Paraguayan cornbread pudding or chipa guasu is made with fresh corn, onion, and lots of cheese. Traditionally it is baked in a brick oven and served as a side dish with grilled meat.

Sunday meals in Paraguay

In Paraguay, Sundays are quiet. People take it easy and relax. It’s a day to be with family, and take the time to cook together and share.

Since it’s the day when you can sleep in, lunch is usually ready around 2 or 3 in the afternoon.

Asado (grilled meat) is traditionally served in many homes to celebrate a birthday, an achievement, or simply to enjoy the end of the week.

Asado is prepared outside on the patio. The meat is slow-cooked over a charcoal fire. While it cooks, the woman is usually inside the house preparing rice salad, cooking casava, and baking chipa guasu.

Chipa guasau – fresh cornbread pudding

Fresh corn is available all year round in Paraguay, so chipa guasu has no season. Whether it’s hot or cold, families serve it with the asado.

In the city, they bake this Paraguayan cornbread pudding in a gas oven. But in the countryside, many people prefer to bake it in a tatakua oven (wood-fired brick oven). The flavor and aroma of chipa guasu in this kind of oven are incomparable, and once you move to the city, that’s what you dream of.

The history of chipa guasau

The Guarani Jesuit missions and the Franciscan reductions marked a before and after in many aspects of Paraguayan culture, and gastronomy is one of them.

Chipa guasu is the legacy of the exchange of customs and traditions that happened between the indigenous Guarani and the Jesuit missionaries sent to the area to evangelize the population that lived there.

Because of this legacy, the dish is also very popular in the northeastern region of Argentina (Formosa, Chaco, Misiones, Corrientes, and Entre Ríos) and in some places in southern Brazil.

Its name comes from two words in the Guarani language, the official language of Paraguay, which means “big corn cake”. Chipa refers to a group of foods like cakes or bread made from cornmeal, fresh corn, or casava starch. And guasu means big.

According to ancient writings from different travelers, the most outstanding meals of the original settlers contained corn and animal fat. They used this mixture to make bread and some cakes.

However, with the arrival of the Europeans, food changed a bit, since they brought other ingredients that the natives did not have, such as beef, cheese, and milk.

Key elements, which, when combined with South American ingredients, such as corn, pumpkin, and cassava, created several of the most beloved dishes of each nation. Like the chipa, and later chipa guasu.

How to make chipa guasu

Each home has its own recipe for this Paraguayan cornbread pudding. But the main ingredients are the same.

Fresh corn. (Although I’ve seen people use canned corn.)

Eggs. (People say free-range eggs are the best.)

Queso Paraguay: a fresh cheese made with whole milk and just a little bit of salt.

Milk. (Whole milk, or buttermilk.)

Onions. Cooked in lard is the recommendation. (Although onions are not in every chipa guasu recipe, I personally love the flavor it adds.)

All the ingredients, except the cheese go into the blender. If this amount is too much for your blender, do it in 2 batches.

You then pour the thick and creamy batter into a baking dish, and add chunks of cheese to it before baking.

This cornbread pudding is best served hot.