Ragoût de chevreau à la coriandre

Goats arrived in Peru with Spanish colonizers and found their home on the dry northern coast around Chiclayo and Lambayeque, grazing freely among algarrobo (carob) trees that are said to give the meat its distinct, sweetish flavor. Local cooks took this new meat and paired it with two things already deeply rooted in the land: chicha de jora, the fermented corn beer brewed since pre-Columbian times, and the generous use of fresh cilantro that still defines northern Peruvian cooking.

Over generations, seco de cabrito became the centerpiece of family celebrations and the chicherías of Lambayeque, almost always served with rice and canary beans. Today it is considered one of the great dishes of northern Peru, and a point of pride wherever Peruvians cook from that region.