The most representative dish of the Cundiboyacense plateau: a hearty multi-meat and Andean-tuber stew built around ancestral tubers like cubíos, hibias and rubas that grow only in the highland páramos. Often called one of the most caloric dishes in Colombia.
Cocido boyacense is the most representative dish of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, the high plateau of Boyacá and Cundinamarca. What defines it is the exclusive use of pre-Columbian Andean tubers, cubíos, hibias (ibias), rubas (ullucos) and chuguas, which are native to the páramos of the region and cannot be replicated elsewhere. It is a multi-meat stew (pork rib, beef, hen, longaniza) layered with those tubers and served with avocado and ají. It is documented as one of the highest-calorie dishes in Colombia, born of the cold-climate smallholding.
A deep, savoury, cloudy broth thick with many tubers and three or four meats, each ingredient holding its shape, the Andean tubers giving an earthy, faintly sweet minerality no potato alone can. Eaten with avocado and ají, it is restorative, rib-sticking and unmistakably highland.
The cocido is built on staged cooking times in one pot. The tough, dry-aged meats (pork rib, beef) go in first to give up their flavour and gelatine to the broth. The longaniza and hen follow. The Andean tubers are added in sequence by firmness, the hardiest (cubíos, hibias) first, the delicate (chuguas) last, so each holds its texture rather than dissolving. The long, slow cook is what melds the many ingredients without turning the pot to mush.
Variations
A Cundinamarca version adds peas and cabbage. Some households finish with a handful of fresh cilantro at the end.
On the Palate
Where Cocido Boyacense sits in the Colombian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8
How it's made
6 steps · 40 min
- 15 min
Soak 200g cubíos and 200g rubas (ullucos) in water for 8 hours; drain.
- 225 min
In a large pot, cover 500g pork rib and 500g beef chuck with 3 litres water; bring to a boil, skim, and simmer 60 minutes.
Watch outStart the tough meats first and skim well — they give the broth its gelatine and depth, and clean skimming keeps the pot from tasting muddy.
- 318 min
Add 1 hen (about 1.2kg) jointed, 1 longaniza sausage pricked, 1 whole onion and 4 cloves garlic; simmer 45 minutes.
- 414 min
Add the soaked tubers, 500g sabanera potato in chunks, 2 corn cobs cut in thirds and 200g peeled carrots; simmer 35 minutes.
Watch outAdd the tubers by firmness, hardest first — stagger them so each holds its shape rather than dissolving into the broth.
- 57 min
Add 150g hibias and 150g chuguas (if available); simmer 15 minutes until all tubers are tender.
- 65 min
Rest 10 minutes off the heat, serve in deep bowls with avocado slices and ají.
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