Ajiaco

Don't Make These Mistakes

Three potatoes, three jobs. Using one variety gives a thin soup.

Guascas is the flavour. Order it rather than substituting.

Cream and capers go in at the table, not the pot.

Making Ajiaco

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1. Simmer the chicken in the water with the spring onions, coriander stalks, onion, garlic and salt for 40 minutes.

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2. Lift the chicken out, cool slightly, and shred the meat. Return the bones to the pot for another 20 minutes, then strain the broth.

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3. Bring the broth back to a simmer and add the yellow criolla potatoes and the floury potatoes.

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4. Cook 25 minutes, stirring occasionally — the criollas should dissolve completely and the floury ones should start to break down, thickening the soup.

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5. Add the waxy potato slices and the corn and cook 15 minutes, until the slices are tender but still holding.

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6. Stir in the guascas, rubbing it between your palms as it goes in, and simmer 10 minutes.

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7. Return the shredded chicken and warm through. The soup should be thick enough to hold a spoon upright for a moment.

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8. Taste and season.

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9. Serve in deep bowls with a piece of corn in each, and cream, capers and avocado spooned in at the table.

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Related guide: Choosing rice.

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What's Going On Here

Three potato varieties are not fussiness: the small yellow criollas dissolve completely and thicken the soup, the sabanera holds its shape, and the pastusa sits in between. Guascas is the herb that makes ajiaco taste like ajiaco and there is no real substitute — it is worth ordering.

Storage and Reheating

Refrigerate up to 3 days; it thickens considerably. Loosen with broth when reheating.

Common Substitutions & Variations

• In a sauce, full-fat crème fraîche can usually take the place of the double cream; single cream is thinner and more likely to split if it boils, so keep it below a simmer.
• Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

Serving Ajiaco

• White rice
• Avocado and capers
• A cold beer

Ajiaco Nutrition Facts

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.

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