My mom’s Cozido recipe was a Sunday tradition in our house — a true Portuguese boiled dinner that fed the whole family and then some. She knew my dad loved it, and she always made enough for leftovers all week. The stock became soup, and whatever meats were left got mixed with eggs and turned into tortas stuffed into fresh rolls. Nothing was wasted, and nothing was better.
What is Cozido?
Cozido, short for Cozido à Portuguesa, is Portugal’s beloved boiled dinner — a slow-cooked one-pot meal of mixed meats, sausages, and vegetables simmered together in a rich, deeply flavored broth. The name simply means “boiled” in Portuguese, and the dish is exactly that: everything goes into the pot, patience does the rest. Different regions of Portugal have their own versions, but the one I grew up with — made with chouriço, morcela, kale, cabbage, and potatoes — is the one closest to my heart. It is traditionally served at the table on separate platters: one for the meats, one for the vegetables, and one for the rice.
How to Make This Cozido Recipe
A good Cozido recipe takes time but very little technique. The night before, you salt the pork and beef and refrigerate overnight — this step deepens the flavor and is worth doing. The next morning, you blanch the meats first to pull out the excess fat, then start fresh with clean water and build the broth from there. Vegetables and the rice ball go in last. The key is patience: low and slow is what turns a pot of water and meat into something truly extraordinary.
Tips for the Best Cozido Recipe
- Salt your meats the night before. Don’t skip it — the difference in flavor is real.
- Wrap the morcela tightly in cheesecloth. The casing is thin and will burst during cooking; the cheesecloth keeps it intact.
- Add the morcela about 30 minutes before everything else is done. It cooks faster than the other meats and falls apart if it goes in too early.
- Use a rice ball and add fresh mint inside. My mom always did this, and the broth flavors the rice in a way that nothing else can replicate.
- If your pot isn’t big enough for everything, set up a second pot. Ladle broth from the main pot and finish some of the vegetables there.
- Save the broth. Every drop of it. It becomes the base for an incredible soup the next day.
- Serve on separate platters — meats on one, vegetables on another, rice on a third. That’s the traditional way and it makes for a beautiful table.
For a Cozido, you need a stockpot that can actually hold everything — all those meats and vegetables at once. I use a large stockpot from Cuisinart 10-quart is highly rated and easy to clean up.
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Serving and Storing
This cozido recipe is served family-style at the table — meats on one platter, vegetables on another, rice on its own. Everyone helps themselves. Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator for three to four days. Store the broth separately and use it for soup within a day or two. The leftover meats make incredible tortas — a Portuguese scrambled egg and meat mixture stuffed into fresh rolls. Don’t waste a thing.
PrintCozido: Portuguese Boiled Dinner
My mom served a boiled dinner for our Sunday lunch at least once a month when I was growing up. She knew it was one of my dad’s favorite meals, and it also leaves plenty of leftovers for the week. We knew she would turn the stock into a soup. Then, after a few days, whatever was still left would get mixed with eggs and turned into several tortas. We would stuff these into fresh pop to have amazing sandwiches.
- Category: Fish
Ingredients
3 lbs of beef shanks with meat
2 lbs of pork shanks with meat
1 lb of pork ribs cut in half
1/2 lb of fresh bacon back, in one piece
1 lb of Chourico
1 lb of blood sausage (morcela), wrapped and tied in cheese cloth
1 bunch of fresh kale, clean and stems cut
1 small cabbage, cut into wedges
6 potatoes, peeled and cut in half
1 large onion, whole
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and quartered
4 carrots, peeled and cut in half
2 bay leafs
3/4 cups of rice, rinsed and placed in rice ball
2 springs of mint, placed in rice ball
Instructions
1. The night before, you will need to salt the bacon back, pork shanks, and ribs and leave them covered in the refrigerator. Season the beef shanks separately with salt, pepper, and a little cinnamon, and also refrigerate overnight.
2. The following morning, fill a large stockpot halfway with water and add all the meat. Over medium heat bring to a boil and cook until all the excess fat raises to the top of the pan. Then remove all meat out of the pan and discard the water.
3. Clean the pan and refill halfway with water again, and add all the meat, chourico, bacon back, bay leaves, onion, and cook until meat is tender and you can stick a fork right through it, about 1-2 hours. Since the morcela doesn’t take that long to cook, add it about a half-hour before the meats are cooked.
4. Once all the meats are cooked remove them from the pan and set them aside. Add the carrots, potatoes, and the rice ball and bring the broth back to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Add the cabbage, cut side down and the kale last and continue to cook for 30 minutes.
The boiled dinner is traditionally served on several trays, one for the meats, one for the vegetables, and one for the rice.
Notes
- My mom would cook rice in the boiled dinner by using a rice ball. The broth cooks the rice and makes the rice take on all the flavors of the dinner and the mint brings it to another level of taste.
- The reason it’s cooked in the cheese cloth is that the casing on it is very thin and sometimes burst while cooking.
- If you run out of room in the pot, have a separate pot set up and fill with broth from the larger pot and cook some of the vegetables separately.
Love Portuguese comfort food? Try my Portuguese Kale Soup or my Portuguese Canja next.
featured in Season 1, Episode 2
Image credit to Terra Nostra Hotel
