My Mom's Pastel de Choclo (Peruvian Sweet Corn Pie)

A traditional Tacna-style sweet corn pie — Giacomo's mother's recipe, standardized for the first time. A blended corn batter with eggs, evaporated milk and a bread panade, layered over a savory filling of red onion, garlic, oregano, shredded chicken, raisins and black olives. A Mother's Day cook-along that turns a home-cook ojo recipe into precise grams.

smart_display Published 2026-05-07 download Extracted 2026-05-07

40m Prep

40m Cook

1h 20m Total

6 Servings

peruvian tacna comfort-food baked casserole mothers-day chicken corn family-recipe traditional

Ingredients

Corn Batter (Licuado)

570 g fresh corn kernels (choclo) (preferably slightly dried out (older corn ideal for this recipe))
65 g olive oil
60 g evaporated milk
9 g salt
120 g raw cane sugar (azúcar rubia)
3 und eggs

Filling (Relleno)

20 g olive oil
4 g salt
1 g black pepper
180 g red onion (finely diced)
20 g minced garlic (minced)
3 g dried oregano (crushed by hand)
2 g paprika (for color (mom's substitute for ají panca))
60 g chicken stock (to finish cooking the onion and moisten the filling)
80 g brown raisins (large ones halved)
50 g black olives
300 g cooked chicken breast (roughly chopped (a whole breast, poached in broth, picked into small pieces))

Panade (Bread Soak)

80 g sandwich/sliced bread (soaked in chicken broth to make panade)
120 g chicken broth (for soaking the bread)

Topping

to taste raw cane sugar (sprinkled on top before baking, to help browning)
as needed butter (for greasing the mold (never margarine, never floured))

Steps

Assembly

1

Butter a 30 cm × 19 cm baking dish with butter — never margarine, never floured.

~2 min
2

Pour about half of the corn batter into the dish as the base layer.

~1 min
3

Spread the chicken filling evenly over the base layer with a clean hand, making sure the raisins and olives are distributed throughout — not clumped to one side.

~2 min
4

Cover the filling with the remaining corn batter, pouring gently so the filling doesn't shift.

~1 min
5

Sprinkle a little raw cane sugar over the top to help with browning and give a glossy finish.

~1 min
6

Bake at 180 °C (350 °F) for about 40 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the pie is fully set.

~40 min
7

Remove from the oven and let it rest until just warm before cutting — it slices and unmolds much more cleanly when warm-not-hot.

~15 min

Corn Batter (Licuado)

1

Make the panade: soak the sliced bread (80 g) in the chicken broth (120 g) until it absorbs all the liquid and forms a wet paste.

~5 min
2

In the blender, start with the soft, liquid ingredients: eggs, olive oil, evaporated milk, salt, raw cane sugar and the panade. Blend to a smooth, homogeneous batter.

~2 min
3

Add the corn kernels in batches (in 4 portions, a bit at a time). Pulse the blender — don't fully puree; keep some recognizable pieces of corn so you feel the kernel in the final pie.

~3 min
4

Taste the batter and adjust salt and sugar. The sugar should be present but balanced — the cane sugar's caramel note is what defines the pie.

~1 min

Filling (Relleno)

1

Make the aderezo (sofrito): in a saucepan with olive oil, sweat the finely diced red onion until translucent and fully softened — no color. Add the minced garlic.

~8 min
2

Season with salt, pepper and dried oregano (crushed between your palms to release the oils). Add paprika — the family's substitute for ají panca, used here to give color.

~1 min
3

Add a splash of chicken broth to finish cooking the onion without adding more oil. Simmer until the liquid reduces and the sofrito is glossy.

~3 min
4

Turn off the heat. Stir in the brown raisins (large ones halved) and black olives.

~1 min
5

Poach a whole chicken breast in chicken broth. Chop it roughly into small pieces — don't shred, since the fibers tend to mat together. Fold the chicken into the sofrito and add more chicken broth until the filling is juicy. Set aside.

~5 min

Nutrition (per serving)

420

Calories

22g

Protein

48g

Carbs

17g

Fat

Fiber

Cultural Context

Pastel de Choclo is an iconic dish of southern Peru, particularly Tacna — the Bocchio family's hometown. Unlike the Chilean version, the Tacna style folds in bread soaked in chicken broth (panade) that gives the pie a pudding-like texture, and is enriched with raisins and black olives — both abundant in Tacna thanks to its wine and olive production. The recipe is traditionally passed down 'al ojo' (by eye) between mothers, grandmothers, and aunts; in this Mother's Day cook-along, Giacomo cooks alongside his mom for the first time to standardize her exact gram measurements so the family recipe can finally be written down.