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Chilean food

Chile has a lot to offer in terms of food and wine. If you’ve never considered Chilean food before this in an invitation to put Chilean cuisine on your radar. Here we have highlighted popular Chilean dishes. Note, that this is not an exhaustive list, there are other Chilean dishes that exist as well.

Give Chilean cuisine a chance!

Chacarero

The chacarero is a traditional Chilean sandwich of thinly sliced steak or pork on a round roll with tomatoes, green beans, and chili pepper. Itis massive, tasty, and usually served with a heap of turkey or steak, but what makes the Chilean monster sandwich unique is the green beans piled high between the buns.

Barros luco

Just beef and melted cheese on a roll. It’s named after former president Ramón Barros Luco, who ordered it constantly from the restaurant in Chile’s National Congress.

Choripán

Invented in Argentina, this chorizo sandwich (chori + pan, get it?) is beloved all over South America. It’s usually served on a crusty roll with chopped, salsa-type condiments, such as pebre or chimichurri.

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Completo

The Completo (Spanish for “complete” or “total”) is a hot dog variation eaten in Chile. After seeing it at practically every street corner. It’s a huge hot dog (bigger than American ones) with all kinds of trimmings: mayonnaise, tomatoes, onions, pickles, sauerkraut, etc.

While this is one of the most popular ones, an equally popular variation is the Italiano. This is the same hotdog but with fewer trimmings – avocado, tomatoes and mayonnaise.

Pebre (Hot chili pepper sauce)

You will find pebre on any respectable restaurant table. It looks like salsa you would typically find at a Mexican restaurant in the U.S., but it tastes nothing like it. It is a seasoning made with tomatoes at the base and topped off with chopped onions, chili, chives, garlic, coriander, oil and vinegar. It is usually served in a little clay dish and has a nice spicy bite. It a normally served with warm bread called pan amasado.

Empanadas

A favorite snack food in Chile, these baked pies or empanadas are available pretty much everywhere. You will not miss them. In Chile the most traditional empanada filling is called pino. Pino is mixture of minced meat, onions, raisins, black olives and hard boiled eggs.

In Chile the empanadas are huge. Almost double the size you find in Argentina. The second difference is the shape. In Argentina the empanadas are half-moon shaped, while in Chile they are squared off. Empanadas are typically cooked al horno, which means baked in a wood burning oven, or deep fried.

Found the seafood or mariscos empanadas absolutely delicious. These ones were typically fried. And finally, we enjoyed the vegetarian or verdura options as well.

Porotos Granados (Fresh beans stew)

Porotos Granados is a traditional Summer dish made when the ingredients are fresh and in season. The main ingredients are beans, mashed corn, onions, pumpkin, garlic, tomatoes and basil. It is a time consuming meal to make (beans are soaked overnight) and may not be easy to find.

Pastel de Choclo y Humitas (Corn and beef casserole and Humitas)

Pastel de Choclo and Humitas are both corn based dishes. Pastel de Choclo is like a corn pie made with sweet corn or choclo the quechua word for “tender corn” or new corn of the season. It’s filling is called pino (like the one used in empanadas) and it has garlic, onion, minced meat, hard boiled eggs and olives.

Sopaipillas (Pumpkin fritters)

Sopaipillas are simple flat breads that are fried. They are made from a mixture of pumpkins, butter and flour, flattened into circles. They are a popular street food and are found all over the country. They are a versatile snack that can be eaten sweet or savory. The most popular way we saw it eaten was savory. It was usually at the end of the day topped with either pebre or mustard and ketchup.

Lomo a lo pobre (Poor man’s steak)

Many Chilean dishes carry the term “a lo pobre” which literally means “of the poor”. It is not clear where the name comes from. Today the term “a lo pobre” indicates a dish made with fried eggs. The lomo a lo pobre consists of a cut of beef tenderloin with fries, a fried egg, and onions. It is sometime called bife a lo pobre. There are several versions of the dish such as: lomito a lo pobre (made with pork meat), pollo a lo pobre (made with chicken meat) or churrasco a lo pobre (made with thin slice of sirloin).

Cazuelas – Vacuno (beef) or Seafood (mariscos)

Cazuelas are basically soups or stews. It is home-cooked nourishing, inexpensive, everyday comfort food. Cazuelas or stews are part of the national Chilean spirit. These Chilean dishes are simple and come in many variations. They start with beef, pork, lamb or chicken (preferably with bone and meat) and are simmered in water or broth with garlic, onion, oregano, paprika. When tender, seasonal vegetables are added. This includes potatoes, corn on the cob, pumpkins, onions and other vegetables.

The seafood or mariscos cazuelas are just as simple. Made with assorted seafood: clams, shrimps, oysters and then cooked with seasonal vegetables.

Chorillana

This popular Chilean favorite consists of a large plate of sliced beef with french fries covered with either scrambled or fried eggs and fried onions. It is a typical dish from Valparaiso, and many say “it is not to be missed”. It is not fancy or exotic and is typically served with beers. The servings are huge and it is meant to be shared.

Caldillo de congrio (a soup of conger eel)

Caldillo de congrio (Spanish for Cusk-eel stock) is a Chilean fish dish. The dish is made of congrio Dorado (pink cusk-eel) or Colorado (red cusk-eel), a cusk-eel species common in the Chilean Sea. The dish is made by boiling together fish heads, onion, garlic, coriander, carrots and pepper. Once these are boiled, only the stock is used. Onion and garlic are fried together with chopped tomatoes. The vegetables are mixed then with the stock, cream, boiled potatoes and marinated and boiled conger.

Chilean Literature Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda wrote an ode to Caldillo de congrio called Oda al Caldillo de Congrio.

Locos or Chilean Abalone Seafood

Locos or Chilean Abalone are a species of large edible sea snails. They are properly known as concholepas, and they are native to the coasts of Chile and Southern Peru. These sea snails are “univalve” which means that they have just a protective shell on one side of their body while the other side attaches to any rocky surface feeding off of algae. When it lays flat, the muscle spreads out. But, once it’s removed, the muscle contracts to protect the “meaty” inside.

The name “locos” in Chilean Spanish comes from the native Mapuche language and it means “crazy”. Nothing to do with the Chilean seafood at all!

When preparing locos, they must be tenderized first, which involves pounding them first against a hard surface to soften the muscle.

Pastel de Jaiba (Crab Pie)

The pastel de jaiba came in a dish, similar to a soup bowl. It was a white, thick liquid, dotted with pieces of red crab. This dish isrich, creamy and flavorful. It is prepared with four simple ingredients: cheese, milk, bread and crab.

Charquican

Ground or diced meat cooked with garlic, onions, potatoes and pumpkin all mashed. It is a mushy dish but great.

Curanto en Hoyo

A typical dish from the south of Chile. Traditionally prepared by heating fish, seafood, potatoes, some meat, milcaos and types of bread over red hot rocks in a hole in the ground. The food is wrapped in big leaves and then covered with dirt so that it slowly cooks over a number of hours. (Similar to a hangi in New Zealand). On Easter Island it is called Umu Pae.

Curanto can also be prepared in a large stew pot that is heated over a bonfire or grill or in a pressure cooker. This stewed curanto is called "curanto en olla" or "pulmay" in the central region of Chile.

Palta Reina

An avocado half which is filled with tuna fish or ham and covered with mayonnaise. It is served on lettuce leaves, normally as an entree.

Costillar de Chancho

Baked spare (pork) ribs.

Ostiones a la Parmesana

Scallops on the shells in melted butter and covered with grilled Parmesan cheese.

Congrio Frito

Deep-fried conger eel.

Piure

Sea squirts that are a dark red colour and with a very distinct strong flavour. Often eaten with diced onion, coriander and lemon. Best eaten near Chiloé.

Parrillada

Different kinds of meat, sausages and sometimes entrails grilled over charcoal and served with potato salad or rice.

Ensalada a la Chilena

Sliced tomatoes and onions with an oil dressing.

Paila Marina

Paila marina is a traditional Chilean seafood soup or light stew usually served in a paila (earthenware bowl). It usually contains a shellfish stock base cooked with different kinds of shellfish and fish.

Cordero al palo

Another traditional form to mainly roast the meat, used in Patagonia, is with the whole animal (especially lamb and pork) in a wood stick nailed in the ground and exposed to the heat of live coals, called asado al palo.

Cancato

Salmon "cancato" is a filet of salmon covered by chopped sausages and tomatoes, sliced onins and melted cheese. It is common in the sea food restaurants in Chile, but specially in the south of Chile.

Machas a la parmesana

Machas a la parmesana, (surf clams au gratin) one of the classics of Chilean cuisine, was created 50 years ago in Viña del Mar by an Italian immigrant, Edoardo Melotti Ferrari, at left with his Spaghetti Tutto di Mare.

Typical Chilean Food