AJIACO BOGOTANO

I love this unusual summery soup! It features heaps of fresh avocado, sweetcorn kernels cut off the cobb, tender chicken breast chunks, and cilantro over a silky base of blended chicken and potato soup. Adapted from famed chef Joyce Goldstein’s recipe, this beautiful bowl is a refined, easier-to-eat version of Columbia’s rustic Ajiaco Bogotano (chicken soup of Bogota). Also, although traditionally served with cream— (Goldstein’s recipe included a cup and a half of it!), the soup is just as tasty without, or, with just a swirl. We’ve garnished it with fresh chopped cilantro leaves, but you can substitute capers or snipped chives if cilantro is not your jam. A nice feature of the soup? You can make the potato and chicken stock base the day before, prepping the chicken breasts, avocado and corn right before you want to serve the soup. And if you like, you can grill the chicken breasts and corn on the cobb rather than poaching and steaming, to add a bit of smoky char to the soup.

SERVES 6

INGREDIENTS

• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter

• 2 large onions, peeled and diced

• 1 1/2 Tbsp ground cumin

• 1, 1 1/2 lb bag mini yellow potatoes, scrubbed and diced into small pieces

• 6 cups chicken stock, divided (5 cups for soup base; 1 cup for poaching chicken)

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Heavy cream (optional) to taste

• 3 or 4 ears of sweet corn, steamed or grilled, kernels cut off cobbs

• 3 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces

• 3 avocados, peels and pits discarded; flesh cut into small cubes

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INSTRUCTIONS
MAKE SOUP BASE: In a heavy-bottomed soup pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add onions and cover. Remove lid to stir the pot occasionally, cooking until onions are very soft and translucent. Once onions are soft, remove lid and stir in cumin. Cook for 1 minute. Add diced potatoes and 4 cups of the chicken stock. Simmer 20 to 30 minutes until potatoes are cooked through and tender. Using an immersion (stick) blender, or regular blender, pulverize soup until very smooth and creamy. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set aside.

STEAM CORN: Grill corn OR add sweet corn cobbs to a pot with water over high heat. Cover and steam corn until kernels are tender. Remove from heat, strain off water. When corn is cool enough to handle, cut corn kernels from the cobbs. Set aside.

POACH CHICKEN BREAST: Add remaining 1 cup of chicken stock to a sauté pan and heat until simmering. Add bite-sized pieces of chicken breast and poach, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is tender and no longer pink inside. Remove from heat. NOTE: If you prefer, you can grill the chicken breasts whole, rather than poaching them, and then chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces after grilling.

PREP VEGETABLES: Dice avocado and chop cilantro.

TO SERVE: Just before serving, heat soup base to a simmer. Swirl in heavy cream to taste, if using. If soup is too thick, add in some of the 1 cup of stock in which you poached the chicken. Place poached chicken pieces in base of each soup bowl. Ladle soup over the chicken. Top each serving with generous portion of cubed avocado and several spoons of sweet corn kernels. Sprinkle with fresh snipped cilantro.