Estofado de Pollo is a classic Peruvian home cooked meal that you’re going to love! Tender chicken thighs with rich wine-tomato sauce seasoned with cumin, cinnamon, and herbs – comfort food at its best! Try this delicious Authentic Peruvian Chicken Stew recipe for an easy, midweek dinner!
Authentic Peruvian Chicken Stew
Estofado de pollo, simply translated as the chicken stew, is a classic Peruvian home cooked meal. If you like chicken stews, you’re going to love this recipe!
Peruvian Chicken Stew is all about tender chicken in rich wine-tomato sauce with bell pepper, carrot, and peas. Seasoned with cumin, cinnamon, and herbs, it’s the best served over rice or potatoes, but crusty bread will work great too!
As with almost every dish, there are many different versions out there. My version is inspired by a recipe of famous Peruvian chef – Gastón Acurio and memories of my fiancé.
It’s not a type of dish that you’ll easily find in a restaurant, but it’s highly popular when it comes to home cooking. My soon-to-be husband remembers how his grandma and his parents were cooking this dish on repeat in his house. Every week. It doesn’t surprise me! 🙂
This stew is hearty, easy to prepare, and truly tasty. It’s an excellent example of how you can make a wonderful meal with simple ingredients.
The stew is slow cooked on the stove and the smell that fills in the house while its cooking is gorgeous! You know right away that you’ll end up with something really good on your table!
PS. If you like to have crispy skin on your chicken, feel free to transfer the stew into the oven to finish cooking! 🙂
What you need
The traditional recipe calls for skin-on chicken drumsticks and thighs. I wouldn’t recommend changing it for the skinless thighs or drumsticks because the fat gives the flavor to the dish.
The recipe starts with frying the chicken, and as the chicken is cooking, the fat under the skin melts. The skin becomes golden and crispy, and the fat in the pan you’re left with is used to fry all the other ingredients. It’s important!
So here’s all you need to make Authentic Peruvian Chicken Stew:
- Chicken – skin-on, bone-in thighs or drumsticks, up to you!
- Garlic and onion – basics.
- Carrot, peas, and bell pepper – veggies for the stew.
- Passata (tomato purée) – I like to use passata because it makes the sauce smooth, but it’s absolutely okay to use canned tomatoes or fresh tomatoes! With fresh tomatoes, you can either blend them or just finely chop.
- Tomato paste – to give more flavor and to thicken the sauce.
- Red or white wine – choose the one you like. It’s good to use sweet wine in this recipe!
- Broth or water – I prefer broth because it gives the stew deeper flavor.
- Herbs – oregano, thyme, parsley. You can go with fresh or dried ones.
- Cumin, cinnamon, bay leaves, pepper, salt – seasoning.
- Aji panca paste – it has a berry-like smoky flavor. You can easily buy it online or in some specialty shops. For me, it’s important to use local ingredients, because this is what makes the dish authentic. But don’t worry if you can’t get it, use instead chipotle powder or smoked paprika.
- Raisins – optional, but feel free to throw some!
There’s nothing groundbreaking when it comes to making this chicken stew. It’s quite easy! You start with browning the chicken and then sautéing other ingredients. When that’s done, you simply combine everything and leave it to simmer together! Simple as that!
After around 40 minutes, you’ll have on your table seriously delicious and satisfying meal. The best comfort food for me! 🙂
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Estofado de Pollo is a classic Peruvian home cooked meal that you're going to love! Tender chicken thighs with rich wine-tomato sauce seasoned with cumin, cinnamon, and herbs. This delicious Peruvian Chicken Stew is comfort food at its best!
Click on the servings to scale the recipe to your needs.
Click a timer link in the recipe to start a countdown clock.
In all my recipes 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml, 1 tablespoon equals 15 ml, 1 cup equals 250 ml. Spoons and cups are lightly packed.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
Heat a large skillet, pan, or pot with a little bit of oil over medium heat. Add chicken and cook until the skin is brown and crispy. Around 7 Minutes.
In the meantime, finely chop garlic and onion, grate the carrot. Chop or slice the pepper.
And pepper and peas, and fry for 2 minutes.
Add all the remaining ingredients: tomatoes, tomato paste, wine, broth, aji panca. Stir and bring to boil.
Transfer the chicken back with all the juices. Lower the heat. Simmer over low-medium heat for about 40 minutes. - until the chicken is tender and the sauce thickens. If you want to, you can transfer everything to the preheated oven (180 Celsius degrees) and finish the stew in the oven.
When the stew is ready, add fresh parsley and serve with rice!
Ingredients
Directions
Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
Heat a large skillet, pan, or pot with a little bit of oil over medium heat. Add chicken and cook until the skin is brown and crispy. Around 7 Minutes.
In the meantime, finely chop garlic and onion, grate the carrot. Chop or slice the pepper.
And pepper and peas, and fry for 2 minutes.
Add all the remaining ingredients: tomatoes, tomato paste, wine, broth, aji panca. Stir and bring to boil.
Transfer the chicken back with all the juices. Lower the heat. Simmer over low-medium heat for about 40 minutes. - until the chicken is tender and the sauce thickens. If you want to, you can transfer everything to the preheated oven (180 Celsius degrees) and finish the stew in the oven.
When the stew is ready, add fresh parsley and serve with rice!
Did you make this recipe? Let me know how it went! Tag me on Instagram – @cooking.with.ewa or leave a comment below.
This looks perfect with warm white rice! Or I could imagine myself polishing off everything with a piece of good bread! Thanks for sharing at Fiesta Friday party! Please don’t forget to mention the Fiesta Friday link for a chance to be featured.
So good with bread! 🙂
Being a fan of the dark meat, I look forward to trying this dish. And, other than being familiar with only a few Peruvian dishes, I would like to expand my repertoire in that direction. Looks totally yummy – and I do have the aji panca paste. Thanks very much for tingling the taste buds at Fiesta Friday, and have a great weekend!
Great, you need to try 🙂 I hope you’ll like it!
That is a beautiful stew! Pinned – Thanks for sharing at the What’s for Dinner party! Have a fabulous week.
Thanks Helen! Have a lovely week!
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This is a beautiful and delicious chicken stew! Thanks for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday and have a great week!
Miz Helen
Thank you Helen 🙂
Looks delicious, similar to an Indian chicken with tomatoes and lots of onions that i make. I love cooking chicken on the stovetop, it keeps it moist and is always delicious. Thanks so much for sharing on craft schooling Sunday, great to meet you!
Hi Sara 🙂 I need to try this Indian chicken, sounds super tasty 🙂
This is exactly my kind of food Ewa. I look forward to making it for my family this week.
Thank you for sharing this recipe at Create, Bake, Grow & Gather this week. I’m delighted to be featuring your Authentic Peruvian Chicken Stew at tonight’s party and pinning too.
Hugs,
Kerryanne
Wow, great news 🙂 Thanks Kerryanne! You made my day 🙂 Have a lovely weekend!
Yum, I just pinned this yummy recipe.
Happy spring,
Kippi
All the best! 🙂