Serves     4-6

Ingredients

This is a comfort food soup served often in Peru.

I’ve slightly adapted this recipe, left out the corn kernels, cut the potatoes into dice. You could also cut the chicken meat into chunks instead of using whole legs, which makes it easier to eat.

4 chicken legs or equivalent amount of diced raw chicken
Salt and pepper
¼ cup vegetable oil
½ cup onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, mashed
2 fresh aji amarillo, chopped, or 3 tablespoons paste (see note)
2 cups cilantro leaves (discard the stems)
4 cups chicken stock
1 cup dark beer (optional)
½ red bell pepper cut in slices
1 cup carrot, diced
½ cup long grain rice
4 medium yellow potatoes, peeled and diced
½ cup green peas

Directions

Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium heat, add the chicken pieces, and sear them. Transfer the chicken pieces to a plate and keep warm. In the same saucepan sauté onion and garlic until golden.

Process cilantro leaves and fresh aji amarillo with ¼ cup water in a blender until smooth; add to the onion mixture, along with the chicken stock, beer, if using, chicken, potatoes and carrots. Bring to a boil, turn the heat to low, cover with a lid, and simmer for 20 minutes. Add rice, cover the pot, and simmer until rice is done. Add peas for the last few minutes of cooking time.

Garnish with slivers of red bell pepper.

*Note: You can find aji amarillo peppers in Latin markets in the freezer section, or in a paste in jars or as a dried powdered spice. If you can’t get your hands on any you could use a different type of chile to add some heat; since this soup is green it won’t benefit from the yellow color of the pepper anyway.

Adapted from: http://perudelights.com/aguadito-de-pollo-chicken-soup-to-warm-your-body/

Photo credit: http://perudelights.com

Country:
Peru


Notes and Instructions

Recipe contribution from Linda McElroy, Recipe used with permission from Whats4Eats ( http://www.whats4eats.com/poultry/kuku-paka-recipe)