Pantrucas is Chile's most comforting everyday soup — a simple broth with irregular pieces of hand-cut wheat dough (pantrucas), beef or chicken, squash, and herbs. It is the food of every Chilean winter, the simplest peasant dish: when there is nothing else, there is flour, water, and stock.
Pantrucas (also called pan-presos or pan-trucos) is one of the most traditional Chilean soups — a peasant dish born of poverty and ingenuity. The 'pantrucas' are irregular squares of wheat dough (similar to dumplings or noodles), cut roughly and simmered in a broth of beef or chicken with squash (zapallo), potato, and onion. The dish is uniquely Chilean — the name 'pantrucas' comes from the Spanish 'pan' (bread) and 'trucas' (rough/irregular), describing the rough-cut dough pieces. It is the food of every Chilean home in winter, the equivalent of chicken soup for the Chilean soul.
A bowl of golden, slightly thickened broth with soft squares of dough, chunks of beef, pieces of orange squash, and a scatter of fresh herbs. The broth is savory and warming; the dough squares are soft and pillowy, soaking up the broth. It is the most basic, most comforting Chilean soup — the taste of home.
The broth is built by simmering beef (or chicken) with onion, garlic, squash, and potato for 30-40 minutes. The dough is a simple flour-water-salt mixture, rolled thin and cut into rough squares (2-3 cm). The dough is added in the last 10 minutes — it thickens the broth with its starch while cooking through. The result is a soup that is both broth and meal — the pantrucas make it filling.
Variations
Some use chicken instead of beef; some add egg at the end; some add peas; the dough thickness varies.
On the Palate
Where Pantrucas sits in the Chilean flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
8 steps · 25 min active + 20 min waiting
- 15 min
In a pot, brown 300 g diced beef in oil; add 1 diced onion, 2 minced garlic cloves.
- 230 min
Add 200 g diced squash, 2 diced potatoes, and 1.5 liters water; simmer 30 minutes.
Watch outSimmer the broth long enough that the squash and potato start to break down and thicken it — that body is what carries the pantrucas.
- 35 min
Make the dough: mix 200 g flour, 1/2 tsp salt, and 100 ml water to a stiff dough.
- 45 min
Roll the dough to 2 mm thick; cut into rough 3-cm squares.
Watch outRoll the dough thin — about two millimetres — so the squares cook through evenly; too thick and the centers stay raw and doughy.
- 510 min
Add the pantrucas to the simmering broth.
- 62 min
Cook 10 minutes until the dough is tender and the broth has thickened.
Watch outCook until the dough squares are tender and the broth has thickened from their starch — they release starch as they go, so the soup pulls together.
- 71 min
Season with salt, oregano, and a pinch of cumin.
- 81 min
Serve hot, garnished with fresh parsley.
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