Guatemalan · soup
Kak'ik
Kak'ik reads allium 4.4, salinity 3.7 and umami 3.6 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Guatemalan soup, about 3 hr 43 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.
The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10
- Umami & Savory — 4.1 / 10
- Sweet & Fruity — 3.9 / 10
- Sour & Bright — 4.2 / 10
- Bitter & Earthy — 2.7 / 10
- Rich & Fat — 2.5 / 10
- Aromatic & Spice — 5.1 / 10
The measured notes (of 18)
Allium 4.4 · Salinity 3.7 · Umami 3.6 · Sourness 3.5 · Herbaceous 3.4 · Fruity 3.1 · Warm Spice 2.7 · Sweetness 2.7 · Earthy 2.3 · Richness 2.2 · Citrus 2.1 · Heat 2.0 · Smoke 1.6 · Floral 1.4 · Bitterness 1.3 · Nutty 1.0
What's in it (15)
- turkey meat — 2500 g
- water — 3000 g
- chiles cobaneros — 30 g
- chiles guaque — 200 g
- tomatoes — 600 g
- tomatillo — 300 g
- onions — 320 g
- garlic — 32 g
- samat — 30 g
- mint — 3 g
- achiote powder — 15 g
- black peppercorns — 5 g
- allspice — 400 g
- salt — 15 g
- masa harina — 300 g
Time & effort: about 3 hr 43 min (3 hr 23 min active) · effort: involved
Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 67.1 kcal, 7.6 g protein, 1.5 g fat, 7.6 g carbs
Dietary: Contains meat — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.
How it's cooked (9 steps)
- Kak'ik is a Q'eqchi' Maya turkey soup from Alta Verapaz and its name says what it is — in Q'eqchi', kak is red and ik is chilli. It was named intangible cultural patrimony by Guatemala in 2007 along with pepián, jocón and plátanos en mole. In Cobán it is cooked with a whole turkey and served with tamalitos and rice.
- Rinse the turkey pieces and put them into the water with one onion half and half the salt. Bring to the boil, skim the foam thoroughly for the first 15 minutes, then simmer 90 minutes to 2 hours until the meat is tender at the bone. A domestic turkey takes less time than the criollo birds used in Cobán, so start checking at 75 minutes. Keep all the broth.
- Toast the chiles cobaneros and guaques on a dry comal for 20 seconds a side until they puff and smell smoky, and no longer — cobaneros are small and thin and go from toasted to burnt in a moment. Soak them in hot broth for 20 minutes.
- Char the tomatoes, miltomates, the remaining onion and the unpeeled garlic on the comal until blackened in patches, about 10 minutes. Peel the garlic.
- Toast the peppercorns and allspice for 30 seconds until fragrant.
- Blend the soaked chiles, charred vegetables, spices and achiote with 500 ml of the broth until completely smooth, then strain into the pot with the turkey and the rest of the broth. The soup should be brick red and thin — kak'ik is a broth, not a stew, and it is not thickened with seed or tortilla the way pepián is.
- Simmer everything together for 30 minutes. Add the samat and mint in the last 10 minutes only. Samat is culantro, the long serrated leaf, and it is the herb that makes this soup taste like itself; it is sold as recao or culantro in Latin groceries and holds up to cooking in a way cilantro does not. Mint alongside it is traditional and surprising and should stay in the background.
- While it simmers, make tamalitos: mix the masa harina with warm water and a pinch of salt to a soft dough, roll into small logs, wrap in corn husks or banana leaf and steam 30 minutes. Serve the kak'ik in deep bowls with a piece of turkey in each, the tamalitos on the side and rice.
- Substitutions: 4 chiles de árbol plus 1 chipotle can stand in for the chiles cobaneros; 40 g cilantro with roots can stand in for the samat.
Dishes with a similar flavor shape
- Roasted Poblano and Cheese Enchiladas — Mexican
- Ground Turkey Enchilada Casserole — Tex-Mex
- Mchuzi wa Samaki (Swahili Fish Curry) — Swahili Coast
- Sambar — Indian
- Turkey Chili Verde — Tex-Mex · Southwestern
Keep reading: what allium, salinity, umami mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.
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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.