Chef Isabel
Aguaillo de la Sierra de Cadiz
Aguaillo is from the Sierra de Cadiz: cold water, stale bread, garlic, oil and vinegar, closer to a field drink than a bowl of soup, and sharp enough to wake you in the heat.
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Puchero Andaluz con Pringá
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Puchero Andaluz is Andalucía's pale chickpea cocido, built from soaked garbanzos, salted bones, chicken, beef, pork, and patience, then served as clean broth first and pringá mashed onto bread after.
Soups & Stews
Spanish
Comfort Food
One Pot
Make Ahead
25 min
Active Time
3 hr 15 min cook•11 hr 40 min total
Yield6 servings
Puchero Andaluz is Andalucía's chickpea cocido, pale and savory, not a red sausage stew and not Madrid's pot with another name. What makes it Andaluz is the clean caldo from salted bones, añejo, chicken or hen, beef, pork, garbanzos, and the pringá that comes after. The broth feeds you first. The mashed meats and tocino on bread finish the job.
The method that decides it is the simmer. Start the meats and bones in cold water so the broth gains body, then add the soaked chickpeas only once the pot is hot. From that point on, keep it at the barest tremble and top up only with hot water. Garbanzos are stubborn little things; chill them with cold water halfway through and they cook unevenly, then you blame the recipe. Don't. Pésalo, no lo adivines, and keep the pot quiet.
If you can't find hueso blanco salado, espinazo, or añejo where you are, use a meaty ham hock or ham bone, a strip of salt pork, and fresh pork ribs. The broth will be a little less pale and sharp with salt-cured depth, but it will still give you a proper puchero if the simmer is slow and the pringá is generous. No hace falta haber pisado España. You need good chickpeas, bones with flavor, and bread ready on the table.
The Margin in my notebook says only this: if the pringá is dry, you were stingy with tocino or broth. Mash the meats while they are warm, loosen them just enough, and press them into bread. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.
Puchero andaluz belongs to Andalucía's cocina de cuchara, spoon food, especially the home tables of Sevilla, Cádiz, Huelva, Córdoba, and Málaga, where chickpeas and salted pork bones made one pot serve a family in courses. The pale caldo is often served first as sopa de fideos with hierbabuena, then the garbanzos and vegetables, while the meats and tocino are worked into pringá, from pringar, to smear bread with the rich fat and juices. Its kinship with other cocidos is clear, but the salazones, salted bones, and the clean broth give the Andalusian pot its own name.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried chickpeas, preferably garbanzo lechoso or pedrosillano
Quantity
500g
soaked 8 to 12 hours
beef shank or morcillo
Quantity
350g
in one piece
stewing hen or chicken leg quarters
Quantity
500g
pork ribs or pork shoulder
Quantity
300g
in one piece
tocino salado or salt pork
Quantity
150g
salted white pork bone (hueso blanco salado)
Quantity
1, about 250g
salted spine or rib bone (espinazo or costilla salada)
Quantity
1, about 250g
ham bone or jamón end
Quantity
1, about 250g
añejo, aged salted pork fat or rind (optional)
Quantity
80g
carrots
Quantity
2
peeled and left large
leek
Quantity
1
trimmed and halved
celery stalks
Quantity
2
halved
waxy potatoes
Quantity
400g
peeled and cut into large chunks
cold water
Quantity
3.5L, plus hot water as needed
fine soup noodles (fideos finos)
Quantity
100g
fresh hierbabuena or mint
Quantity
6 sprigs
rustic bread
Quantity
for serving
salt
Quantity
only if needed at the end
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried chickpeas, preferably garbanzo lechoso or pedrosillanosoaked 8 to 12 hours | 500g |
| beef shank or morcilloin one piece | 350g |
| stewing hen or chicken leg quarters | 500g |
| pork ribs or pork shoulderin one piece | 300g |
| tocino salado or salt pork | 150g |
| salted white pork bone (hueso blanco salado) | 1, about 250g |
| salted spine or rib bone (espinazo or costilla salada) | 1, about 250g |
| ham bone or jamón end | 1, about 250g |
| añejo, aged salted pork fat or rind (optional) | 80g |
| carrotspeeled and left large | 2 |
| leektrimmed and halved | 1 |
| celery stalkshalved | 2 |
| waxy potatoespeeled and cut into large chunks | 400g |
| cold water | 3.5L, plus hot water as needed |
| fine soup noodles (fideos finos) | 100g |
| fresh hierbabuena or mint | 6 sprigs |
| rustic bread | for serving |
| salt | only if needed at the end |
Equipment Needed
- •Large heavy olla or 8 to 10 liter pot
- •Skimming spoon
- •Mesh chickpea bag, optional
- •Small saucepan for the fideos
- •Large tray for sorting the meats
Instructions
- 1
Soak and rinse
The night before, cover the chickpeas with plenty of cold water, at least 8cm above them, and leave them 8 to 12 hours. If your salted bones and tocino are very salty, soak them separately in cold water for 1 hour before cooking, changing the water once. Rinse the ham bone well. Do not salt anything yet.
Buy chickpeas from a shop with good turnover. Old chickpeas stay hard in the center no matter how polite you are to them. - 2
Start the broth
Put the beef, hen or chicken, pork, tocino, salted bones, ham bone, and añejo into a large heavy pot with 3.5L cold water. Bring it up slowly over medium heat. As soon as grey foam rises, skim it off patiently. This first skimming is what gives you a clean caldo instead of a cloudy one.
- 3
Add the chickpeas
Drain the soaked chickpeas and add them to the hot pot, tied in a mesh bag if you want them easy to lift later. Bring the pot back just to a simmer, then lower the heat until the surface barely trembles. From now on, any water you add must be hot. Cold water shocks garbanzos and they cook sulky, with tender edges and a hard little heart.
Keep a kettle of hot water nearby. If the level drops below the chickpeas, add just enough hot water to cover them again. - 4
Cook low and slow
Cook at that bare simmer for about 1 hour 30 minutes, lid partly on. Add the carrots, leek, and celery, then keep simmering. If you are using young chicken rather than hen and it is already falling from the bone, lift it out and set it aside; return the bones to the pot if you like. A stewing hen can stay where it is.
- 5
Finish the pot
Add the potatoes for the last 30 to 40 minutes. Cook until the chickpeas are creamy all the way through, the potatoes are tender, and the beef and pork yield when pressed with a spoon, usually 2 hours 45 minutes to 3 hours 15 minutes from the time the chickpeas went in. Taste the broth only now and add salt if it needs it. With salted bones and jamón, it often needs none.
- 6
Serve the caldo
Ladle about 1.5L of broth into a saucepan and bring it to a lively simmer. Add the fideos and cook until tender, usually 3 to 5 minutes. Serve this broth first, with a few leaves of hierbabuena in each bowl. That mint is not decoration; it wakes up the long-cooked broth.
- 7
Plate the garbanzos
Lift out the chickpeas and vegetables. Slice the carrots and potatoes into generous pieces and serve them with the garbanzos, moistened with a little broth. Discard the leek and celery if they have given everything up to the pot, or serve them if they still hold their shape. This is the quiet plate before the pringá.
- 8
Make the pringá
Pull the beef, pork, chicken or hen, and tocino from the bones while they are still warm. Discard bones, gristle, and loose skin. Chop the meats together, then mash in the tocino with a fork until the mixture is rough, juicy, and spreadable. Loosen it with 2 or 3 spoonfuls of hot broth if it looks dry. Spoon it onto torn bread and press it in. The pringá is not a neat slice. It should cling to the bread and stain your fingers a little.
Leftover pringá makes a fine montadito the next day: press it into bread and warm it in a dry pan until the outside is crisp.
Chef Tips
- •For the chickpeas, choose garbanzo lechoso if you can find it, or pedrosillano if that is what the market gives you. Canned chickpeas can be warmed in leftover broth another day, but they will not build the caldo for this puchero. For the real pot, soak dried ones.
- •The salted bones matter. If you are far from an Andalusian butcher, use a meaty ham hock or ham bone, salt pork, and fresh pork ribs. Salt only at the end, because the cure gives slowly and it is easy to overdo it early.
- •Keep chorizo and morcilla out of this version if you want the pale Andalusian caldo. Some houses add a little to the pringá, yes, but a red sausage simmered from the start changes the broth into another pot.
- •Cook only the fideos you will eat that day. Noodles left in the broth swell and drink it all, then tomorrow you have paste where your soup should be.
- •The leftovers are half the reason to make puchero. Broth becomes sopa de picadillo with chopped egg and jamón, meat becomes croquetas or montaditos de pringá, and chickpeas can be fried with garlic for another meal.
Advance Preparation
- •Soak the chickpeas 8 to 12 hours before cooking. If the kitchen is warm, soak them in the refrigerator so they do not sour.
- •Rinse or soak the salted bones and tocino 1 hour before cooking if they are heavily cured. This gives you control over the salt instead of finding out too late.
- •Puchero is excellent made a day ahead. Chill the broth, chickpeas, vegetables, and meats separately, then cook the fideos fresh when serving.
- •Pringá keeps 2 days covered in the refrigerator. Rewarm it gently with a spoonful of broth so the tocino softens and the meat spreads properly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 1000g)
Calories
1125 calories
Total Fat
56 g
Saturated Fat
18 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
33 g
Cholesterol
155 mg
Sodium
2400 mg
Total Carbohydrates
94 g
Dietary Fiber
18 g
Sugars
14 g
Protein
61 g
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