Recipe: Colombian Chicken and Potato Soup (Ajiaco)

Around the World in 30 Soups: This month we’re collaborating with chefs, cookbook authors, and our own Kitchn crew to share a globetrotting adventure in soups from countries and cuisines around the world. Today’s stop: Colombia.

This amazingly flavorful soup comes from the kitchen table of Sara Kate, one of Kitchn’s founders, passed to her by a Colombian friend who shared the secret ingredient of this traditional soup. For some of us here, this was our first taste of authentic Colombian cuisine and we can’t recommend it highly enough.

Many years ago, I had a memorably boisterous dinner in the upstate home of a Colombian friend, surrounded by snow and filled with light. It was a blustery winter night and she served a huge clay pot of Ajiaco, a traditional Colombian chicken soup. There was something different about this soup, so I asked if there was a secret ingredient. Indeed, there was one flourish: an herb called guascas that imparts a deep grassy flavor essential to an authentic bowl of Ajiaco.

You’ll find guascas in most Andean cultures, though it is most common in the Colombian kitchen and is considered essential to a good pot of Ajiaco. Turns out it’s also a very common weed in the United States, known as quickweed or galinsoga, and it grows abundantly in vegetable gardens — and even in places you might not expect.

“The herb actually grows wild in New York’s Central Park, though no one really uses it here,” said Felipe Donnelly, executive chef and owner of Colonia Verde and Comparti in Brooklyn. “But I grew up drinking Ajiaco and craving it constantly. It’s a perfect winter soup.”

The broth for this soup grows deep in flavor first by cooking the chicken, then the potatoes, then simmering the broth with corn and a bunch of cilantro and green onions tied up like aromatics. Between the guascas, corn (on the cob when possible) and a trio of potatoes and you have a veritable celebration of the Andes in one warm bowl.