Looking for a hearty but healthy dish to warm you up this winter? Do you enjoy the aroma of warm, fresh herbs and sweet peppers? We’ve got the perfect dish for you. This amazing-looking soup will have you (or your guests) salivating in no time. And don’t worry about getting that afternoon slump.
This dish is filling but it’s not super heavy. You can safely enjoy this delicious Peruvian chicken soup at any time of day. It’s also a good option for entertaining as it’s reasonably easy to make and will impress your guests. So much better than a regular chicken soup.
If it’s an immune system-boosting meal you’re after, you’d do quite well eating aguadito de pollo a couple of times a dish (at least using the nutritious recipe we’ve provided for you here). What’s in it? Well, all the good stuff: aji amarillo peppers, onions, garlic, chives, chilli, carrots, coriander (cilantro leaves), and corn. That’s just the vegetables.
But we also have some of the most nutritional meats on the planet in the mix. While offal is not everybody’s favorite, we encourage you to try this particular recipe. The livers and chicken gizzards (mollejas de pollo) are packed full of nutrients so you don’t need to use much.
Cooked in a soup, the texture that some people find off-putting is removed. What you’re left with is a powerhouse soup full of nutrients that also tastes wonderful. If you like this soup, try our sopa a la minuta Peruvian beef and noodle recipe.
Many aguadito de pollo recipes use chicken breasts or chicken thighs, and while those are perfectly good ingredients to use, they are also a little bit bland. Well, very bland in fact. We prefer something a bit earthier, a bit more like the way the dish was originally made.
Chicken is not a native animal to Peru but once the bird was introduced by the Europeans, Peruvians and European immigrants didn’t waste any part of the bird in their cooking. In fact, the highly wholesome and health-giving offal was the most prized part.
If the gizzards (also known as sweetbreads) are too much, simply substitute with a little more liver. But trust us, the liver and sweetbreads add so much to the dish that once you try it, you’ll never go back to plain old chicken breasts.
You also won’t need to add chicken stock thanks to the rich juice and natural fats.
This is one of the most delicious dishes in Peruvian cuisine and if you like arroz don pollo, think of it as a chicken soup version of that dish. They have similar ingredients and both taste great.
Ingredients:
Aguadito de Pollo
Ingredients
For the chicken broth
- 6 cups water
- 1 medium chickens cut into pieces
- 2 sweet red bell peppers
- 1 small white onions
- 1 chive
- Salt to taste
For the aguadito
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion cut into small pieces
- 3 garlic peeled and crushed
- 1 green bell pepper without veins and no seeds, cut into small pieces
- 2 tablespoons aji amarillo yellow chili paste
- 1 large carrot
- 1 cup coriander leaves cilantro blended
- 2 ears corn
- 3 potatoes yellow, peeled and diced
- ½ cup rice
- ½ cup chicken livers
- ½ cup chicken gizzards
- 1 cup peas
- Salt
Instructions
To make the Chicken broth
- Remove the stem and seeds from the chili pepper, cut it into two parts. Peel the garlic. Peel the onion and cut it in half. Cut the stalk of the chives and slice into large pieces.
- Place the six cups of water in a large pot. Add a teaspoon of salt and the vegetables that you prepared in the previous step, and the chicken cut into pieces. Cook over medium heat for about 25 minutes, until the chicken is cooked.
- Strain the broth, removed the vegetables, and reserve the chicken pieces and broth.
To prepare the aguadito
- Prepare the vegetables for the soup: peel the onion, and cut it into small squares. Cut the stem of the green bell pepper, extract the seeds and veins. Cut it into small squares. Peel the carrot and cut it into cubes. Peel the potatoes and cut each them into four pieces.
- In another pot, place three tablespoons of oil. When it is hot, fry the garlic and onion. Then add the diced green pepper. Without stopping stirring, add the yellow chili paste. Lastly, add the carrots, cut into small squares. Cook for a couple of minutes before adding the other ingredients.
- Add all the chicken broth, the cooked chicken, the cilantro juice, and the corns. Cook for about ten minutes over medium heat, uncovered.
- Add the potatoes and rice. Stir and continue cooking for about ten more minutes.
- Lastly, add the green peas and chicken gizzards. At this point, you should only cook for an additional five to ten minutes and turn off.
- Taste and add salt to taste. If you wish, decorate with some coriander leaves.
Nutrition
Peruvian foodie. I’ve been writing about the food of Peru for over 10 years. Read more about the Eat Peru team here
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