Chinchero Pachamanca Typical Peruvian Dish – Step by Step

Pachamanca (pah-cha-MAHN-cah) is a Peruvian dish initially created by the Inca to honor the earth. It is often eaten on special occasions. To make Pachamanca, cooks dig a hole and fill it with wood and volcanic stones. A fire does light. It is used to heat rocks. Different foods are placed in layers when the stones are burning on the spot.

Pachamanca in Chinchero, Cusco

Service to organize after completing the Maras Moray circuit, Cusco excursion “half-day tours,” or on a day off from your vacation. It is excellent to observe the burial of food with hot stones and, after two hours, to dig the earth with rocks to start our feeding.

Trips 2025

• Cusco City Tour – Half Day
• Moray Maras Salt Mines Tour – Half Day

• Pachamanca lunch experience in Pongobamba de Chinchero, Cusco.
  • Assistance service of the Pachamanca by the community of Huaynas de Pumapata
• Local taxes

HISTORY OF PACHAMANCA PERU

Pachamanca, an exquisite Peruvian dish, was declared the Cultural Patrimony of the Nation in 2003. In addition, every first Sunday of February is celebrated as the National Day of the Pachamanca.

The term “Pachamanca” comes from the Quechua words Pacha, “earth,” and Manka, “pot”; therefore, its meaning would be “earth pot.” However, it is essential to mention that in the Aymara language, the term Manca or Mankha means “food,” so an alternative meaning would be “food from the land.”

ORIGIN OF PACHAMANCA IN PERU

The Pre-Inca Pachamanca originated 8,000 years ago in the Telarmachay rock shelter in San Pedro de Cajas (Junín region), where the Andeans already used this technique to cook their food using hot stones. This technique was also used massively during the Late Archaic in the Fortaleza Valley and was found in the five-thousand-year-old Vichama Raymi tradition of Paramonga.

PACHAMANCA PERUVIAN CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

In Ministerial Resolution No. 0577-2015-Minagri, issued and published on November 26, 2015, in the official newspaper El Peruano, the Ministry of Agriculture recognized Pachamanca as a dish with deep cultural significance in peasant “Andeans” of particular importance in the national Peruvian cuisine that drives the food chain of the Andes.

• Cusco City Tour – Half Day
• Cusco City Tour & Surroundings Full Day
• Moray Maras Salt Mines Tour – Half Day
• Full-Day Moray Private Tour
• South Valley Tour Cusco
• Full-Day Tour Tipon South Valley

This commemoration seeks to promote festivals, contests, and fairs at the local and regional level to promote peasant and native economic activity by consuming native agricultural products, especially tubers, and generating financial income that collaborates to improve the quality of life of peasants with their families.

PACHAMANCA HERITAGE DECLARATION

In 2003, the Ministry of Culture declared the Peruvian Pachamanca as Cultural Patrimony of the Nation, recognizing an ancient custom and faithful testimony of the creation and wisdom of the ancestors of cultures before the Incas, in the time of the Incas, republicans, and current. TRY your Pachamanca in Chinchero, Cusco around Lake Piuray.

PREPARATION OF THE PACHAMANCA, Cusco – Chinchero – Pongo Bamba

The ancient stew Pachamanca is the result of cooking, in the heat of preheated stones, beef, pork, chicken guinea pig, etc., previously seasoned with aromatic vegetables such as Huacatay Chili, as well as cumin, pepper, and other spices. Andean crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, broad beans in pods, and humitas are also cooked as accompaniments. Once cooked, they generously serve together because Pachamanca is a stew to share with the family.