Cazuela (Clear Chicken Broth with Pumpkin, Corn and Potato)
Chile's everyday one-bowl meal: a whole potato, a wedge of pumpkin and a round of corn simmered in a clear broth, one of each per person. Leaving the vegetables in single large pieces is what makes it a cazuela, and letting the broth boil is what ruins it.
Ingredients
- Broth and meat
- Chicken legs or drumsticks · 800g, bone-in. Beef shin makes cazuela de vacuno4
- Water2 L
- Onion · Halved only1
- Carrot · In large pieces1
- Garlic · Crushed with the flat of a knife2 cloves
- Salt · Adjusted again at the end2 tsp
- One piece each, per person
- Potatoes · Small ones, whole and uncut4
- Winter squash · In 4 wedges, skin on400 g
- Corn on the cob · Cut into 4 rounds2
- Also
- Rice · Or vermicelli noodles4 tbsp
- Green beans · Go in at the end100 g
- Green pepper · Optional, finely chopped0.5
- Seasoning
- Dried oregano1 tsp
- Ground cumin0.5 tsp
- Paprika · Chile's ají de color1 tsp
- Black pepper0.5 tsp
- To finish
- Coriander or parsley · Chopped, over each bowl
- Pebre or chilli sauce · Optional, alongside
Steps
- ⏲ 15 min
Put the chicken, 2L of water, halved onion, carrot, garlic and salt in a pot, bring it to the boil, and drop the heat immediately.
- ⏲ 30 min
Skim the foam off carefully, then hold it for 30 minutes at a bare tremble rather than a bubble. Boiled hard the broth clouds and there is no undoing it — see Stocks and broth.
- ⏲ 2 min
Add the oregano, cumin, paprika and pepper. Ground spices need time in the liquid to spread.
- ⏲ 5 min
Add the potatoes whole, and the squash and corn in large pieces. Counting it out so each person gets one potato, one wedge of squash and one round of corn is the form of the dish.
- ⏲ 25 min
Simmer gently 20–25 minutes, until a skewer slides into a potato. Do not stir — stirring breaks up the squash and clouds the broth.
- ⏲ 15 min
Add the rice and green pepper and simmer 15 minutes more. For the clearest possible broth, cook the rice separately and put it in the bowls instead — see Cooking rice.
- ⏲ 8 min
Add the green beans in the last 5–8 minutes. In from the start they turn drab and soft — the same principle as in Blanching vegetables.
- ⏲ 2 min
Taste for salt. Season after 2L has reduced, not before — see Salt and seasoning.
- ⏲ 5 min
Put a piece of chicken, one potato, one wedge of squash and one round of corn in each deep bowl and ladle the broth over generously. Scatter coriander and serve with pebre.
Tips & Variations
Variations
- Cazuela de vacuno: made with beef shin or shank. It needs far longer, so simmer the meat 60–90 minutes at step 1 before any vegetables go in.
- Cazuela de banda: a generous version with both beef and chicken, served for gatherings.
- With noodles: thin vermicelli instead of rice is just as common. Noodles cook in about 5 minutes, so add them at the end.
- Which squash: Chile uses zapallo, a firm winter squash. Kabocha or butternut is closest. Avoid courgette, which falls apart and clouds the broth.
- About the name: Spanish cazuela just means "pot", so Spain and Mexico have unrelated dishes of the same name. This is the Chilean one.
- Comparable dishes: Korean samgyetang works the same way — bone-in chicken simmered clear and whole. Peruvian lomo saltado and Bolivian pique macho are Andean neighbours but opposites in character: nothing in a cazuela is fried.
Tips
- Do not cut things small. This is the only thing separating a cazuela from an ordinary vegetable soup. Potatoes whole; squash and corn in single portion-sized pieces. Cutting them up in your own bowl is how it is eaten.
- Drop the heat the moment it boils. The broth is supposed to be clear, and once it has boiled hard and gone cloudy nothing will bring it back.
- Skim. The grey foam that rises in the first ten minutes is what makes a broth murky and muddy-tasting.
- Don't stir. Broken-up squash makes the broth thick and cloudy. Once the vegetables are in, leave the pot alone.
- Green beans last. Half an hour of simmering leaves them olive and limp. Five to eight minutes is plenty.
- You can cook the rice separately. Rice in the broth releases starch and dulls it slightly. For a clear broth, cook it apart, put it in the bowls and ladle over.
- Skinning the chicken is fine. Less fat means a cleaner broth. Left on, the broth is richer but slicks with fat — a matter of taste.
- Serve it plated per person. It doesn't come to the table in the pot; portioning one of each piece into every bowl is part of the dish.
The basics behind this dish
- Stocks and Broths: Clarity, Time, and Why You Do Not Salt ThemWhat separates a clear stock from a cloudy one is temperature, not ingredients. Why you start in cold water, how long each ingredient wants, and why salt comes later.
- Salt: When You Add It Matters More Than How MuchThe same amount of salt either draws water out or seasons all the way through, depending on when it goes in. Osmosis, seasoning in layers, and why salt types are not interchangeable by volume.
- Knife Skills: Grip, Cuts, and Why Size MattersHow you hold the knife matters more than how fast you cut. The pinch grip, the claw hand, and why uniform size is a cooking decision rather than a cosmetic one.
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