Bogotá chicken soup with three potatoes (sabanera, pastusa, criolla), corn-on-cob, and guascas. Served with capers, cream, and avocado on the side.
Cundinamarca-Bogotá highland dish. The defining herb guascas (Galinsoga parviflora) is a roadside weed indigenous to the Andes — Muisca staple, dismissed by Spaniards as a pest. The three-potato version was codified in Bogotá kitchens by the late 1800s.
Gabriel García Márquez wrote a 1982 column lamenting that real ajiaco had vanished from Bogotá restaurants because guascas grows wild and couldn't be commercially farmed. La Puerta Falsa, founded 1816 on Calle 11, still serves a reference version.
Pale green-gold broth, thickened almost to porridge by criolla potatoes that dissolve completely. Sabanera holds shape, pastusa breaks halfway. Guascas tastes between artichoke and chamomile. Cream and capers on top, avocado on the side — assembled at the table.
Three potatoes do three jobs: criolla thickens, pastusa adds starch midway, sabanera provides chew. Adding all at once flattens texture. Guascas goes in only the last 10 minutes — boil it long and the aroma dies, leaving just grassy bitterness.
Variations
Ajiaco santafereño: classic Bogotá three-potato version. Ajiaco tolimense: thicker, uses arracacha root and pork instead of chicken. Some Bogotá families add mazorca tierna (baby corn) at the end.
On the Palate
Where Ajiaco sits in the Colombian flavor cloud
Stagger the three potatoes and hold the guascas until the last 10 minutes — the criolla must dissolve to thicken the broth while the guascas stays fresh and green, not boiled to bitterness.
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
5 steps · 16 min active + 1 hour 30 min waiting
- 160 min
Simmer 1 whole chicken in 3 L water with 1 onion, garlic, bay leaves 1 hr.
- 210 min
Remove chicken; shred meat. Strain broth; return.
- 330 min
Add 3 types cubed potato (sabanera, pastusa, criolla) + corn cobs + 2 tbsp dried guascas; simmer 30 min until criolla potatoes dissolve.
Watch outBy the end the criolla cubes should have melted into the broth, turning it cloudy and thick — if it's still clear and thin, simmer longer before the chicken goes back.
- 43 min
Return shredded chicken; salt to taste.
Watch outTaste and salt only now — the reduced broth is much more concentrated than it was an hour ago.
- 53 min
Serve with capers, heavy cream, avocado slices on the side.
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