Panamanian sancocho

Ingredients

• Chicken — free-range, in pieces1.5 kg
• Ñame yam800 g
• Culantro or coriander40 g
• Onions2
• Garlic6 clove
• Corn cobs2
• Dried oregano1 tbsp
• Limes2
• Rice — to serve350 g
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Rub the chicken with salt, garlic, oregano and lime juice and leave it twenty minutes.

   22 min

2. 2

   Cover the chicken with three litres of cold water, bring it up and skim.

   15 min

3. 3

   Add the onion and half the culantro and simmer an hour.

   62 min

4. 4

   Peel the ñame, cut it into large pieces and add it to the pot with the corn.

   15 min

5. 5

   Cook twenty-five minutes, until the ñame is soft.

   27 min

6. 6

   Mash a couple of pieces of ñame in the broth so the soup thickens.

   5 min

7. 7

   Stir in the remaining culantro, season and serve with a separate plate of white rice.

   8 min

About the dish

It differs from the Dominican version in its plainness: one meat rather than seven, one root rather than five. Panamanian sancocho is a soup, not a stew.

Culantro is not coriander but a different plant with a sharper, more persistent flavour. Unlike coriander it survives long cooking, and it goes in at the start.

The ñame breaks down and thickens the broth. Some of it is mashed in the pot — that is the only thickener, and no flour is used.

Worth knowing

• — You want a mature hen, not a broiler. A young bird falls apart in half an hour and gives the broth no body.
• — Ñame is slippery to peel. Peel it under water or with gloves, or it slides out of your hands.
• — The rice is served separately and spooned into the bowl. Cooked in the soup, it drinks the whole broth.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

520 kcal

Protein

40 g

Fat

14 g

Carbs

62 g

More from Panama

• Panamanian ropa vieja — Shredded beef in tomato sauce with olives and capers, in the Panamanian style — drier than the Cuban.
• Carimañola — Torpedo-shaped cassava croquettes with a meat filling, deep-fried.
• Coconut rice — Rice cooked in coconut milk with caramelised coconut solids, dark and faintly sweet.