Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Sancocho de Gallina
A restorative hen soup with yam, yuca, and a mountain of culantro, Panama’s cure for everything from hangovers to heartbreak.
Panamanian · easy · serves 5
prep 20 min · cook 75 min
~670 cal · 71g protein · 53g carbs · 16g fat · 5g fiber · 3g sugars · 5g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Sancocho de gallina is Panama's national soup, a restorative hen broth that turns up at family gatherings, celebrations, and, famously, as a cure for a long night. Every region and family has its own version.
The Panamanian style is defined by its simplicity and its herb: a tough, flavourful stewing hen is simmered slowly with yam (name) and until the broth turns rich, and a generous amount of culantro, the pungent long-leaf cousin of cilantro, perfumes the whole pot.
Served with a scoop of white rice on the side, it is warming, soothing, and deeply comforting. Sancocho is Panamanian hospitality in a bowl, the dish made to feed a crowd, welcome a guest, or nurse someone back to their feet.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 5
3 lbs stewing hen or chicken, on the bone
1 lb ñame (yam), chunked
1 lb , chunked
1/2 lb otoe (), chunked
2 corn on the cob, cut in thirds
1 culantro (or cilantro), a big bunch
1 onion
5 cloves garlic
2 tbsp oregano
2 aji criollo or mild green chili, chopped
1 tsp black pepper
2 lime, to serve
for 5 white rice and patacones, to serve
Instructions
1
Cover the hen (or mushrooms) with 10 cups water and add the onion, garlic, mild green chili, black pepper, half the oregano, and half the culantro.
✎ Chef’s note
Culantro, not cilantro, is what makes a sancocho Panamanian. It is a different plant with long serrated leaves, and unlike cilantro it holds its flavour through a long simmer. Panamanians call it the secret weapon of a good pot; if you can only get cilantro, use several times as much and add it late.
2
Simmer 40 minutes (15 for the plant version), skimming the surface.
✎ Chef’s note
A tough stewing hen gives the richest sancocho, but it needs the long simmer to grow tender. Skim as it goes for a cleaner broth.
3
Add the yam, yuca, and otoe and simmer 20 minutes, until they begin to soften and thicken the broth.
✎ Chef’s note
The name is doing double duty here. As it breaks down it thickens the broth and gives the soup its body, so let it go soft rather than pulling it early.
4
Add the corn and simmer 15 minutes more, until everything is tender and the soup is rich and slightly cloudy.
5
Season well and stir in the rest of the culantro.
6
Serve in deep bowls with lime, a scoop of white rice, and patacones on the side, the Panamanian way.
Panama City family tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Panama City. Panama City simmers sancocho, a chicken stew with yam and the pungent local herb culantro, treated as a cure for everything. Its position between oceans and continents shows in ceviche, rice with coconut, and fried plantain at nearly every meal.
🗺️
Panama. The tortilla here is not the Mexican kind. It is thick, made of ground corn, and fried rather than griddled, coming out puffed and crisp at the edges to be eaten at breakfast with cheese. On the Caribbean side, in Bocas del Toro and Colon, the cooking turns Afro-Caribbean, with coconut milk in the rice and in the fish.
🌍
North America. The most consequential technique on this continent is nixtamalisation, cooking maize with lime or wood ash. It loosens the skins, makes the dough that becomes tortillas and tamales, and frees up niacin the body cannot otherwise absorb, which is why maize spread around the world without the technique and took pellagra with it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Panama
Tortilla Panameña con QuesoA thick, crisp-fried corn cake, not a thin tortilla at all, split hot and stuffed with melting white cheese, a staple Panamanian breakfast.
Ceviche PanameñoDiced corvina cured in lime with onion, celery, and habanero, the fish-market lunch sold in cups across Panama City.
Sopa BorrachaSponge cake drenched in a spiced rum-and-prune syrup, Panama's boozy celebration dessert, despite the 'soup' in its name.
Browse all Panama recipes →
Good to know
Storing it: Soup keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes well. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water or stock if needed.
Make it a Panama meal
ChichemeDrink
Sopa BorrachaDessert
Arroz con Pollo PanameñoLunch
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Frequently asked questions
What is Sancocho de Gallina?
A restorative hen soup with yam, yuca, and a mountain of culantro, Panama’s cure for everything from hangovers to heartbreak.
Where does Sancocho de Gallina come from?
Sancocho de Gallina is a Panamanian dish from Panama City, Panama.
Can Sancocho de Gallina be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Sancocho de Gallina recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Sancocho de Gallina safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Sancocho de Gallina take to make?
About 95 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 75 minutes cooking), serving 5.
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