Aji de gallina is shredded poached chicken in a cream sauce of yellow aji amarillo, walnuts, queso fresco and bread soaked in milk, served over white rice with potato and olive.
A Spanish-colonial criolla dish descended from manjar blanco, the medieval Spanish almond-thickened poultry. Walnut and queso fresco replaced the almonds in viceregal Lima kitchens; aji amarillo gave the sauce its yellow colour and gentle heat. Now the canonical Sunday lunch criolla dish across Lima homes. El Bolivariano in Pueblo Libre, Isolina in Barranco and Astrid y Gaston all keep defensible versions on the menu year-round.
4 editor picks for Aji de Gallina in Lima, ranked by editorial score. All Lima signature dishes · Aji de Gallina across every city.
Astrid y Gaston ★ 4.7
san-isidro · Av Paz Soldan 290, San Isidro, Lima 15073
Astrid y Gaston at Casa Moreyra in San Isidro is Gaston Acurio and Astrid Gutsche's 1994 flagship, in a 17th-century San Isidro hacienda from 2014.
Isolina ★ 4.6
barranco · Av San Martin 101, Barranco, Lima 15063
Isolina at Av San Martin 101 in Barranco is Jose del Castillo's 2015 criolla taberna, a tribute to his mother Isolina Vargas and her Lima home cooking.
Cosme ★ 4.5
san-isidro · Calle Tudela y Varela 162, San Isidro, Lima 15073
Cosme at Calle Tudela y Varela 162 in San Isidro is chef James Berckemeyer's comfort-Peruvian room, opened 2015 after training under Gaston Acurio.
El Bolivariano ★ 4.3
pueblo-libre · Pasaje Santa Rosa 291, Pueblo Libre, Lima 15084
El Bolivariano in Pueblo Libre Lima is the criolla institution housed in a republican casona, tracing tradition to the 1780s with the canonical carta.