Aji de Gallina (Peruvian Chicken Stew)

Cultural Context

Ají de gallina is one of Peru’s classic comfort dishes, built around shredded poultry in a creamy ají amarillo sauce thickened with bread, milk, cheese, and nuts. It’s usually served with boiled potatoes, rice, black olives, and hard-boiled egg, which gives the plate that unmistakable Peruvian mix of richness, starch, and practical generosity.

The dish resembles older European white-sauce poultry dishes, especially manjar blanc or related blancmange-style preparations, which were later transformed in Peru with local chili peppers and local flavors. In other words, history happened, Peru improved it, and dinner got better.

Fun Fact

The word gallina means hen, and older versions were traditionally made with hen rather than chicken. These days, most home cooks sensibly use chicken, because not everyone has a spare hen hanging around on a Tuesday.

Cook’s Tip

Chicken breast is common, but thighs give you a slightly richer result and stay tender more easily. Traditionally, Ají de Gallina was made with gallina, or hen, but chicken is now the usual home-cook choice. Ají amarillo is the key flavor here, not just the color. If you cannot get the paste, the dish will still be creamy, but it will lose much of its Peruvian character. Walnuts and pecans both appear in traditional versions, and white bread, plus milk or evaporated milk, gives the sauce its classic body.

Trivia

Ají de Gallina is one of the clearest examples of how Peruvian cuisine absorbed European cooking traditions and rewired them with Ají Amarillo into something entirely its own.