The word 'sudado' means sweated, describing how the chicken and vegetables cook gently in their own juices under a covered pot. A staple of home kitchens and lunch counters across Colombia, sudado de pollo is the kind of unfussy weekday stew that defines Colombian comida corriente, the everyday set lunch.
Tender chicken slips off the bone into a warm, tomato-tinged sauce, with potatoes and yuca turned silky from the broth. It is gentle and savory, the kind of unhurried home cooking that tastes like a Colombian family kitchen.
Covering the pot traps steam so the chicken braises in its own concentrated juices at a low temperature, keeping it moist, while the starch from potato and yuca naturally thickens the sauce as it dissolves.
Variations
Sudado de res with beef, sudado de pescado with fish, versions adding carrot or peas, regional takes with papa criolla
On the Palate
Where Sudado de Pollo sits in the Colombian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
8 steps · 20 min
- 18 min
Season chicken pieces with cumin, salt, pepper and a little garlic.
- 28 min
Make a sofrito by sauteing onion, tomato, scallion and garlic until soft.
Watch outSauté the sofrito until the onion goes soft and translucent — this sweet base carries the whole braise, so don't rush it raw.
- 35 min
Add the chicken and brown lightly in the sofrito.
- 43 min
Pour in stock and stir in a spoon of tomato paste or sazón color.
- 54 min
Add chunks of potato and yuca, then cover the pot.
Watch outAdd the potato and yuca then cover — as they simmer their starch dissolves and thickens the sauce on its own, no flour needed.
- 625 min
Simmer gently until the chicken and root vegetables are tender.
- 78 min
Uncover and let the sauce reduce until lightly thickened.
Watch outUncover and reduce until the sauce just coats the chicken — leave it too soupy and it tastes thin over rice.
- 83 min
Finish with fresh cilantro and serve with white rice and avocado.
