Even though we are not discussing a fancy Easter holiday special, I find Guatemalan food to be a great peek inside Guatemalan culture and a category of dishes that I will surely miss when I return to the States.
When I first tried caldo de pollo, I was blown away by how good it tasted because of how simple it is to make. All you really do is peel and boil a bunch of vegetables along with a piece of chicken. There is a little more to it than that, which I will talk about in the next section, but that is basically the process. Regardless, there hasn't been a single caldo de pollo that I have tried that hasn't been good, and I have had a lot. Because caldo de pollo is such a simple food to make, Guatemalans make it all the time. They make it for lunch, dinner, school events, church events and funerals, pretty much everything. Some might expect one to get sick of eating this so many times, but you never do because it is such a soft, comforting meal that it's never hard to eat, and every time you do, you feel happy and well-fed.
Caldo de pollo, or chicken stew, is a common dish that I'm sure all of us have tried or will try in our lives. I know for me, my mom loved to make chicken soup whenever I got really sick, and it always helped me feel a little better. Caldo de pollo is the Guatemalan take on chicken soup, and this distinction matters for several reasons. For one, the ingredients that make up the stew are uniquely Guatemalan. Fresh, homegrown vegetables, organically raised chicken and local herbs and spices all blend to give this Guatemalan stew its unique flavor.
