Cazuela is the most-Chilean of all Chilean dishes — everyday family dinner found in nearly every household. Brought from Spain (cazuela = casserole/earthenware pot), Chileanized with native ingredients (corn, pumpkin, potato). Variations by meat and region: cazuela de vacuno (beef, the most common), de ave (chicken, lighter), de cordero or cabrito (lamb/kid, northern altiplano). A chicken version enriched with ground walnut — cazuela nogada — is a specialty of the Aconcagua Valley / Los Andes in central Chile. Whole-vegetable pieces are canonical.
A bowl of cazuela is the most-honest Chilean home cooking. Clear amber broth, deeply beefy from long-simmered shank, slightly sweet from pumpkin and corn, herbal from thyme and cumin. Each element distinct: silky potato, soft pumpkin, fork-tender beef, hands-on corn cob, broth-soaked rice. Pebre adds brightness. Pair with Carmenère.
Two principles: (1) Whole vegetables (not diced) is canonical Chilean — keeps each component distinct. (2) Vegetables added LATE (after 60 min beef) preserves their texture. Rice cooks with vegetables in same time.
Variations
Central canonical (beef + whole vegetables); cazuela de ave (chicken, lighter); cazuela nogada (chicken enriched with ground walnut, from the Aconcagua Valley / Los Andes); modern versions with ají; lamb in the northern highlands.
On the Palate
Where Cazuela sits in the Chilean flavor cloud
Add the vegetables whole and late — after the beef has had its 60-minute head start — so each piece stays distinct and intact rather than dissolving into the broth.
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
7 steps · 30 min active + 1 hour 30 min waiting
- 110 min
Cut 800g beef shank into 4 chunks. Brown in 3 tbsp oil 8 min. Remove.
Watch outBrown the beef chunks well on all sides before simmering — that seared crust is what deepens the broth's color and savor.
- 27 min
Sauté 1 onion + 2 garlic + 1 chopped carrot 6 min.
- 365 min
Return beef. Add 2.5L water + 1 tsp salt + 1 tsp cumin + 1/2 tsp paprika + 1/4 tsp pepper + 1 bay leaf + 2 thyme sprigs. Simmer covered 60 min.
- 41 min
Add 4 whole potatoes + 4 corn cob pieces + 4 pumpkin wedges + 200g green beans + 1/2 cup rice.
- 530 min
Simmer 25-30 min until vegetables tender and rice cooked.
Watch outSimmer just until a knife slides into the potato and pumpkin easily; pull it the moment they're tender so nothing falls apart.
- 65 min
Serve in wide bowls: 1 piece beef + 1 potato + 1 corn cob + 1 pumpkin wedge + green beans + rice + broth. Garnish cilantro + lemon.
- 72 min
Eat with soup spoon + fork + hands (for corn cob). Pair with pebre.
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