Sancocho!

Upon hearing we were to have guests over today for dinner, abuela and I decided to cook Sancocho. Sancocho is a very traditional stew very popular in many Latin American countries, such as Ecuador, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Argentina, Panama, Costa Rica and even in Spain. Sancocho usually consists of vegetables and various meats served in a delicious home-made broth. In the Dominican Republic there are a few kinds of Sancochos that are made. There is Sanchocho de Siete Carnes, which consists of chicken, beef, pork and other kinds of meats. There is also Sancocho de Gallina, which is a sancocho with hen. This one is extremely popular. And there are the Sancochos where you can basically mix whichever meats you want such as, Sancocho with chicken and beef or with hen and beef. Or Sancocho with chicken and Longaniza( pork sausage). You get the point here.

Abuela and I chose to make Sancocho with gallina(hen) and beef. She told me that her grandma taught her how to make Sancocho. Her abuela taught her and her mother. And than she taught my mother and my aunt Bili. And today she taught me. This is a traditional recipe that has been in the family for years!

Keep in mind that when you make this you may want to use half the ingredients that we used because we doubled the amounts of all the ingredients since we were having guests over. This was made to serve 8-10 people. So check out how we made our Sancocho!

Sancocho!

Ingredients:
-1 lb of potatoes/ cut& peeled
-1 lb of green plantains/ cut &peeled
-1 lb of Yautia/ cut & peeled
-1lb of Squash/ cut& peeled
- 1lb of Yuca(also know as Cassava) cut & peeled
-3 corns in a cob/each sliced in half
-2 lbs of Back rib beef
- A jar of home-made sofrito (see the recipe in the post for Asopao recipe)
-Vinegar
-Grounded Oregano
-Adobo
-Water
-Olive oil
- 3 whole pieces of green plantains/ peeled and cut open to make the bollos
- 2 lbs of hen meat/ washed and cut into separate pieces
-1 cube of Maggi Chicken flavor bouillon
-Tabasco hot sauce

1. We washed the hen a day before and than cut it into pieces. Then we sprinkled some adobo on it and than seasoned it with it with some home-made sofrito and had it sit in the fridge until the next day.
2. Then we took the already seasoned hen meat and placed it in a large pot to brown and soften.
3. Then we took out a large stew pot and poured in the pot 1lb of potatoes/ cut& peeled, 1lb of raw green plantains/ cut & peeled, 1 lb of Yautia/ cut & peeled, 1 lb of Yuca( Cassava) cut & peeled, 1 lb of Squash/ cut & peeled, 3 corns in a cob each cut in half, and the 2 lbs of back ribs beef.
4. Then we poured water until the water covered all the ingredients in the pot. Turned on the stove and added about 4 tablespoons of our home-made sofrito and stirred.
5. Let it simmer for a few minutes.
6. Then add 2 caps of Vinegar, and add about 1 teaspoon of Grounded Oregano and 1 teaspoon of Adobo.
7. Then add 1 cube of Maggi Chicken Flavor bouillon
8. Then we added the hen meat.
9. Then while we let that sit and cook we took 3 whole green plantains to make the bollos. Bollos are scraped, grinded and rolled up plantains.
10. We peeled open the three green plantains and than used a box grater to break them down. We used the side with the smaller holes to break the plantains into small and fine pieces.
11. Then we sprinkled some adobo and a cup full of olive oil, and mixed and stirred it well and than let it sit.
12. While that was sitting we went back to the stew and tasted it. Since we were making such a large amount it was very low in salt. So we added 4 more tablespoons of home-made sofrito.
13. Then sprinkled a little bit more adobo
14. Then we went back to the finely shredded pieces of plantain and took small portions of it into our hands and rolled them into small oval shapes. This made for about 12 bollos. Then we threw them into the stew pot.
15. We continued to stir the stew and lowered the heat a bit.
16. Keep in mind that we made a much larger amount of Sancocho than you probably will, so we needed to add some sofrito, adobo, grounded oregano and 2 more caps of Vinegar to taste.
17. Let it sit for about 5-10 minutes more, or until all the vegetables are tender and the meat is well cooked.
18. Then once it was cooked with poured 3-4 drops of Tabasco hot sauce and stirred.
19. Served best with white rice on the side.

Disfruta!