One-pot stew of meat (beef, chicken, or fish), yuca, green plantain, corn, and potato. Coastal versions use fish and coconut; Andean versions use beef.
Spanish-Caribbean-Indigenous hybrid descended from Iberian olla podrida and African-rooted root-vegetable pots. By the 18th century it was the Sunday dish of Colombia's rural families. Each major region — Valle, Antioquia, Tolima, Caribe — claims its own.
Sancocho de gallina criolla in Valle del Cauca is cooked over wood fire in a clay pot for the smoke note. Tolima's sancocho de tres carnes (chicken, pork rib, beef) was registered as gastronomic patrimony in 2014.
Clear-broth pot when made well — never thickened with flour. Big chunks: a whole plantain section, half a corncob, a fist of yuca, a bone-in piece of meat. Broth tastes of corn, smoke, and cilantro. Rice served on the side, never inside.
Order matters: meat first for 45 min, then plantain and corn (slow root), then yuca (faster), potato last (10 min). Yuca added too early dissolves into glue; plantain too late stays starchy. Cilantro at the end.
Variations
Sancocho de pescado (Pacific): catfish or bocachico, coconut milk, cassava. Sancocho valluno: chicken, charred corn, yuca. Sancocho costeño: salted-beef (carne salada) version, no coconut.
On the Palate
Where Sancocho sits in the Colombian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8
How it's made
4 steps · 23 min active + 1 hour waiting
- 110 min
Brown 500 g beef (or chicken/fish) in oil with 1 onion + 4 garlic.
Watch outBrown the meat well first — this is the only step that builds deep flavor before everything goes to a gentle simmer.
- 210 min
Add 2 L water + cubed yuca + green plantain + corn + potato; bring to boil.
Watch outEverything goes in together but watch the yuca — it's what turns to glue if the pot boils hard, so bring it up gently.
- 360 min
Simmer covered 1 hr until vegetables soft and meat tender.
Watch outPull it off the heat the moment the yuca goes fork-tender and the plantain is soft but still holds — a few minutes over and the root vegetables dissolve.
- 43 min
Stir in cilantro; serve hot with rice on side.
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