Cozido à portuguesa is less a recipe than a national institution: a grand boiled dinner of beef, chicken, pork, a parade of smoked sausages, and vegetables cooked in the meats’ rich broth. It is what Portuguese families eat on winter Sundays when the whole clan gathers — and there are always leftovers, thank goodness.
Every region (and honestly, every grandmother) has its own version. The beauty of cozido is its flexibility: use the meats and sausages you can find, in the amounts that suit your table, and let the pot do the work.
Living in the US, I have learned to hunt down the smoked sausages at Portuguese and Brazilian markets — chouriço, morcela, salpicão — and they make all the difference. Serve everything sliced on a big platter with the vegetables, some good olive oil, and crusty bread for the broth.
Cozido à Portuguesa Recipe
Ingredients
- About 1 pound stewing beef
- ½ chicken
- About 1 pound pork ribs
- 1 pig’s trotter (optional but traditional)
- A chunk of ham
- 1 pork sausage (chouriço)
- 1 blood sausage (morcela)
- 1 salpicão (Portuguese smoked loin sausage)
- A piece of salted bacon and a piece of fresh bacon
- Fresh and/or smoked pig’s ear (optional)
- 1 head Portuguese cabbage (penca) or savoy cabbage
- 3 to 4 carrots
- 4 potatoes
- 2 turnips
- Salt, to taste
- A drizzle of olive oil
Instructions
- If any meats are salted, soak them for a few hours beforehand.
- Put all the meats in a large pot of water with a drizzle of olive oil, season, and bring to a boil.
- As they cook, remove each meat when it is done — sausages first, then the pork cuts, and finally the beef.
- Add the vegetables to the same broth and cook until tender.
- Turn off the heat, leaving the vegetables in the broth to stay warm.
- Slice the meats and arrange them on a large platter with the vegetables around them. Serve hot.
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