~614 cal · 70g protein · 39g carbs · 16g fat (estimated, per serving)
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Golden hen soup with yam, yuca, and culantro
🇵🇦 Panama City
Sancocho is Panama’s national comfort and folk medicine — a long-simmered hen soup thick with root vegetables and perfumed with culantro (not cilantro). It’s served at dawn after parties and at every family gathering in between.
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Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
Ingredients
Serves 5 —
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3 lbs stewing hen or chicken, on the bone
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1 lb each ñame (yam) + yuca, chunked
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2 corn on the cob, cut in thirds
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1 culantro (or cilantro), a big bunch
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1 onion
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5 cloves garlic
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1 tsp oregano
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2 + for 5 lime + white rice, to serve
Instructions
1
Cover the hen (or mushrooms) with 10 cups water; add onion, garlic, oregano, and half the culantro. Simmer 40 minutes (15 for the plant version), skimming.
2
Add the yam and yuca; simmer 20 minutes until they begin to soften and thicken the broth.
3
Add the corn and simmer 15 more, until everything is tender and the soup is rich and slightly cloudy.
4
Season well and stir in the rest of the culantro.
5
Serve in deep bowls with lime and a scoop of white rice on the side — spooned in, Panama-style.
Panama City family tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers — know your destination
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Panama City. Where the national chicken stew simmers with three roots.
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Panama. Two oceans’ worth of cooking at the crossroads of the Americas.
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North America. A collision of Indigenous, colonial, and immigrant tables.
The story behind this dish is up top — worth a read while the pot works.
👩🍳
Richard Moore & Kelsey Tucker
Recipes cooked, tested, and researched by the creators of Spin the Globe. How we build our recipes →
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