Caribbean Style Sancocho Recipes

SANCOCHO (DOMINICAN MEAT AND VEGETABLES STEW)

Steps:

• Trim the excess fat of the meat and rinse well with lemon juice or vinegar.
• To season the meat, add 1 teaspoon dry adobo, ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon oregano and sofrito. Mix it all together to coat the meat well.
• In a 6 qts pot or caldero, heat up oil over medium high heat. Add the meat to the pot, and sear until brown all around. Cover the pot with a lid and lower the heat to medium. Let the meat cook until tender, about 30 - 40 minutes. Be sure to add water as needed throughout so that the meat doesn't burn. Remove the meat from the pot and set it aside for later.
• While the meat cooks, peel and cut the vegetables into 1-inch pieces, except for the squash, which you want to peel and cut into two large pieces.
• Add all the vegetables to the pot and add water until you've filled ¾ of the pot. Bring to a boil. Do not overfill the pot because you will be adding in the meat later.
• When the water begins to boil, add the chicken bouillon and allspice or malagueta. Let it cook for about 15 - 20 minutes.
• When the squash is tender, remove it from the pot and blend it with ½ cup of liquid from the pot and ½ cup of cool water until the mixture is smooth. Then, pour it back into the pot.
• Using cooking twine, tie together tightly cilantro, culantro (cilantro ancho), and thyme and add it to the pot. Let it simmer on medium heat for about 20 more minutes.
• Stir in ½ teaspoon of adobo, ½ teaspoon of oregano, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste.
• Add the meat back into the pot and let it all simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 10 - 20 minutes.
• With a colander, remove the herbs bundle we added earlier and the malagueta.
• Stir in freshly squeezed lime juice before serving.
• Serve warm with white rice and avocado.

PUERTO RICAN SANCOCHO

Steps:

• Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-low heat; add onion, garlic, cilantro, white pepper, oregano, and salt. Cook and stir until onion is browned and very tender, about 20 minutes. Add stew meat; cook and stir until meat is browned on all sides, 5 to 7 minutes.
• Pour enough water over meat mixture to fill pot 3/4 full; add tomato sauce and beef bouillon.
• Mix green beans, carrots, celery, chayote squash, white beans, cabbage, green banana, yellow plantain, llautias, potatoes, pumpkin, corn, and green bell pepper (in this order), cooking and stirring after each addition. Cook until all the vegetables are tender and stew has formed a rich broth, 2 to 3 hours. Add more water or salt if needed.

DOMINICAN CARIBBEAN SANCOCHO WITH 3 MEATS

Steps:

• Wash and Cut up the chicken pieces into large bite size pieces. If you usually sear chicken before putting it in water to cook, then do so. Otherwise just put the chicken in a saucepan of water and bring it to a boil, and then lower the heat and let it simmer for about 1/2 hour while you peel and cut the roots.
• Peel and cut the malanga, yucca, plantain, chayote, and potato into large bite sized pieces. Peel and cut the calabaza or pumpkin type squash into 2 or 3x1" lengths. Cut the corn on the cob into 4 pieces each. Cut and chop garlic and onion. Cut celery into 1/2" slices crosswise. Celery leaves are optional.
• Skim off the stuff from the chicken broth. Then transfer chicken and broth to a large pot. Slice the chorizo crosswise into 1/2" rounds. Add the chorizo and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium.
• Add the larger roots and veggies, more water to cover, and then the smaller onion, garlic and celery, and then the seasonings. Bring to a boil and then lower to simmer for about 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. Continue to simmer until the potatoes test done by putting a fork through.
• Turn the heat off and serve,, one piece of corn cob with each serving.

SANCOCHO (PUERTO RICAN BEEF STEW)

Steps:

• In a preheated dutch oven or heavy pot over low-to-medium heat, combine olive oil, garlic, beef cubes, and onions, stir until beef is brown on all sides and onions begin to caramelize.
• Add in chopped pepper, cilantro, salt, pepper, and 1 quart of beef stock. Cook down until stock is reduced by half about 20 minutes.
• Stir beef, then add all the remaining vegetables and remaining beef stock. Bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cover for 30 minutes.
• Uncover and simmer for 20 - 30 minutes or until the stock has reduced some and meat is tender and the vegetables are soft. Serve

CARIBBEAN STYLE SANCOCHO

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium to low heat; add garlic, meat, and onions, cooking until meat is well browned and onions start to caramelize, about 5 minutes.
• Stir in the green pepper, celery, aji dulce (if using), cilantro, salt, pepper, and beef stock; cook until liquid is reduced by half, about 1 hour (if using chicken you will not need to cook this long).
• Add remaining ingredients and continue to cook until meat is tender and vegetables are soft, an additional 30 minutes.
• NOTE: You may find the corn difficult to cut into rounds. What I do is cook it first either by boiling or in the microwave. This softens the cob so it is easier to cut. I add the corn at serving.

SANCOCHO

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl, stir together the white wine vinegar, sofrito, adobo, sazón, dried oregano leaves, and pepper until smooth.Add the meats (except the ham) to the marinade in the bowl and toss them well to coat completely.
• If you mixed the marinade in a metal bowl, pour the marinated meat into a non-reactive (ceramic or glass bowl or into a food storage bag).Cover or seal the container and place it into the refrigerator. Marinate the meat overnight (or 12 hours) or for at least 1 hour. You can also marinate the meat for up to 24 hours. .
• Thirty minutes before starting the sancocho, remove the marinating meat from the fridge. Allow the meat to sit out a room temperature while you gather and prep the rest of the ingredients for the sancocho.
• First, add the achiote oil (or olive oil) to a 16-quart (or larger) stockpot or caldero.Bring the oil up to medium-high heat.
• Add the marinated meat to the pot and brown it for 10 minutes. The meat will not be cooked all the way through in this step. After 10 minutes, add the sofrito, onion, garlic, adobo, sazón, oregano, and bay leaves to the pot. Stir these in with the meat to sauté them. Sauté the contents of the pot for 4 minutes, still on medium-high heat. Stir the ingredients frequently to keep them from burning. If you find they are starting to darken too much, reduce the heat further to medium.
• After 4 minutes of sauteing, pour the beef stock and tomato sauce into the pot. Once you stir them into the meat and vegetables, add the cured ham, guineos, calabaza, yuca, malanga coco, ñame, Russet potato, batata, and yautía.
• Bring the liquid in the pot up to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low and give it a stir. Cover the pot and simmer the ingredients in the pot for 30-35 minutes.
• After simmering for 30 minutes, add the corn to the pot.Allow the mixture to come back up to a simmer, then cover the pot. Simmer the sancocho for another 20 minutes.
• After 20 minutes, give the broth a taste and add black pepper and more adobo as needed.Once the cooking time is up, ladle the hot sancocho into individual bowls and serve it with steamed Arroz Blanco, Tostones, and slices of avocado.

SANCOCHO

Steps:

• To make the recaito, process the onion, bell pepper, frying pepper, garlic and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a blender until it resembles a very chunky sauce. Add the cilantro and blend until the sauce is combined and has a slightly chunky consistency, about 30 seconds. Set aside 1/2 cup of the recaito you've just made and freeze the rest for future preparations.
• Add the remaining olive oil to a very large, heavy-bottomed soup pot over medium-high heat. Dry the oxtails and add salt and pepper. Brown the oxtails in batches, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove and set aside on a plate or platter.
• Remove excess fat from the pot you browned the oxtails in, leaving about 2 tablespoons in the pot. Add the reserved 1/2 cup recaito and saute until fragrant. Add the adobo, oregano and bay leaves, then stir in the tomato sauce and saute for 1 minute. Add the red wine and chicken stock and bring to a boil. Taste the broth and add salt and pepper to taste, remembering that as the broth reduces it will become saltier; don't go overboard. Add the oxtails back to the pot. Lower the heat and cover the pot, leaving the lid slightly cracked. Simmer until the meat is beginning to become tender and fall apart, about 2 hours.
• Skim the fat off the top of the stew. Add the potatoes, yucca, plantains, pumpkin and corn. Top with more chicken stock, if necessary, to cover all the vegetables. Put the lid back on and simmer until the root vegetables are tender, 30 to 45 minutes.
• Taste the broth, season with salt and pepper and garnish with cilantro leaves. Serve with a side of rice if desired.