Chef Isabel
Berza Gaditana
Berza gaditana is Cádiz spoon food: chickpeas and white beans with the green the season gives, plus chorizo, morcilla, and pork, simmered until the broth turns thick and honest.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Cocido Extremeño
Created by
Cocido extremeño is Extremadura in a pot: chickpeas, gallina, ibérico tocino, chorizo and morcilla, with almost no vegetable. The clean broth is the point, so simmer low and add the sausages late.
Soups & Stews
Spanish
Comfort Food
One Pot
Special Occasion
30 min
Active Time
3 hr 15 min cook•3 hr 45 min total
Yield6 servings
Cocido extremeño belongs to Extremadura, and it tells you so by what it leaves out as much as by what it puts in. Chickpeas, gallina, tocino, chorizo, morcilla, a little potato if the house wants it, and the pork larder of the dehesa. Almost no vegetable. No sofrito to hide behind. The broth has to taste clean, deep, and plainly of the meats.
The method that decides it is the order of the pot. Start the cured pork and gallina in cold water so they give themselves to the broth, skim it well, then add the soaked chickpeas only once the broth is hot. Chickpeas are not fabes. Put them into cold water after soaking and they sulk, staying hard at the skin. Keep the pot at a quiet tremble, never a rough boil, and add the chorizo and morcilla late so their pimentón and fat season the broth without taking it over.
If you're far from Extremadura, no hace falta haber pisado España. Use a real Spanish cured chorizo with pimentón, a Spanish morcilla de cebolla if you can't find extremeña, and cured pork belly or a small ham hock for the tocino. The broth will be a little smokier or darker, depending on the sausage, but it will still be an honest cocido if you keep the simmer gentle and the vegetables out of the way.
Serve the broth first with a handful of fideos if you like, then the chickpeas, then the meats sliced for everyone to take. Or put it all in deep bowls and let the table sort itself out. My Margin beside this one says only: skim early, salt late. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.
Cocido extremeño belongs to Extremadura's inland cooking, shaped by the dehesa, the oak pasture where the Iberian pig fed the household larder. The matanza supplied tocino, jamón bones, chorizo seasoned with pimentón de la Vera, and morcilla, while chickpeas stretched those cured pieces into cocina de cuchara, spoon food, for a full table. Its spareness marks it apart from vegetable-heavy cocidos: gallina, chickpeas, and the clean pork broth carry the meal.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried chickpeas, preferably garbanzo de Valencia del Ventoso
Quantity
500g
soaked overnight in warm salted water
fine salt
Quantity
10g, plus more only if needed
for soaking and final seasoning
cold water for the pot
Quantity
2.8L
gallina or stewing hen
Quantity
300g
skin on, in one piece
tocino ibérico salado or cured pork belly
Quantity
250g
rinsed, soaked if very salty
salted pork rib or espinazo
Quantity
200g
rinsed, soaked if very salty
jamón bone or cured ham end
Quantity
1 small bone or 150g
chorizo extremeño
Quantity
2 links, about 180g total
morcilla extremeña, preferably de calabaza
Quantity
1 link, about 180g
waxy potatoes
Quantity
300g
peeled and left whole
fine fideos (optional)
Quantity
80g
for a first broth course
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried chickpeas, preferably garbanzo de Valencia del Ventososoaked overnight in warm salted water | 500g |
| fine saltfor soaking and final seasoning | 10g, plus more only if needed |
| cold water for the pot | 2.8L |
| gallina or stewing henskin on, in one piece | 300g |
| tocino ibérico salado or cured pork bellyrinsed, soaked if very salty | 250g |
| salted pork rib or espinazorinsed, soaked if very salty | 200g |
| jamón bone or cured ham end | 1 small bone or 150g |
| chorizo extremeño | 2 links, about 180g total |
| morcilla extremeña, preferably de calabaza | 1 link, about 180g |
| waxy potatoespeeled and left whole | 300g |
| fine fideos (optional)for a first broth course | 80g |
Equipment Needed
- •Large heavy olla or Dutch oven, 6 to 7 litres
- •Skimming spoon
- •Chickpea net, optional but useful
- •Small saucepan for the fideo broth course
Instructions
- 1
Soak the chickpeas
The night before, put the chickpeas in a large bowl with plenty of warm water and the 10g salt. In another bowl, soak the tocino and salted pork rib if they taste aggressively salty, changing the water once if you remember. Drain the chickpeas before cooking. Pésalo, no lo adivines: the soak is what lets them cook tender all the way through.
If your cured pork is only lightly salted, a good rinse is enough. If it is hard and white with salt, give it the full overnight soak or the broth will be harsh before you ever season it. - 2
Build the broth
Put the gallina, tocino, salted pork rib, and jamón bone in a heavy pot with 2.8L cold water. Bring it up slowly over medium heat. As the grey foam rises, skim it off with a spoon. Do this patiently for the first twenty minutes, because a cocido extremeño wants a clean broth, not a cloudy one.
- 3
Add chickpeas hot
When the broth is hot and just beginning to tremble, add the drained chickpeas. Keep them covered by at least two fingers of liquid, adding hot water if the level drops. This is the step that matters: chickpeas go into hot broth, then cook low and steady. A hard boil breaks them outside before the middle softens.
A chickpea net is useful here, not fancy. It lets you lift the chickpeas out cleanly when serving, while the meats stay in the pot. - 4
Simmer until tender
Lower the heat and hold the pot at the barest simmer for about 2 hours, partly covered. Taste a chickpea after 90 minutes. It should give under your teeth but still hold its shape. Do not salt yet; the cured pork is still giving itself to the broth, and guessing now is how you ruin a good pot.
- 5
Add sausage late
When the chickpeas are almost tender, add the whole potatoes and the chorizos. Cook 30 minutes more at the same quiet simmer. Add the morcilla for the final 15 to 20 minutes, whole and unpierced, so it warms through without bursting and turning the broth muddy. Taste now and add salt only if the pot asks for it.
- 6
Rest the pot
Turn off the heat and let the cocido rest 15 minutes. Lift out the gallina, tocino, rib, chorizo, morcilla, and potatoes. Discard the jamón bone if it has given all it has. Skim only the excess fat from the surface, not every golden eye of it; that fat carries the pimentón and the pork.
- 7
Serve in turns
For the old way, strain about 1.2L of broth into a smaller pan, bring it to a simmer, and cook the fideos in it until tender, 5 to 6 minutes. Serve that soup first. Then serve the chickpeas and potatoes with a little broth, and bring the sliced meats after, the pringá, for everyone to take with bread. For a simpler table, put chickpeas, broth, potato, and a piece of each meat in deep bowls. Nadie will complain.
Chef Tips
- •Buy dried chickpeas from a shop with good turnover. Old chickpeas stay chalky no matter how politely you treat them. Garbanzo de Valencia del Ventoso is the Extremaduran one to look for; a good medium dried chickpea will still do the job.
- •The pork matters more than the garnish, because there is no garnish. If you can't find tocino ibérico, use cured pork belly or a small ham hock. If the ham hock is strongly smoked, use a smaller piece, or it will speak louder than the chorizo.
- •Use Spanish chorizo, not fresh sausage. The flavour needs pimentón, and in Extremadura that means the red, smoky depth of pimentón de la Vera.
- •Add the morcilla late and leave it whole. If it splits, the broth darkens and turns grainy. It still eats, claro, but it is no longer the clean pot you set out to make.
- •Canned chickpeas are for a weekday rescue, not the full cocido. If you must use them, simmer the meats until the broth is ready, then add 4 drained 400g cans of chickpeas for the last 20 minutes. The texture will be softer and the broth will have less body.
Advance Preparation
- •Soak the chickpeas 10 to 12 hours in warm salted water. Drain before cooking.
- •Soak very salty tocino, jamón ends, or salted pork rib overnight in cold water in the refrigerator, changing the water once if they are heavily salted.
- •The cocido can be made one day ahead. Chill the broth, chickpeas, and meats separately if you can, then reheat gently. Cook the fideos only just before serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 730g)
Calories
1110 calories
Total Fat
68 g
Saturated Fat
22 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
41 g
Cholesterol
160 mg
Sodium
3200 mg
Total Carbohydrates
72 g
Dietary Fiber
16 g
Sugars
10 g
Protein
53 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Pucheros, Ollas y Escudellas del Levante, Sur e Islas
Browse the full collection
Chef Isabel
Brou Menorquí (Menorcan Cocido Broth)
Brou menorquí is Menorca's Wednesday cocido, a quiet two-turn pot: pale broth with small pasta first, then chickpeas, potatoes, cabbage, and meats cooked low enough to stay clear.
Chef Isabel
Cocido con Pelotas Murciano
Cocido con pelotas is Murcia and the Vega Baja at Christmas: chickpeas and winter meats in a clear broth, with big mint-scented meatballs that decide the whole pot.
Chef Isabel
Escudella Fresca Mallorquina
Escudella fresca is Mallorca's spring cocido: fresh broad beans and peas, artichokes, potato, and the island's cured pork larder simmered into a green, light spoon dish.