In Cali and the rest of the Valle del Cauca, sancocho de gallina is less a meal than an occasion. Families and friends gather around a huge pot, often cooked over firewood by a river on a Sunday, and the soup simmers for hours while everyone talks. The traditional bird is a gallina criolla, a free range hen whose flavor is deep and whose meat needs long cooking. In go green plantain, cassava, potatoes and corn on the cob, and at the end a generous handful of cilantro and its wilder, stronger cousin, cilantro cimarrón.

Bowls of broth arrive with the meat and vegetables, rice, avocado and a sharp ají on the side, and nobody leaves the table hungry. It is also the cure for every ailment in Colombian family lore. For a race weekend it feeds a crowd from a single pot and improves with waiting, which most race weekends require.

The guiso

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil
• 6 green onions (cebolla larga)
• 2 ripe tomatoes
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground achiote (annatto)

The sancocho

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken or stewing hen, about 4 lb (1.8 kg)
• 14 cups (3.3 liters) water
• 1 tablespoon fine salt
• 3 ears of corn
• 2 green plantains
• 1 1/2 lb (680 g) yuca (cassava)
• 1 lb (450 g) yellow potatoes
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 6 leaves cilantro cimarrón (culantro)

More from Colombia