Dominican Chambre or Chapea is a flavorful stew that combines rice, pigeon peas (guandules), beans, meat, vegetables, and root vegetables in a dish that is a complete meal in itself. Filling, economical, and comforting, it is perfect for those days when we're feeling lazy.
By - Reviewed: . Original: Dec 21, 2007
Why we ❤️ it
This rich stew, apparently created to use up leftovers from previous days, or to give the cook a break by combining almost all the elements of our traditional lunch.
It's as if we were making the Dominican flag (a lunch dish) in a single step.
The advantage is that you can vary the ingredients to add or remove things, depending on your taste. Or you can shorten the cooking time by using leftovers from previous lunches. It's that easy.
Chambre or chapea
In Dominican cuisine, we have several stews that contain legumes and meat, such as Sopión or Sancocho de habichuelas, and Sancocho de guandules (which is sometimes confused with the former).
The difference between these and chambre is that rice is added to this stew during cooking (just like asopaos), while the others are served with white rice on the side.
The name chapea is more common in the south of the country, while chambre is used more in the north. Let me know what your family calls it in the comments.
Chambre (Dominican legumes, rice, and meat stew).
Serving suggestions
Like almost all of our stews, avocado is a must when serving chambre. And if you have homemade Agrio de naranja (Dominican hot sauce) on hand, your guests will appreciate it.
Top tips
- Legumes: You can make just chambre de guandules (pigeon pea stew), or add red beans. This depends on each family's taste. You can also use pinto or pink beans instead of red beans.
- Meat: If you want to make it with only one type of meat, add only longaniza sausage or just chuleta (smoked pork chop), but double the amount to maintain the same proportion of meat.
- Consistency: As with asopaos, consistency is a matter of taste, so make it as thick or thin as you like. Remember that it will thicken further when you remove it from the heat.
About this recipe
It is fair to say that I have learned as much from our readers over the years as I have been able to teach them. And I have discovered a number of dishes from our cuisine that I did not know about until I started writing about it, as is the case with Chambre.
How lucky for me to have discovered it. I was not familiar with it until a reader asked me if I had the recipe.
Fortunately, some friends did know it, and after trying several of their recipes, I chose the version I like best.
This wonderful soup, was seemingly created to use up leftovers from previous days, or to give the cook a break by combining almost all the elements of our lunch in a single dish.
How does your family make it? Let me know in the comments.
Video
Recipe
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Chambre or Chapea [Video+Recipe] Legumes, Rice & Meat Stew
Ingredients
- 2 pound longaniza, [0.9 kg] (Dominican pork sausage) cut into slices
- 1 pound smoked pork chop, [0.45 kg] diced
- 1 cubanelle, (cubanela) pepper, diced
- ½ teaspoon oregano (dry, ground)
- 1 small red onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, mashed
- 1 cup boiled red kidney beans, boiled soft and drained
- 1 cup guandules (pigeon peas), boiled soft and drained
- 1 carrot, diced
- 1 pound batata (sweet potato), (boniato, Japanese yam) cut into cubes
- 1 pound auyama (kabocha squash), (west Indian pumpkin, or kabocha squash) cut into cubes
- 1 teaspoon salt, (or more, to taste), divided
- ½ cup rice
- ¼ teaspoon pepper (freshly-cracked, or ground), (or more to taste)
- 3 tablespoons minced cilantro, (optional)
Instructions
1. Brown meat
Heat a deep-bottomed pot heat over medium heat.Add longaniza and pork chops. Cook and stir until they brown.
2. Add vegetables
- Stir in cubanela, onion, oregano, and garlic, cook, and stir until onion becomes translucent. Stir in guandules, beans, carrot, batata, and auyama, and cook and stir for a minute. Season with ½ teaspoon of salt. Pour in 1 qt [1 lt] of water and simmer.
3. Cook rice
- When the liquid breaks the boil, add the rice, stir.Simmer covered over medium heat until the rice is tender and the grains have doubled in size. Stir frequently to prevent the ingredients from sticking to the bottom of the pot.Once the rice is cooked, season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in cilantro and remove from the heat.
4. Serve
- Serve with avocado slices.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is calculated automatically based on ingredients listed. Please consult your doctor if you need precise nutrition information.
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More recipes with guandules
Pigeon peas are one of our favorite legumes and the basis of some of our most beloved dishes. You can find our popular recipes with guandules, such as Guandules guisados, Moro de guandules, Sancocho de guandules, and our spectacular Dominican Christmas turkey stuffed with moro de guandules.
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