Panamanian · serves 6 · about 100 minutes
Panama's national pot: hen simmered with ñame and culantro until the broth could resurrect you. Sunday food, hangover medicine, and the dish every Panamanian abroad describes with their hand on their chest.
Ingredients
- 3 lbs chicken (a stewing hen if you can get one), cut up
- 1 tsp Iberia Adobo Without Pepper 16 oz
- 2 lbs ñame (or yuca), peeled and chunked
- 2 ears of corn, cut in rounds (optional)
- 1 onion, quartered
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 6 leaves culantro (the soul — cilantro stems if you must)
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 10 cups water
- 2 cups Iberia Parboiled Rice 5 lbs
Method
- Season the chicken with Adobo and brown it lightly in the soup pot.
- Add water, onion, garlic, oregano, and half the culantro. Simmer 40 minutes, skimming.
- Add the ñame (and corn) and simmer 30-40 minutes more, until the ñame starts to dissolve and thicken the broth — that's the body of a true sancocho.
- Finish with the remaining culantro, torn in.
- Serve in deep bowls with white rice — spooned in or alongside, both schools are correct.