COPPERWhat is the national dish of Chile?
Chile has no official national dish, but the empanada de pino is the one most often cited: a baked wheat pastry filled with *pino*, minced beef slow-cooked with onion and paprika, plus one black olive, a few raisins and a piece of hard-boiled egg. Chileans eat the most of them in September, during the Fiestas Patrias. Pastel de choclo and cazuela are the other usual answers.
Does Chile have an official national dish?
No law or decree names one. Lists of national dishes give three foods for Chile: the empanada, pastel de choclo and marraqueta, the country's everyday bread. Of these, the empanada de pino is the one most often called the national dish.
Its place in the calendar explains why. Consumption of empanadas, especially de pino, rises every September during the Fiestas Patrias, the independence celebrations, where they are traditionally eaten with chicha and red wine.
None of these three has legal status. The empanada is usually put first because of its tie to the September independence holidays, while pastel de choclo is shared with several neighbouring countries.
What is in an empanada de pino?
*Pino* is the Chilean word for the seasoned mix of minced beef and onion. Every empanada de pino holds the same set of fillings:
- Pino: beef browned in lard, simmered with ají de color (paprika), cumin and broth, then cooked with a large amount of diced onion.
- One black olive, traditionally with its pit.
- Two or three raisins, the sweet note (a few recipes treat them as optional).
- A quarter of hard-boiled egg.
- The dough: wheat flour worked with lard, warm milk and water.
How empanadas de pino are made
The pino is cooked the day before. The beef simmers 30 minutes with paprika, cumin and broth, then 30 minutes more with the onions, and is bound with a little flour. It spends the night in the fridge, because a warm or wet filling soaks through the dough and bursts it in the oven.
The next day the dough is rolled into discs about 18 cm across. Each gets two spoonfuls of cold pino, the olive, raisins and egg, then is folded, the edge turned back over itself and the corners pinched shut. Brushed with egg, they bake at 200 °C for 30 to 35 minutes until deep golden. Fried versions (*fritas*) also exist; our recipe is the baked one, *de horno*. Our empanada de pino recipe has the full quantities.
The quantities in our recipe make about 20 empanadas: 1 kg ground beef, 4 large onions, 2 tablespoons of paprika and half a teaspoon of cumin for the pino, and 1 kg flour, 180 g lard, 250 ml warm milk and 250 ml warm water for the dough, kneaded 10 minutes and rested 30.
Pastel de choclo, the summer candidate
Pastel de choclo uses the same pino as a base, topped with chicken, raisins, olives and egg, then covered with fresh corn ground with basil and cooked into a thick paste. The top is dusted with sugar and baked at 200 °C for 40 to 50 minutes until it turns into a brown crust. It is traditionally baked in a clay dish, the *paila de greda*, rested 10 minutes and served in the dish it was baked in.
The dish is shared across South America, from Peru and Bolivia to Argentina, which is one reason it is less often given to Chile alone. Argentina has its own empanadas too: see the national dish of Argentina.
The basil is the signature of the Chilean version: about 10 leaves ground into 1 kg of fresh corn kernels, then cooked with milk for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring all the time, until the paste is thick enough to hold a trace. Corn alone gives a different pie.
Other dishes to know from Chile
Cazuela is the everyday soup: a clear broth with one bone-in piece of beef per bowl, a whole potato, a wedge of pumpkin and half a corn cob, plus rice and green beans. The beef simmers about an hour so it stays in one piece, and the broth is never thickened. Beef and chicken versions are two separate dishes.
The base is 1.2 kg of bone-in beef shank in 2.5 litres of cold water with onion, garlic and salt, skimmed once it boils. Potatoes, carrot and rice go in after an hour, pumpkin and corn 15 minutes later, green beans and oregano for the last 5 minutes. Each bowl is then assembled piece by piece, the hot broth ladled over and chopped cilantro scattered on top.
Chilean cooking shares a lot with its neighbours in South American cuisine. All three recipes, with ingredients and steps, are on our page about the food of Chile.
The recipes
- Empanadas de pino🇨🇱 Chile · 15 hours
Pastel de choclo🇨🇱 Chile · 2 hours and 30 minutes
Cazuela🇨🇱 Chile · 1 hour and 40 minutes
Questions people ask
Does Chile have an official national dish?
No. Chile has no official national dish, but the empanada de pino is the one most often cited, ahead of pastel de choclo and cazuela.
What is pino in Chilean food?
Pino is the Chilean name for a seasoned mix of minced beef and onion. It fills empanadas de pino and forms the base of pastel de choclo.
Why are there raisins and olives in Chilean empanadas?
They are part of the standard empanada de pino: one black olive, a few raisins and a quarter of hard-boiled egg go into each one with the beef filling.
When do Chileans eat empanadas?
All year, but most of all in September during the Fiestas Patrias, the independence celebrations, traditionally with chicha and red wine.
Are Chilean empanadas baked or fried?
Both exist: Chileans make empanadas fritas (fried) and de horno (baked). Our empanada de pino is baked at 200 °C for 30 to 35 minutes.
Keep reading
- Traditional food of Chile: 14 dishes to know
- What is the national dish of Argentina?
- What is the national dish of Bolivia?
- What is the national dish of Brazil?
- What is the national dish of Colombia?
- What is the national dish of Ecuador?