Peru’s ultimate comfort-food dish

The dish

Aji de Gallina, Peru

Plate up

It’s a cold, rainy day, you’re feeling a little under the weather, you’re craving comfort. What are you eating? It depends where you’re from. If you’re European, maybe it’s pasta bolognese or chicken soup. If you’re Asian, it could be biryani or nasi goreng. But if you’re from Peru, it will almost certainly be aji de gallina. This rich stew is a classic Peruvian comfort food, a dish that’s creamy, spicy and filling, the meal everyone can remember their mother or grandmother making. It’s quite complex, too: the stew begins with a sofrito of onion, garlic and a Peruvian yellow chilli called aji amarillo; that mix is then cooked with chicken meat and stock, before being thickened with bread soaked in milk or evaporated milk, and ground nuts such as walnuts or pecans. The stew is served with rice, boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs, sometimes sprinkled with parmesan, and all is right with the world.

First serve

As with so many classic Peruvian dishes, aji de gallina speaks loudly of the country’s history. The genesis for the dish can be traced back to Spain, where it was – and continues to be – a dessert known as manjar blanco. In the Middle Ages it was common to mix the sweet with the savoury, and this dish, influenced by Arab cuisine, used sweet milk with nuts, rice and chicken. Spanish settlers brought manjar blanco to the Americas in the 16th century, and Peruvian cooks transformed it with the use of local aji amarillo chillies and native potatoes into the primarily savoury stew we find today.

Order there

If you’re in Lima, the Peruvian capital, head to Tanta in Larcomar for an excellent aji de gallina (tantaperu.com).

Order here

In Sydney, sample aji de gallina at La Hacienda in the city (lahaciendaperu.com.au). In Melbourne, you can usually find this dish at Inti Gourmet in Chelsea (instagram.com/intigourmet). And in Adelaide, check out the Hungry Llama (thehungryllama.com.au).

One more thing

To many European cooks, the “holy trinity” of a good sofrito is onion, carrot and celery. In Peru, meanwhile, it’s red onion, garlic and aji amarillo, the basis for numerous classic dishes. The yellow chilli is also considered the most important ingredient in the country’s cuisine.