Chef Isabel
Aguaillo de la Sierra de Cadiz
Aguaillo is from the Sierra de Cadiz: cold water, stale bread, garlic, oil and vinegar, closer to a field drink than a bowl of soup, and sharp enough to wake you in the heat.
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Sopa de Picadillo Andaluza
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Sopa de picadillo is Andalucía's clear puchero-broth soup, finished with fine fideos, chopped egg, jamón, chicken, and mint. The whole dish depends on a patient, clean caldo.
Soups & Stews
Spanish
Christmas
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
25 min
Active Time
3 hr 15 min cook•11 hr 40 min total
Yield6 servings
Sopa de picadillo is Andaluz, and it belongs to the puchero pot: a clear, steady caldo served with fine fideos, diced jamón, chopped hard-boiled egg, a little chicken, and mint. It looks modest. It isn't. On Christmas Eve in many Andalusian houses, this is the first bowl that tells everyone the meal has begun.
The method that decides it is the broth. You don't boil it hard and cloud it, and you don't rush the bones and meat into giving what only time gives. Start the meats and chickpeas in cold water, skim well, then let the pot murmur gently until the caldo tastes rounded and clean. That is the dish. The picadillo, the chopped bits, are there to honour the broth, not hide a weak one.
If you're far from Andalucía, no hace falta haber pisado España. Use a good ham bone if you can find one, or a piece of unsmoked cured ham with chicken and beef bones; it won't have the exact perfume of jamón serrano, but it will still give you a proper household caldo. Fine angel-hair noodles can stand in for fideos finos. Add the mint at the end, not at the beginning, or it turns tired and bitter.
My Margin beside this soup says only this: strain twice, salt once. It sounds fussy until the first spoonful. Clear broth, tender noodles, egg, jamón, and that small green lift of hierbabuena. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.
Sopa de picadillo belongs to Andalucía's puchero tradition, where a single pot of chickpeas, bones, meats, and vegetables gives both a broth for soup and solids for the next course or the next day. In many Andalusian homes it is tied to Christmas Eve, served before the richer dishes because the clear caldo settles the table rather than filling it too heavily. The chopped garnish gives the soup its name: picadillo means the little diced additions, usually jamón, hard-boiled egg, and some of the cooked chicken from the pot.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried chickpeas
Quantity
250g
soaked overnight
chicken carcass or chicken legs
Quantity
about 700g
beef shin or beef bones
Quantity
300g
jamón serrano bone or unsmoked cured ham piece
Quantity
1 bone or 150g
salted pork rib or pork belly
Quantity
150g
rinsed
leek
Quantity
1
trimmed and washed
carrots
Quantity
2
peeled
celery stalk
Quantity
1
small turnip
Quantity
1
peeled
cold water
Quantity
3 litres, plus more as needed
fine salt
Quantity
8g, plus more to taste
fine fideos or angel-hair noodles
Quantity
120g
broken into short lengths if needed
large eggs
Quantity
2
jamón serrano
Quantity
80g
finely diced
cooked chicken from the broth
Quantity
120g
finely shredded or diced
fresh mint leaves
Quantity
8
torn just before serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried chickpeassoaked overnight | 250g |
| chicken carcass or chicken legs | about 700g |
| beef shin or beef bones | 300g |
| jamón serrano bone or unsmoked cured ham piece | 1 bone or 150g |
| salted pork rib or pork bellyrinsed | 150g |
| leektrimmed and washed | 1 |
| carrotspeeled | 2 |
| celery stalk | 1 |
| small turnippeeled | 1 |
| cold water | 3 litres, plus more as needed |
| fine salt | 8g, plus more to taste |
| fine fideos or angel-hair noodlesbroken into short lengths if needed | 120g |
| large eggs | 2 |
| jamón serranofinely diced | 80g |
| cooked chicken from the brothfinely shredded or diced | 120g |
| fresh mint leavestorn just before serving | 8 |
Equipment Needed
- •Tall heavy pot, 5 to 6 litres
- •Skimming spoon
- •Fine sieve
- •Clean muslin or very fine strainer
Instructions
- 1
Soak the chickpeas
The night before, cover the chickpeas with plenty of cold water and leave them to soak for 8 to 12 hours. Drain them before cooking. This is not decoration; soaked chickpeas cook evenly and give the puchero body without stealing another hour from you.
- 2
Start the puchero
Put the drained chickpeas, chicken, beef, jamón bone or cured ham, rinsed pork, leek, carrots, celery, turnip, and 3 litres cold water into a tall heavy pot. Bring it up slowly over medium heat. As foam rises, skim it patiently with a spoon; clean skimming now is what gives you a clear caldo later.
If your jamón bone is very salty, soak it in cold water for 30 minutes first, then rinse. You can always add salt later. You can't take it back. - 3
Simmer the broth
Once the pot is clean on top, add 8g salt, lower the heat, and keep it at a quiet murmur for about 2 hours 30 minutes, until the chickpeas are tender and the chicken pulls easily from the bone. Do not let it boil hard. A violent boil breaks the chickpeas, clouds the broth, and leaves you with a heavy soup instead of sopa de picadillo.
- 4
Strain and pick
Lift out the meats and vegetables. Strain the broth through a fine sieve into a clean pot, then strain again through a damp cloth or a very fine sieve if you want it especially clear. Pick 120g chicken meat and dice or shred it finely. Save the chickpeas and vegetables for another plate, or serve them after the soup as many Andalusian houses do.
- 5
Cook the eggs
While the broth settles, put the eggs in a small pan, cover with cold water, bring to a boil, and cook for 10 minutes. Cool under cold water, peel, and chop them small. Dice the jamón finely. Picadillo means just that: little chopped things, small enough to sit in every spoonful.
- 6
Cook the fideos
Bring 1.5 litres of the strained broth to a lively simmer for the soup, saving any extra caldo for another day. Taste for salt, then add the fine fideos and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, depending on their thickness, until tender but not swollen. Keep them moving gently so they don't clump at the bottom.
- 7
Finish with picadillo
Stir in the chopped chicken and warm it through for 1 minute. Divide the diced jamón and chopped egg among warm bowls, ladle the hot noodle broth over them, and finish each bowl with torn mint leaves. The mint goes in last, fresh and green, because boiled mint tastes like punishment. Serve at once.
Chef Tips
- •The broth is the recipe. Use bones, chicken, and a real jamón serrano bone if you can find one. If not, use an unsmoked cured ham piece and know the flavour will be gentler, less nutty, but still honest.
- •Fideos finos are the usual noodles here. If you can't find them, break angel-hair pasta into short lengths. Don't use thick pasta; it turns a clear first-course soup into something clumsy.
- •Hierbabuena, spearmint, is traditional in many Andalusian bowls of this soup. Add it only at the end. If you don't like mint, leave it out rather than replacing it with parsley and pretending nothing changed.
- •Do not throw away the chickpeas and vegetables from the puchero. Dress them with olive oil and salt, or serve them with the meats after the soup. A good household pot feeds more than one plate.
Advance Preparation
- •Make the puchero broth up to 2 days ahead. Chill it, lift off the solid fat from the top, and reheat only the amount you need for the soup.
- •Boil and chop the eggs a day ahead, and dice the jamón and cooked chicken before guests arrive. Cook the fideos only at the end so they stay neat in the broth.
- •Extra strained caldo freezes well for up to 3 months. Freeze it without noodles, egg, or mint.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 470g)
Calories
295 calories
Total Fat
12 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
8 g
Cholesterol
110 mg
Sodium
1450 mg
Total Carbohydrates
21 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
25 g
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