Carapulcra (Dried Potato and Pork Stew)
One of Peru's oldest dishes: toasted dried potato (papa seca) simmered with pork in a rich ají panca sauce with peanuts, a hint of chocolate and cloves. Earthy, nutty and deeply savoury.
Servings
Ingredients
Nutrition
Per serving
Steps
Toast and soak the papa seca
Toast the in a dry frying pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring, until golden and nutty-smelling. Transfer to a bowl, cover with 1 litre cold water and soak for 30 minutes, then drain well.
- 250 g
- 1 litre water
✅ Done when: potato pieces have softened and plumped up slightly
Brown the pork
Season the pork with 1 teaspoon of the salt. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat and brown the pork in batches, 6-8 minutes per batch, until well coloured on all sides, then set aside.
- 700 g pork shoulder
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
✅ Done when: pork is deeply browned on all sides
Make the aderezo
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Simmer the stew
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Finish
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Serve
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Toast and soak the papa seca
Toast the in a dry frying pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring, until golden and nutty-smelling. Transfer to a bowl, cover with 1 litre cold water and soak for 30 minutes, then drain well.
- 250 g
- 1 litre water
✅ Done when: potato pieces have softened and plumped up slightly
Brown the pork
Season the pork with 1 teaspoon of the salt. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium-high heat and brown the pork in batches, 6-8 minutes per batch, until well coloured on all sides, then set aside.
- 700 g pork shoulder
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
✅ Done when: pork is deeply browned on all sides
Make the aderezo
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Simmer the stew
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Finish
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Serve
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The Story Behind the Dish
Papa seca, potato boiled and sun-dried in the Andes, has been made for thousands of years. Carapulcra comes from the Quechua words for a stew cooked in a hole in the ground.
Afro-Peruvian cooks in Chincha, on the south coast, made the dish their own with pork, peanuts and spices, and it's now a classic of Peruvian Creole (criollo) cooking.
⭐ Why It's Famous
It's a dish that tells Peru's history: Andean potato, African cooking and Spanish pork in one pot.
💡 Fun Fact
Carapulcra with sopa seca, called 'sopa seca con carapulcra', is the traditional dish of the Afro-Peruvian town of El Carmen in Chincha.
Chincha and Lima
-13.41°S, -76.13°W
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