Guiso de Maiz, A Corn Stew

A lot of the recipes that I share here have been passed down in my family for I don’t know how many generations. Some are true comida criolla, Cuban “creole” food that is easily recognizable by any Cuban. Some of these foods, however, are my mother’s or grandmother’s inventions, like “Chicken Lobster” which I will have to post about another day, or this, Guiso de Maiz, which simply translated is Corn Stew. I’ve tried to find this dish in various places. I’ve asked Latino friends about it. I scoured the internet. I’ve read old Cuban cookbooks I’ve had the joy of receiving from my mother, and all I can say is nobody seems to make the dish quite like this.

This was and is still one of my favorite dishes to cook and eat. It’s a mix of corn, sausage, and eggs (although for my little Ben-Ben, we separate his portion before the addition of the eggs), and it is poured over rice. I can’t speak to the authenticity of the dish. Growing up, the sausage we used was Vienna (yes, Vienna sausages, the canned ones). I like to think that somehow this dish originates in Spain, and that it originally used chorizo. If I ever have any Spaniard readers, maybe you could let me know. However, I could tell you that after some experimentation, chorizo, which is a spicy Spanish or Latino sausage, doesn’t necessarily add to the dish. Actually, because the dish itself is so flavorful, a blander sausage like a kielbasa or bratwurst is a better sausage to use.

Also, another little note on this recipe. I use a premade spice mix called Sazón by Goya. Usually, you could find it in your local grocery store in the Latino section. If you are sensitive to MSG, please note that this does have MSG in the ingredients. However, there are lots of homemade
sazón recipes online. I haven’t tried any of them yet, but I plan to once my Goya stuff runs out. It was only recently that I discovered the MSG. Having a son with food allergies is making me read ingredient lists I otherwise would have just accepted blindly. We have found that Ben doesn’t have any sensitivity to MSG, and in fact, MSG occurs naturally in quite a few foods.  Stuff You Should Know, a podcast from HowStuffWorks.com, has an interesting episode about MSG that you could check out if you’d like to learn more.

Print Recipe

Guiso de Maiz

A stew of corn, sausage, and hard-boiled eggs served over white rice.  To make this dish allergy friendly, skip the eggs.

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time40 minutes mins

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Allergy-friendly, Cuban, Gluten Free, Latino

Keyword: Cuban, Dinner, Gluten-free, Latino

Servings: 8

Calories: 350kcal

Ingredients

• 1 large Kielbasa Sausage
• 3 15 oz cans of corn, drained
• 1 large green pepper minced or chopped
• 1 large white onion minced or chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 15 oz can of tomato sauce
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/8 tsp Pepper
• 1 packet Goya Sazon
• 2 tbsp Olive oil
• 1/2 cup White vinegar

Optional, but recommended (if not allergic)

• 8 eggs

Instructions

• If using eggs, hard-boil eggs for 12 minutes. Set aside.
• Prepare sofrito by sautéing green bell pepper, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and sazon in olive oil over medium heat. Once the spices have cooked and are fragrant, add tomato sauce and white vinegar. Stir.
• Add corn and stir. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
• Add sausage and gently stir in. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
• [If you are making this dish without eggs, skip this step.] Cut hardboiled eggs in half, and place face up over corn and sausage. Do NOT stir after adding eggs. Take a bit of sauce and scoop it over and onto the eggs. Cover and simmer on low for 10 minutes.
• Serve over white rice.