Name: Pachamanca huanuqueña, home-oven preparation
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 115 min
Total time: 265 min
Cuisine: Peruvian cuisine
Ingredients: 35 g fresh chincho leaves, washed, chopped; 25 g fresh huacatay leaves, washed; 45 g ají panca paste, unseasoned; 20 g garlic, peeled and crushed; 40 ml red wine vinegar; 20 ml vegetable oil; 5 g salt; 2 g ground cumin; 2 g ground black pepper; 900 g boneless pork shoulder, cut into 4 cm chunks; 700 g waxy potatoes, scrubbed, halved if large; 500 g sweet potatoes, scrubbed, cut into 4 cm chunks; 300 g fresh broad beans, shelled, rinsed; 180 ml water, for the covered roasting dish

Pachamanca huanuqueña, home-oven preparation — complete home recipe

Yield 6 servings

Prep 20 minutes

Cook 115 minutes

Passive 130 minutes

Total 265 minutes

Ingredients ↓

Overview

Pachamanca huanuqueña, home-oven preparation — complete home recipe

Pachamanca is defined as much by its cooking environment as by its food: hot stones beneath earth and leaves heat marinated meats and roots together. In Huánuco, local descriptions point to chincho, a distinctive aromatic Andean herb, and often pork as prominent ingredients. This recipe keeps that herb-led seasoning rather than offering a generic roast.

An earth oven is a specialised outdoor technique, not something a conventional kitchen can imitate exactly. Here a tightly covered deep roasting dish holds the pork, potatoes, sweet potatoes and broad beans together. It gives a moist, fragrant result but not the mineral and smoke notes produced by heated stones and earth.

The marinade is blended before touching the meat, and a two-hour refrigerated rest allows it to cling to the pork. Keep vegetables cut fairly large to survive the covered roast; broad beans go in later to avoid collapsing. The temperature of the pork is checked separately from the softness of the roots.

Ingredients

Chincho marinade

35 g fresh chincho leaves, washed, chopped
25 g fresh huacatay leaves, washed
45 g ají panca paste, unseasoned
20 g garlic, peeled and crushed
40 ml red wine vinegar
20 ml vegetable oil
5 g salt
2 g ground cumin
2 g ground black pepper

Meat and roots

900 g boneless pork shoulder, cut into 4 cm chunks
700 g waxy potatoes, scrubbed, halved if large
500 g sweet potatoes, scrubbed, cut into 4 cm chunks
300 g fresh broad beans, shelled, rinsed
180 ml water, for the covered roasting dish

Method

Blend the chincho marinade.Blend all 35 g chincho, 25 g huacatay, 45 g ají panca paste, 20 g garlic, 40 ml vinegar, 20 ml oil, 5 g salt, 2 g cumin and 2 g pepper into a thick paste. The herbs are chopped evenly through a vivid, spreadable paste. Allow 8 minutes for this action.
Coat and chill the pork.Rub the marinade over all 900 g pork chunks in a covered food-safe bowl. Refrigerate for 120 minutes at 4 °C or below. The paste clings to each piece with no bare patches. Keep raw pork under refrigeration; do not marinate on the counter.
Layer the roots and meat.Heat the oven to 180 °C. In a deep covered roasting dish combine 700 g potatoes and 500 g sweet potatoes, add the marinated pork and scrape over all the marinade. Pour in 180 ml water; cover tightly. The liquid sits below the top of the vegetables and the dish is tightly sealed. Allow 12 minutes for this action. Discard or cook all marinade that contacted raw pork.
Cook under cover.Place the covered dish in the 180 °C oven for 95 minutes. The pork fibres are beginning to separate when pressed with a fork, and the potatoes yield to a skewer. Check meat with a thermometer rather than relying on colour.
Add the broad beans.Lift the lid carefully away from the face; add 300 g shelled broad beans and baste with pan juices. Cover and cook 20 minutes more. Beans are tender and pork pieces reach at least 74 °C in the centre. Check several pork pieces reach 74 °C, a conservative endpoint for mixed covered cookery.
Rest and divide.Remove from the oven, rest covered for 10 minutes, then share the pork, roots, beans and juices among six plates. Juices settle and the vegetables remain intact when lifted. Keep hot until service or refrigerate promptly.

Practical

Serving, storage and substitutions

The dish can be assembled only after the pork is marinated under refrigeration, then cooked and served hot. For a larger group, use a deeper dish rather than piling ingredients so tightly that heat fails to circulate; probe the centre of several pork pieces. Refrigerate cooled portions in shallow containers at 4 °C or below within 2 hours, use within 3–4 days and reheat to 74 °C. Chincho and huacatay each contribute a distinct scent: omitting one changes the regional flavour rather than reproducing the same dish.

Control points

Roots soften before the porkPieces were too small. Keep tubers in large chunks and check the meat temperature before serving.
Dry roasting juicesThe cover was loose. Seal the lid tightly and use the listed 180 ml water, allowing the dish to steam.

Nutrition per 1 of 6 servings (approximate)

Serving size1 of 6 servings
Calories610 kcal
Carbohydrates55 g
Protein37 g
Fat26 g
Fibre10 g
Sodium470 mg

Allergens and food safety

Keep raw pork and its marinade refrigerated at 4 °C or below. Cook the pork to at least 74 °C as a conservative mixed-dish target; measure several central pieces. Lift the hot covered dish carefully to avoid steam burns. Refrigerate leftovers at 4 °C or below within 2 hours and reheat to 74 °C. Check purchased ají paste and vinegar for their own label allergen information; no major allergens are inherent to the unprocessed base ingredients.

Closing

In the bowl or on the plate: Pork, Andean tubers and chincho baked together in a covered dish.
The decisive control: Beans are tender and pork pieces reach at least 74 °C in the centre.