Spanish cocido.

The Spanish stew that just keeps giving!

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If you ask me what I love about southern Spain, I could go in a lot of directions. There’s the people (hello, Spanish husband and children!), the beautiful sunny weather the majority of the year, and the no-rush way of life that helps me slow down and take it all in.

Buuuuut, I might also say beans.

Spain knows how to do a bean right, and I simply adore their many bean-based stews and potajes. So much so that I generally weave at least one into my weekly meal plan, often rotating through my family’s top three trifecta—lentejas, fabada, and cocido. I’ll save the first two for another day because today I want to talk cocido, or as some call it here in the south, puchero.

Cocido, like so many great Spanish dishes, is simple, humble, and delicious. But perhaps what I love the most about it is that it’s the stew that just keeps giving. To make cocido, you boil pre-soaked chickpeas with a handful of veggies, chicken, beef, cured ham, a fresh slab of pork belly fat, and bones. After the initial boil and skimming off any foam given off by the chicken, you let the stew simmer away until the chickpeas are done, or put it in the pressure cooker for 20-25 minutes, depending on the make and model.

That’s it.

Once the chickpeas are done, you’re done cooking. In our house, we eat a big serving of the chickpeas with the incredibly flavorful broth, and afterwards on our empty plates, we serve ourselves a bit of the meat (called pringá) to eat with a fork and knife. And if you’re hardcore (my husband is, and now, I guess I am, too), you can dip a chunk of your bread in the softened tocino (pork belly) to create the most flavor-filled bite of the meal.

But the best part of Spanish cocido? Eating it like this—as a chickpea broth and meat course—is only cocido’s first of three tricks.

The second one is the broth that you get form making cocido. I take out anywhere between two to four cups of broth from the finished dish, and I add some finely diced chicken and ham to it. This jar of liquid gold is now the easiest dinner ever. Dump the leftover broth and meat into a pot, add a handful of thin or small pasta, and you’ve got a cozy broth-based dinner in under 10 minutes.

And last but not least, once you’ve finished all the broth and chickpeas, you’ll inevitably be left with some meat. Chop it up as finely as you can, mix it into a bechemel sauce, and you’re well on your way to making homemade croquetas.

We make this stew often, and even more often in the winter. My mother-in-law adds a sprig of mint to hers, which I love. She also sometimes makes a quick mixture of freshly grated tomato, garlic, and cumin to top the warm stew with. In Madrid I’ve seen it made with chorizo and the broth served first with small pasta, before the chickpea course, and then the meat. As far as I’m concerned, it’s good in every single iteration. I hope you give it a try, and I hope you find your own special twist, too.

The recipe below is for a stovetop pressure cooker, which is what I use. But it can absolutely be made in a normal pot on the stovetop, or in an Instant Pot. Just be sure to follow your model’s own instructions.

Spanish cocido

Yields: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:
400 grams of dried chickpeas, soaked the night before
1 skinless, bone-in chicken thigh
400 grams boneless beef shank
400 grams cured Serrano ham
1 salted and cured ham bone, rinsed (You can read more about this here)
1 slab of fresh pork belly fat (tocino)
1 leek
2 carrots
4 potatoes

Instructions
1. In the pot of a stovetop pressure cooker, add the soaked chickpeas, chicken thigh, beef shank, chunk of cured Serrano ham, slab of fresh pork belly fat, and the bone. Cover the ingredients with plenty of water, making sure everything is completely submerged. Bring to a light boil, and skim away any impurities that rise to the top. This should take about 10 minutes. While you’re doing this, prep your veggies. Clean the leek by chopping off the dark leafy top and roots. Cut in half lengthwise and rinse out any dirt hiding within its many layers. Peel the carrots and potatoes. Set aside, as you continue to skim off impurities.
2. Once you’ve skimmed away the impurities, add the leek, carrots, and potatoes to the pot.
3. Put your pressure cooker lid on, and make sure you securely seal it closed. Turn the heat up to high, and wait until the pressure indicator shows you’re at full pressure. Once at full pressure, turn the heat down to medium-low, and let cook for about 20 minutes.
4. At the 20-minute mark, remove the pot from the heat, and wait until the pressure indicator goes back down. This is called a natural pressure release. Once the indicator pops back down, you can open the valve to see if there is any lingering steam to let out. Then open the pressure cooker, give the stew a stir, and make sure your chickpeas are cooked and meat is fork-tender. If you think the stew needs a bit more time, you can let it slowly bubble away on the stovetop until everything is tender. (I always like to cook my pressure cooker stews for a bit of extra time without the lid, but that’s personal preference.)
5. To serve the cocido, take a pair of tongs to remove all meat and bones. Put the meat on a serving plate, and toss the bones in the trash. Serve the chickpeas in broth as the first course, and then let everyone serve themselves whatever meat they’d like from the meat platter. Do not skimp on dipping a crusty baguette in the tocino—it’s truly a delight!