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 · Show ↓40 min active
How it's made
8 steps · Show ↓- 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.
- 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.
- 625 min
Simmer gently until the chicken and root vegetables are tender.
- 78 min
Uncover and let the sauce reduce until lightly thickened.
- 83 min
Finish with fresh cilantro and serve with white rice and avocado.
