• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Metemgee
  • Althea Brown — A Look at the Woman Behind Metemgee
  • Recipes
  • Shop
  • Contact Me
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Althea Brown — A Look at the Woman Behind Metemgee
  • Recipes
  • Shop
  • Contact Me
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • subscribe
    search icon
    Homepage link
    • Althea Brown — A Look at the Woman Behind Metemgee
    • Recipes
    • Shop
    • Contact Me
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • ×

    "Home" » Soups

    Sancocho {Whole30, Instant Pot, Paleo}

    Published: Apr 14, 2020 · Modified: May 3, 2022 by Althea Brown · This post may contain affiliate links · 4 Comments

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    Sancocho is a broth in many Latin American cultures. It loosely translates to mean soup but if you ask Latin Americans about Sancocho they all have varying descriptions of what that soup looks and tastes like. I was first introduced to Sancocho 15 years ago, when I worked in the Garment District in New York City. There was an amazing Dominican (Dominican Republic) restaurant a few blocks away from my office and it served the most delicious Sancocho. Their sancocho was chicken based and had root veggies and noodles. It had a rich cassava broth (cassava cooked until tender and melted) and was the perfect "pick me upper" lunch on a dreary New York City winter day.

    It has been a crazy wintry Spring week in Colorado. We don't get these types of dreary snowy weeks often but when we do they tend to feel so heavy and boy is this week one of those weeks where the sun is just hiding behind snow clouds. So I really wanted something warm and comforting for dinner. Enter the Sancocho!

    Jump to:
    • It's all in the broth!
    • Root Veggies make this soup a winner
    • The Printable Sancocho Recipe:
    • Printable Recipe Card

    It's all in the broth!

    The key to great sancocho is in the broth. For this recipe I needed a chicken bone broth, so I cooked a whole chicken in my instant pot for an hour before adding the remaining ingredients. This is not a quick soup. Traditionally it is cooked on the stove top for hours. The instant pot cuts some of that time down but it still takes time. To season my chicken I used a mixture of fresh and dry ingredients. Lots of onion, fresh garlic, some celery that was on its last leg and two table spoons of McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning (yes you read that right). The McCormick's seasoning is gluten and sugar free and Whole30 compliant according to the ingredients list. Please note however it does have "natural flavor" listed as an ingredient which some Whole30'ers like to avoid.

    Once the chicken pressure cooked to a lovely bone broth, I used two forks and shredded the flesh away from the bones. Feel free to remove the chicken and do this part on a cutting board. You may also choose to discard the bones, but I wanted all that rich flavor that comes from the bones to remain in the pot and kept everything in the soup.

    Root Veggies make this soup a winner

    This soup is a great "kitchen sink" type of soup. Anything in the tuber, root vegetable family goes. I added yuca (cassava), sweet potatoes (two kinds, white/golden and regular), yams and yellow plantains to my soup. Cooking the cassava until it is soft and almost melts away adds such a rich and comforting depth of flavor to the soup that it reminded me of that Sancocho I got in New York. You can also do this with white potatoes. Sometimes I add whole white potatoes to thicken my chicken soups. Cook them until tender, remove from the soup, crush and add back into the soup as a thickener for the broth. It really gives the broth a heartiness that sometimes chicken soup is lacking.

    The Printable Sancocho Recipe:

    Printable Recipe Card

    Sancocho {Whole30, Instant Pot, Paleo}

    Althea Brown
    Sancocho is a traditional broth in most Latin American Cultures. It is rich in flavor and traditional takes hours to prepare
    4 from 1 vote
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 5 minutes mins
    Cook Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins
    Total Time 1 hour hr 35 minutes mins
    Course Instant Pot, Paleo, Soup, Whole30
    Cuisine Latin American
    Servings 8 servings

    Ingredients
      

    • 1 whole chicken cut in half
    • 1 yellow onion roughly cut
    • 6-8 cloves of garlic
    • 1 teaspoon of dried thyme
    • 1-2 stalks of celery roughly chopped
    • 2 tablespoons of McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning
    • 1.5 lbs of Cassava peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces (or store bought frozen)
    • 1 white/golden sweet potato peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
    • 2 yellow plantains peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
    • 1 sweet potato peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
    • 1 yam peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
    • Additional salt to taste if needed
    • A pinch of ground turmeric less than ¼ teaspoon for color
    • 4-5 cups of water

    Instructions
     

    • Add the chicken, onions, garlic, celery, dried thyme and McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning to your instant pot and enough water to cover the chicken (about 4-5 cups of water).
    • Seal up and pressure cook on high for 1 hour, following your instant pot instructions for pressure cooking
    • After an hour of pressure cooking, release the steam then add the cassava (if using)
    • Seal up and pressure cook for 5 minutes (does not include time for the Instant Pot to pressurize)
    • Then release the steam, add the remaining root veggies and additional salt if need
    • Next seal up and cook on high pressure for another 3 minutes (does not include time for the instant pot to pressurize)
    • Then release the steam, give it a good stir and it is ready
    • Alternatively after step 2 above, you can just put the instant pot on sauté add the cassava, then cook until the cassava is soft, then add the other veggies and continue to cook on sauté until those are soft. This takes between 20 to 30 minutes
    • This soup is best served hot!

    Notes

    This recipe is suited for a family of 4 or 5. Feel free to half the ingredients for smaller portions. In my family there are 2 adults and 3 children. We had this soup for dinner, my husband took a generous portion to work for lunch and we will have it for dinner again tonight.
    It freezes really well and is great for meal prepping. Make a big pot on Sunday, portion into zip top bags and freeze!
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

    Try my other instant pot Chicken and Root Veggies Soup

    More Soups

    • Two bowls of cow heel soup
      Cow Heel Soup
    • Chicken and Root Vegetable Soup
    • Chicken Foot Soup
    • Chicken Foot Souse

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Kris says

      November 20, 2022 at 1:22 pm

      Hi 🙂
      Can I use beef for this? As a substitute for the chicken or with chicken?
      Thanks

      Reply
    2. Angie says

      December 04, 2022 at 3:38 pm

      4 stars
      Great effort! However, real Dominican sancocho does not have sweet potatoes or yellow plantains. It does however, have green plantains and malanga or yautia. Also no Yam but Kabocha squash or calabaza. Try making a good sofrito instead of McCormick Montreal seasoning for good authentic flavor!

      Reply
    3. Dr. Mark D. Woodhull says

      May 16, 2023 at 1:02 pm

      Colombian (Santiago de Cali, Valle de Cauca) Sancocho has:

      Chicken legs
      Yuca (Casava)
      Corn on the Cob
      Platano Verde (green plantain)
      Papas (potatoes)
      Spanish Yellow Onion or optional: Green Onion (or both)
      Cilantro
      Garlic
      Salt & Pepper
      Cumin
      Achiote (for color - optional)

      Reply

    Trackbacks

    1. 1beatitude says:
      January 12, 2022 at 2:23 pm

      3chieftain

      Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Primary Sidebar

    Hi, I'm Althea! I have a real passion for cooking, especially traditional Caribbean recipes with deep roots! I was born and raised in Georgetown, Guyana and now live in Denver, Colorado with my husband and 3 kids. I am a Whole30 Certified Coach and love sharing wholesome remixes to traditional Guyanese and Caribbean dishes.

    More about me →

    New Recipes

    • gluten free doubles on brown parchment paper.
      Gluten Free Doubles
    • How to break down a whole chicken over cut up chicken
      How to Break Down a Whole Chicken
    • plated gluten free Guyanese pholourie with dipping sauce
      Gluten Free Guyanese Pholourie
    • Malasadas (Guyanese Pancakes)

    Wholesome Faves

    • Boneless Brown Stew Chicken
    • Dhal in a wooden bowl with a red wiri wiri pepper floating on top
      Instant Pot Dhal {Whole30}
    • Gluten Free and Grain Free Guyanese Roti (Paleo)
    • parasad, pomegranate and dragon fruit on a gray plate
      Guyanese Parsad

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    About

    • Meet Althea
    • Privacy Policy
    • Recipes

    Newsletter

    • Sign up to stay connected!

    Contact

    • Get In Touch

    Copyright © 2022 Metemgee, LLC