Origin: Panama City & the Azuero Peninsula

From the journey of Coriander/Cilantro.

Panama's sancocho is deliberately spare. Where Colombian and Dominican sancochos pile in five or six roots and several meats, the Panamanian version is a stewing hen, ñame, onion, garlic, and an enormous quantity of culantro, simmered until the broth is yellow and thick and served with a scoop of white rice dropped into the bowl. There is no tomato, no pepper, and no colouring, and Panamanians regard additions with suspicion. The herb is the dish. Culantro is Eryngium foetidum, a long serrated leaf that grows in a flat rosette, and it is not the same plant as coriander, Coriandrum sativum, although the two share most of the same aroma compounds. Culantro is several times stronger, and, unlike coriander, it survives long cooking without losing its scent, which is exactly why a soup that simmers for three hours is built on it. In Panama it is culantro; in Puerto Rico recao; in Trinidad shado beni; in Vietnam ngò gai, where the same plant is eaten raw with pho. It is used by the handful here, not the sprig. The hen is the other half of the argument. A gallina, an old laying bird, has tough dark meat and a great deal of collagen, and three hours of simmering turns that into a broth with real body that a young chicken simply cannot produce. Panamanian cooks who use a supermarket roasting bird are understood to be making something else. Ñame, the true yam of the genus Dioscorea, is the root, and it is not a sweet potato. It breaks down partly into the broth and thickens it while leaving pieces to eat, which is the same trick the region plays with green plantain elsewhere. The soup is the national dish, it is served at every gathering, and it is widely held to be the cure for the night before.

Ingredients

Chicken

  • 1 stewing hen, about 1.8kg, jointed

To prepare

  • 2 limes, juiced, for washing
  • 1 tbsp salt, for washing

Broth

  • 3 litres water
  • 1 large bunch culantro, about 40g, plus more to finish
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 10 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 tbsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp ground cumin

Body

  • 900 g ñame, peeled and in large chunks
  • 2 ears of corn, cut into rounds

Seasoning

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

To serve

  • 400 g long-grain rice, cooked, to serve
  • 1 lime, in wedges

Method

  1. Wash the jointed hen in cold water with the lime juice and salt, rubbing it well, then rinse and drain.
  2. Put the hen in a large pot with the water and bring to the boil, skimming the surface carefully for the first fifteen minutes.
  3. Skim properly. This soup has nothing in it to hide behind, and a cloudy broth is the one fault that cannot be corrected.
  4. Add the onions, garlic, oregano, cumin, and half the culantro, tied in a bundle.
  5. Simmer, partly covered, for two hours. A stewing hen needs all of it, and the broth will not have body until the collagen has gone into it.
  6. Add the ñame chunks and the corn rounds and simmer for a further forty-five minutes.
  7. Crush a few pieces of ñame against the side of the pot as they soften; they thicken the broth and are meant to.
  8. Lift out the culantro bundle and discard it, and add the salt and pepper.
  9. Chop the remaining culantro and stir it in, then take the pot off the heat.
  10. The second addition of raw culantro is what gives the finished soup its scent; the bundle that cooked for two hours has given depth and lost its perfume.
  11. Rest for ten minutes and taste again for salt; it should be well seasoned and taste emphatically of the herb.
  12. Serve in deep bowls with a scoop of white rice dropped in and a wedge of lime.

Notes

Culantro, not coriander: Eryngium foetidum, sold as recao or shado beni by Caribbean and Southeast Asian grocers, and it goes in by the handful. If only coriander is available, use twice the weight, add nearly all of it at the end, and accept that the long-cooked depth will be missing. Use a stewing hen rather than a roasting chicken. Ñame is the true yam and is not interchangeable with sweet potato; it is sold in Caribbean and West African shops. Keep everything else out: no tomato, no pepper, no achiote. Skim the broth well.

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