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Sancocho Soup

A hearty Puerto Rican soup with meat, ham, chorizo, pork ribs, plantains, yautía, yuca, and olives simmered in tomato and sofrito broth.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Sancocho Soup

Timeabout fifteen minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Pour the four tablespoons of olive oil into a large pot and heat until it starts to smoke. Add the ham and chorizo and stir until golden brown.

  2. Add the cup of sofrito and keep stirring. When it begins to bubble, stir in the tomato paste. Check the heat to avoid burning; lower if necessary.

  3. Stir in the tomato sauce and allow it to blend into the mixture.

  4. Add oregano, salt, and pepper to taste. Increase heat and add three quarts of water.

  5. Add soup meat, chicken, and ribs. Bring to a boil for about fifteen minutes, then lower heat to a simmer.

  6. When the chicken is fork-tender, remove from pot and set aside. Do the same with the soup meat and the ribs.

Prepare the filling

  1. Return enough soup meat to the pot so that when shredded it will make about one half cup.

  2. Allow the soup meat to cook until soft enough to shred, then remove and set aside.

  3. In a small frying pan, heat two tablespoons of olive oil. Add two tablespoons of sofrito and about six or seven chopped olives. Add the shredded soup meat and blend together. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and set aside.

Cook the vegetables and plantain balls

  1. Add the vegetables to the pot with the broth. Add all but four plantains and simmer slowly on low heat. Check liquid level; add more water if needed.

  2. Grate the remaining four plantains using a grater.

  3. Scoop a large tablespoon of the grated plantain mixture, form a small pocket, add a teaspoon of the shredded soup meat mixture, and shape into a ball.

  4. While the pot is at a low boil, add the plantain balls carefully so they do not break apart.

  5. When the vegetables are almost fork-tender, return the reserved meat and continue cooking until a rich thick broth forms. Adjust seasonings to taste.

  6. Serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

921Calories
87 gProtein
47 gFat
35 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 16 ingredients. The other 5 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Pork100g cooked242
Chicken100g cooked165
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Banana1 medium (118g)105
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Oregano1 tsp dried (1.8g)5
Olive1 large (4g)4
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Soupnot in our table0
Meatnot in our table0
Yautianot in our table0
Plantainnot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Oregano + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Meat + porktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,208 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Meat + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Ham + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,638 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Soup meat
Gives the broth its rich, beefy body as it simmers.
Plantains
Starchy body that thickens the broth and forms the grated dumplings.
Yuca
Starchy root that softens and thickens the broth as it cooks.
Chorizo
Renders fat and smoky paprika flavor into the oil that starts the base.
Tomato paste
Adds concentrated acidity and deep color, deepening the broth's savory flavor.
Olive oil
Carries flavor from the aromatics and helps brown the ham and chorizo.

The step that matters

Adding the plantain balls. Grated plantain is delicate and can fall apart in a rolling boil, so they must be added to a gentle low boil and handled carefully.

Swap the banana

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, chicken, ham, pork, yautia, oregano, pepper):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, chicken, ham, pork, yautia, oregano, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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