Charquicán is the dry meat popular in Incas times, used in different dishes around the Andean region. Charquican in Chile is a popular

stew A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been Cooking, cooked in Soup, liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients can include any combination of vegetables and may include meat, especially tougher meats suitable for ...

. A similar dish eaten in Northwest Argentina is called charquisillo, a dish made with ch’arki and rice. Chilean Charquicán is made with

charqui Jerky is lean trimmed meat strips which are dehydrated to prevent spoilage and seasoned to varying degrees. Normally, this drying includes the addition of salt to prevent microbial growth through osmosis. The word "jerky" derives from the ...

, or

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). Beef can be prepared in various ways; Cut of beef, cuts are often used for steak, which can be cooked to varying degrees of doneness, while trimmings are often Ground beef, grou ...

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

es,

pumpkin A pumpkin is a cultivar, cultivated winter squash in the genus ''Cucurbita''. The term is most commonly applied to round, orange-colored squash varieties, but does not possess a scientific definition. It may be used in reference to many dif ...

, white corn,

onions An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classified ...

, and sometimes

pea Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum' ...

s and

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

. It was originally made from dried and salted llama meat or beef. The modern Chilean version of Charquicán is made with minced beef and topped with a fried egg. In

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, fish charqui is used, usually Guitarra fish. It is typically consumed during Easter. The fish stew is combined with diced potatoes and served with a side of white rice and sometimes chickpeas.

Origins

The word "charquicán," from ''charquikanka'', is thought to be a Quechua word meaning "stew with '' ch'arki''". An alternative theory posits that it is a

hybrid word A hybrid word or hybridism is a word that etymologically derives from at least two languages. Such words are a type of macaronic language. Common hybrids The most common form of hybrid word in English combines Latin and Greek parts. Since m ...

of the Quechua ''ch'arki'' and the

Mapudungun Mapuche ( , ; from 'land' and 'people', meaning 'the people of the land') or Mapudungun (from 'land' and 'speak, speech', meaning 'the speech of the land'; also spelled Mapuzugun and Mapudungu) is either a language isolate or member of the s ...

''cancan'' (dried roasted meat).Etimología de Charquicán
http://etimologias.dechile.net/ retrieved July 30, 2013 This dish was commonly eaten by merchants travelling between the port of

Arica Arica ( ; ) is a commune and a port city with a population of 222,619 in the Arica Province of northern Chile's Arica y Parinacota Region. It is Chile's northernmost city, being located only south of the border with Peru. The city is the ca ...

and the mines of

Potosí Potosí, known as Villa Imperial de Potosí in the colonial period, is the capital city and a municipality of the Potosí Department, Department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the list of highest cities in the world, highest cities in the wo ...

and by peasants travelling with herds of livestock. Later, in the times of the

Chilean War of Independence The Chilean War of Independence (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Guerra de la Independencia de Chile'', 'War of Independence of Chile') was a military and political event that allowed the emancipation of Chile from the Spanish Empire, Spanish Mona ...

, the ''Charquicán cuyano'' was a frequently eaten by the soldiers of the

Army of the Andes The Army of the Andes () was a military force created by the United Provinces of South America, United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (Argentina) and assembled by General José de San Martín as part of his campaign to liberate Chile from the S ...

Variation

* Tomatican: has added tomatoes. * Charquicán of ''quchayuyu'', or Cochayuyicán: Meat or jerky replaced with ''quchayuyu'' seaweed (

Durvillaea antarctica ''Durvillaea antarctica'', also known as ' and ', is a large, robust species of southern bull kelp found on the coasts of Chile, southern New Zealand, and Macquarie Island.Smith, J.M.B. and Bayliss-Smith, T.P. (1998). Kelp-plucking: coastal eros ...

References

External links

Charquicán Recipe
Recipe to make low sodium charquekán (Chilean beef stew). {{DEFAULTSORT:Charquican Chilean cuisine Stews

Origins

Variation

See also

References

External links