Caldo de gallina is Peru's beloved hen soup — a long-simmered broth of stewing hen poured over noodles, with a piece of potato, half a hard-boiled egg and a generous scatter of scallion and cilantro. The mature hen gives a broth far richer and more golden than young chicken, deep and faintly gelatinous. It is above all a morning soup, ladled out at market stalls and tiny shops from before dawn, eaten steaming against the cold and credited with reviving the tired and the hungover. A wedge of lime and a spoon of ají are set on the side to brighten and heat it.
Caldo de gallina draws on two threads of Peruvian cooking. Restorative bird and meat broths run deep in Andean tradition, where a long-simmered soup is treated as nourishing, almost medicinal. The noodles set it apart: wheat egg-noodles entered everyday Peruvian cooking largely through the Chinese (chifa) influence that reshaped the country's food after the Cantonese migration of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and they became the standard body of this hen soup. The dish has no single inventor or founding date; it grew up as street and market fare, especially in Lima, where dedicated caldo de gallina stalls open in the small hours. It remains a national comfort food and a famous next-morning cure.
The broth is the heart of it — clear golden, deeply savory, with a body and faint lip-stick that only an old hen gives. Long noodles slide up with each spoonful; the hen meat is firm and full-flavored rather than soft, the potato soft and starchy, the egg adding richness. Fresh scallion and cilantro cut across the depth with a green lift, and a squeeze of lime and a dab of ají pull it taut and warm. Eaten scalding hot, it is plain, hearty and quietly fortifying.
A mature laying hen has far more developed connective tissue and intramuscular fat than a young broiler, so a long, gentle simmer is what unlocks it: collagen slowly hydrolyzes into gelatin, building the broth's silky body and lip-coating feel, while rendered fat carries a deeper savor. The flame is kept low so the liquid stays clear rather than boiling cloudy, and the foam is skimmed early. Aromatics — leek, ginger, scallion root — perfume the stock over the hours. The noodles are cooked separately and the hot broth poured over to order, so they stay springy instead of bloating in the pot.
Variations
Some cooks build a deeper stock by adding beef bones alongside the hen, and others use plain chicken when a true stewing hen is hard to find, accepting a lighter broth. The noodle shape varies from thin fideos to wider egg ribbons. A close cousin, aguadito, takes the same comforting impulse in a green cilantro-rice direction. Garnishes shift by stall — some pile on more egg, some add a sprig of huacatay or mint — and the ají on the side ranges from a simple amarillo cream to a fierce rocoto salsa.
On the Palate
Where Caldo de Gallina sits in the Peruvian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6
How it's made
8 steps · 25 min active + 2 hours 5 min waiting
- 110 min
Rinse the hen pieces and bring to a boil in plenty of water, then skim off all the foam that rises.
Watch outSkim off every bit of foam as it rises — leaving it in clouds the broth, and this soup lives on being clear and golden.
- 2120 min
Add leek, a knob of ginger, scallion roots, onion and a little salt, lower the heat, and simmer gently for about two hours until the hen is tender and the broth is rich and golden.
Watch outKeep the pot at a bare simmer for about two hours — a mature hen's collagen only melts to silky gelatin over a long, gentle cook, and a hard boil turns the broth cloudy.
- 38 min
Lift out the hen pieces and keep warm; strain the broth if you like it clear.
- 415 min
Add chunks of potato to the broth and simmer until just tender.
- 510 min
Cook the noodles separately in salted water until springy, then drain.
Watch outCook the noodles separately and pour the broth over to order — boiled in the pot they bloat and go soft.
- 612 min
Boil the eggs until firm, peel and halve them.
- 75 min
To serve, place noodles and a piece of hen in each bowl, add a potato and half an egg, and ladle the hot broth over.
- 83 min
Top with plenty of chopped scallion and cilantro; serve with lime wedges and ají on the side.
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