Chile: 5 Traditional Chilean Dishes to Try When You Visit the South American Nation

Chile's dishes stems from the combination of traditional Spanish food, Chilean indigenous culture, and cuisine influences from France, Italy, and Germany.

Chile is best known for its seafood with a wide array of options, including abalones, razor clams, mussels, spider crabs, oysters, conger eels, salmon swordfish, hake, tuna, and sole.

Chilean lunches were considered the most important meal of the day, which were typically composed of a fish, meat, or poultry dish followed by a stew with choclo and potatoes.

Traditional Chilean Dishes

According to Will Fly for Food, immigrants from countries like Germany, Italy, France, the U.K., Croatia, Belgium, and Greece further enriched the course of Chilean gastronomy. Here are some of the traditional Chilean food dishes you have to try.

Humitas

Humitas is an ancient pre-Hispanic Andean dish eaten in Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and northwest Argentina. The dish is similar to tamales, consisting of mashed potatoes, corn mixed with basil, onion, aji verde, butter or lard, and spices.

Chilean humitas are usually plain in taste, but they can be seasoned to be more savory, sweet, or sweet and sour. They can be enjoyed with a pair or side of ensalada chileana or pebre salsa.

Niños Envueltos

This dish literally translates to "wrapped children" and can refer to both Chilean steak rolls or stuffed cabbage rolls. Steak rolls are made with pieces of steak wrapped around a filling of vegetables, while stuffed cabbage rolls are made of ground meat and rice wrapped inside cabbage leaves.

Cazuela

Another popular traditional Chilean dish is the Cazuela, a broth made with large pieces of tender beef or chicken, with potatoes, pumpkin, corn noodles, and cilantro.

The Chilean broth has Spanish and indigenous Mapuche origins. Culture Trip feature noted that Chileans eat the broth first, finishing up with the meat, potato, and veggies.

Sopaipillas

Chilean sopaipillas are different from the Mexican version of the dish. It is made with squash and is eaten with savory or sweet sauces.

In Chile, the sauce they use is called Chancaca. According to Chimu, the dish is known to be flat circular, and deep-fried bread made with pumpkin and flour.

Chochoca

Chochoca is a Chilean festival dish that consists of dough made with potatoes and flour wrapped around a metal cylinder that resembles a large rolling pin. The cylinder is roasted slowly for about thirty minutes, just like roasting a pig. The dough is being roasted over hot charcoal.

Once cooked, the chochoca is sliced into pieces and eaten on its own or filled with chicharrones. It is a type of dish that is usually reserved for festive occasions like fiestas and food fairs.

Black chochoca is the more traditional of the two kinds of chochoca. It is made with grated raw potatoes mixed with ground cooked potatoes, salt, and lard. The white version is more common and made with equal parts of wheat flour and ground-cooked potatoes.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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