Cocido is a traditional beef, chicken and chickpea stew from Madrid. It is similar to the French “Pot au feu”, where all the meat and vegetables are cooked together and then eaten separately, with the liquid served as a starter and the meat and vegetables as the second course.
The recipe is based on one by Carlos Arguiñano (see this page for his Spanish version).


- 300g chickpeas, soaked for at least 24 hours
- 300g pork, cut into chunks
- 1 chicken thigh
- chorizo
- strip pork belly
- morcilla de cebolla (Spanish black pudding made with onions)
- 1 ham bone
- 1 white bone
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 carrots
- 3 medium potatoes, cut into chunks
- 1/2 white cabbage, shredded
- 3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- salt and pepper
- Heat some oil in a pressure cooker and gently fry the onion until soft.
- Add the garlic and fry for another couple of minutes.
- Add the meat and bones (except for the chicken, chorizo or black pudding) and 2.5 litres of water.
- Season with salt and bring to the boil.
- Add the chickpeas, put on the lid and bring up to pressure.
- Cook for 30 minutes.
- Run the cooker under a cold tap to reduce the pressure.
- Open and transfer some of the cooking liquid to saucepan.
- Add the shredded cabbage and the chorizo and morcilla to the pan with cooking liquid and cook for 15 minutes.
- Add the potato and carrot tot he pressure cooker.
- Bring back up to pressure and cook for 5 minutes.
- Serve.
- Cocido Madrileño is traditionally made with beef, chicken, pork belly, black pudding, chorizo and bones, For this non-traditional version, I used pork, chicken, chorizo and meat bones. Mercadona sell a chicken and pork pack for this type of stew that includes the meat and different types of bones that you need.