Recipe: Colombian Chicken-Potato Soup Sancocho de Gallina (Ajiaco), Ajiaco (Bogota's Chicken and Potato Soup)

Colombian Chicken-Potato Soup Sancocho de Gallina (Ajiaco)

4 chicken breasts, skinned and quartered
1 medium onion, cut into chunks
2 garlic cloves, quartered
1 medium yam, cut into 8 pieces
4 cups chicken stock or 4 bouillon cubes or 4 teaspoons consomm granules dissolved in 4 cups water
6 scallions
10 sprigs fresh cilantro
2 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
2 ears corn, each cut into 4 pieces
3 tablespoons capers, drained
1 cup fat-free plain yogurt
1 avocado, peeled and sliced

Put chicken breasts, onion garlic, yam, and stock in a casserole; cover and cook over low heat for 30 minutes; remove and save chicken pieces. Strain stock through a sieve: return strained stock to casserole.

Add chicken, scallions, cilantro, potatoes, corn, and capers to stock; simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Remove from heat: discard scallions and cilantro sprigs
Add yogurt, stir over low heat for 1 minute.

Serve in deep soup bowls accompanied by avocado.

Makes 6 servings

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Ajiaco (Bogota's Chicken and Potato Soup)

2 chicken breasts
garlic and onion
chicken stock
12 small yellow potatoes, cut in halves
2 ears of corn, cut in halves
8 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 5mm slices
1 bunch scallions
1 bunch cilantro
8 T guascas
1 cups of heavy cream
2 T. capers, drained
2 avocados, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced
salt

The night before marinate the chicken breasts with garlic, onion and salt. In a heavy 4-liter casserole, put the breasts, add water, cover and cook until the chicken is tender. Transfer the chicken to a platter. Remove the skin from the chicken and discard. Cut the chicken breasts into strips. Cook the yellow potatoes in the casserole with the chicken stock until they start to disintegrate. Add more chicken stock to taste. At this point the soup should be thick and fairly smooth. Add the bunch of scallions, the bunch of cilantro, the sliced potatoes, the guascas, and the corn. When cooked remove the bunch of cilantro and the bunch of scallions. Serve the chicken on soup bowls and pour the soup into the bowls. Pour 3 T. of cream and 1 t. of
chopped capers on each bowl. Float the sliced avocado on top. Serves 4.

Note: You definitively have to use guascas if you want to call your soup Ajiaco. It's not easy to get them out of Colombia, but they give this soup its characteristic flavor.