Title: Colombian Ajiaco (Bogota's Chicken and Potato Soup)
Categories: Latin amer, Soups, Chicken, Potatoes, Corn
Yield: 4 Servings
2 Chicken breasts
Garlic and onion
Chicken stock
12 sm Yellow potatoes, halved
2 Ears of corn, halved
8 md Potatoes, peeled, cut in 5 mm
-slices
1 bn Scallions
1 bn Cilantro
8 tb Guascas
1 c Heavy cream
2 tb Capers, drained
2 Avocados, peeled, pitted,
-thinly sliced
Salt
The night before marinate the chicken breasts with garlic, onion and
salt. In a heavy 4-liter casserole, put the breasts, add water, cover
and cook until the chicken is tender. Transfer the chicken to a
platter. Remove the skin from the chicken and discard. Cut the
chicken breasts into strips. Cook the yellow potatoes in the
casserole with the chicken stock until they start to disintegrate.
Add more chicken stock to taste. At this point the soup should be
thick and fairly smooth. Add the bunch of scallions, the bunch of
cilantro, the sliced potatoes, the guascas, and the corn. When cooked
remove the bunch of cilantro and the bunch of scallions. Serve the
chicken on soup bowls and pour the soup into the bowls. Pour 3 tb of
cream and 1 ts of chopped capers on each bowl. Float the sliced
avocado on top.
Note: You definitively have to use guascas if you want to call
your soup Ajiaco. It's not easy to get them out of Colombia, but
they give this soup its characteristic flavor.
Santiago Alvarez
Latin-American Student Organization (LASO)
www.colostate.edu
