When I began developing a recipe for sancocho, I traveled back to my home country of Colombia with a mission: to see how many expressions of the hearty, one-pot stew—an iconic recipe with countless variations—existed within my own family.
My three sisters each volunteered to cook sancocho for me, and sure enough, each was unique. My sister-in-law’s version, meaty and savory, included tasajo (dried, salted beef)—an ingredient her mother always used, she explained. Another sister, I learned, now includes potatoes in her recipe because her husband grew up eating them in sancocho and loves them.
And my third sister? When I stopped by her house in Barranquilla, the city where we grew up, she served me a hearty stew of chicken, beef, and pork studded with corn and chunky root vegetables, lightly sweetened by yellow plantains and accompanied by a generous side plate of cilantro—a recipe that, from my
