Cozido à PortuguesaPortuguese Boiled Meats and Vegetables

Cozido à portuguesa is Portugal's great one-pot feast: beef, pork, chicken and smoked sausages boiled together with cabbage, carrots, turnips and potatoes, then served on big platters with the broth on the side. It's a winter Sunday lunch, a family gathering dish and a menu staple in traditional restaurants on cold days.

There's no single recipe, and every region adds its own meats. What makes it work is adding each ingredient in stages, so the beef is soft, the chicken isn't stringy and the sausages don't burst. The other secret is that the vegetables cook in the broth, so they soak up the flavour of all the meats.

The recipe

Cozido à PortuguesaPortuguese Boiled Meats and Vegetables

Cozido à portuguesa recipe: beef, pork, chicken and smoked sausages simmered with cabbage, carrots, turnips and potatoes. A full Sunday feast for 8.

Print Pin Share

Prep30 min

Cook180 min

Total210 min

Serves8

Ingredients

MetricUS

Serves

8

½×1×2×3×

• 800 g beef shin (chambão) or brisket, in 2–3 large pieces
• 500 g pork belly (entremeada), in one piece
• 500 g pork ribs (entrecosto)
• 1 pig's trotter or 300 g pig's ear (optional, traditional)
• ½ boiling chicken or 4 chicken thighs
• 1 chouriço (about 250 g)
• 1 farinheira (about 200 g)
• 1 morcela (blood sausage, about 200 g)
• 1 small savoy cabbage or couve portuguesa, cut into 8 wedges
• 4 carrots, peeled and halved
• 3 turnips, peeled and quartered
• 8 medium potatoes, peeled
• 1 onion, halved
• 2 bay leaves
• Coarse salt
• 250 g rice (optional, cooked in the broth)

Method

1. Put the beef, pork belly, ribs, trotter or ear, onion and bay leaves in a very large pot. Cover with about 5 litres of cold water and add 1 tbsp coarse salt. Bring slowly to the boil and skim off the foam.
2. Simmer gently, partly covered, for 1½ hours.
3. Add the chicken and simmer for 40 minutes more.
4. Add the chouriço, farinheira and morcela whole, without pricking them. Keep the heat very low, just a few bubbles, and cook for 20 minutes. Lift out all the meats and sausages and keep them warm, covered with foil and a ladle of broth.
5. Bring the broth back to a simmer. Add the potatoes, carrots and turnips and cook for 15 minutes.
6. Add the cabbage wedges and cook for 10–15 minutes more, until all the vegetables are tender. Taste the broth and add salt if needed.
7. If you're making rice, cook it in 600 ml of the strained broth for about 15 minutes.
8. Slice the meats and sausages. Arrange them on one or two large platters with the vegetables, and serve the hot broth or rice on the side.

Notes

Amazon best seller

Farberware 6-quart stainless stockpot

A best-selling stockpot for caldo verde, octopus and cooking bacalhau.

Tip: Works on all hobs, including induction.

View on Amazon

Clear ticks

Tap ingredients and steps to tick them off. Scaling changes the quantities at the start of each line; check the rest by eye.

Regional versions

Cozido changes across the country. In the north and Trás-os-Montes it tends to have more smoked meats, including salpicão and alheira. The Beiras add more cuts of pork. In the Azores, cozido das Furnas is cooked in pots buried in volcanic ground on São Miguel for around six hours. Some families use only beef and pork, others add a piece of cured ham. Our Portuguese sausages guide explains each sausage, and what to eat in the Azores covers the volcanic version.

Serving it the traditional way

Many families serve the broth first as a soup, sometimes with a little rice or pasta in it, then bring out the platters of meat and vegetables. A bottle of olive oil and some vinegar go on the table so people can dress their vegetables. It's a lot of food, so plan for a long, slow lunch. For a lighter starter, a bowl of canja de galinha works well, and if you like this style of cooking, try feijoada à transmontana next.

Make ahead and storage

Leftover meats and vegetables keep for 3 days in the fridge. The broth freezes for up to 3 months and makes an excellent base for soups such as sopa da pedra. Some families chop the leftover meats and cook them with rice and broth the next day.

From the shop

What you’ll need

Links go to Amazon, where you can check today’s price. If you buy, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Amazon best seller

Farberware 6-quart stainless stockpot

A best-selling stockpot for caldo verde, octopus and cooking bacalhau.

Tip: Works on all hobs, including induction.

View on Amazon

Portuguese

Bordallo Pinheiro cabbage dinner plates, set of 2

The famous green cabbage-leaf plates, handmade in Caldas da Rainha. They turn a weeknight bacalhau into a feast.

Tip: Handwash to keep the glaze bright for decades.

View on Amazon

Portuguese

Authentic Portuguese Cooking (cookbook)

Over 185 classic recipes from mainland Portugal, the Azores and Madeira. A highly rated home-cooking reference.

Tip: Good for family recipes you remember but never wrote down.

View on Amazon