Chicken pieces simmered with potato, carrot, corn and peas, then finished with coconut milk and cream. It is a thick stovetop stew rather than a baked casserole, and the coconut milk places it on the Colombian coast.
A cazuela is not a casserole
The word travels badly. In the United States a casserole is something assembled in a dish and baked; in Colombia a cazuela is a thick stew built in a pot on the stove, named after the pot itself.
Nothing in this recipe goes into an oven. Everything happens in one saucepan over about forty minutes, and by the seventh step the recipe has forgotten its own title and is calling itself a soup.
The dairy goes in late
Coconut milk and heavy cream both split when they are boiled hard, and the order of this recipe is built around that.
The potatoes, chicken and broth do their fifteen minutes first. Then the coconut milk and the corn get eight to ten. Then the cream and the peas get five. By the end nothing has been at a hard boil with dairy in it.
Keep it at a lazy simmer once the coconut milk is in, and take it off promptly when the peas are done.
Coconut milk is the coastal signature
Cumin, onion, potato and chicken could be from anywhere in Colombia. The two cups of coconut milk place this on the Caribbean coast, where coconut goes into rice, fish and stews as a matter of course.
It works against the cumin rather than with it, which is the point: a faint sweetness underneath something savoury and slightly earthy.
Steering the consistency
The seventh step exists because the answer depends on the pot, the potatoes and how hard it simmered. If it has gone thicker than you wanted, broth or water thins it back out.
Do that at the end rather than at the start. It is straightforward to loosen a stew and slow to thicken one.
More Colombian chicken
- Chicken sancocho — the bigger, brothier cousin.
- Chicken vegetable soup — the same vegetables, thinner.
- Coconut fish soup — the same coconut habit with fish.
- Chicken and rice soup — for a weekday.
- Chicken pie — the same filling, under pastry.
Cazuela de Pollo FAQ
No, and that is the confusion in the name. A cazuela in Colombia is a thick stew cooked in a pot on the stovetop. Nothing here goes into an oven, and the recipe gives itself away in the seventh step by calling itself a soup.
Because it is a coastal Colombian dish. Coconut milk turns up in a great deal of cooking from the Caribbean side of the country, and it is what gives this stew its particular sweetness against the cumin and the chicken.
Near the end, after the potatoes are already tender. Coconut milk separates if it is boiled hard for long, so it gets eight to ten minutes and no more. The cream goes in even later, for five minutes.
Thicker than a soup, looser than something you would eat with a fork. The recipe builds in the fix: if it comes out heavier than you want, loosen it with more chicken broth or water at the end.
Yes. The recipe allows the cobs cut into pieces or the kernels stripped off. Pieces of cob look better in the bowl and give more flavour to the broth; loose kernels are easier to eat.
Bone-in chicken, cut up: thighs, drumsticks, whatever you have. The Spanish word was presas, which the old translation turned into prey, as in something a predator hunts.
It is marked optional in the list. Two tablespoons deepen the colour and add a little acidity; without it the stew is paler and sweeter.
📖 Recipe
Cazuela de Pollo (Colombian Chicken Stew with Coconut Milk)
Imprimir Pin ComentarIngredients
- 5 chicken pieces
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 onion (finely chopped)
- 2 potatoes (peeled and chopped)
- 1 small red bell pepper (pimentón: the fresh vegetable, deseeded and chopped)
- 1 carrot (peeled and grated)
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- 4 cups chicken broth or water
- 2 corn cobs (cut into pieces, or the kernels alone)
- 2 cups coconut milk
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 cup green peas
- Salt and pepper (to taste)
- 2 tablespoons tomato sauce (optional)
- Cilantro (chopped)
Notas
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
- Add the onion, the bell pepper, the peeled and grated carrot and the cumin, and cook for 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add the peeled and chopped potatoes, the chicken pieces, the tomato sauce and the broth. Raise the heat and bring it up to a simmer.
- Once it boils, lower the heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender, 12 to 15 minutes.
- Add the coconut milk and the corn, cut into pieces or stripped off the cob, and carry on cooking for another 8 to 10 minutes.
- Add the cream and the peas and cook for five minutes more. Season with pepper.
- If it is thicker than you want, loosen it with more chicken broth or water.
- Stir in the chopped cilantro and serve.
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