Easy Peruvian Huancaina Sauce - Cooking to Entertain (2024)

Huancaina sauce is a Peruvian spicy cheese sauce that is so addicting you’ll want to keep a jar in the fridge at all times. Not only is huancaina sauce super addicting, it is also super easy to make. You only need a few ingredients, and if you can’t find them in the store they’re usually available online.

This recipe for Huancaina sauce was taught to me on an excluded area called Cocoa Island in the Amazon part of Northern Peru. This is the type of place where life moves slowly. People fish for food and everything imported comes by boat. Although there is a run down airstrip that was built by Pablo Escobar for drug smuggling; It’s no longer functioning these days.

Ok that’s enough of a digression (although still quite short for most food bloggers right?) let’s move on to actual recipe information. Huancaina sauce is used in two popular Peruvian dishes: papa a la huancaina and aji de gallina. The former is just some boiled potatoes smothered in this sauce and topped with some garnishments. The latter is a chicken stew that incorporates the sauce as the main flavor.

How To Make Huancaina Sauce

This easy recipe is made up of simple components. The hardest thing to find might be the aji amarillo paste but I include a few links down below to buy it online!

Ingredients

• 250 ml Evaporated Milk (1 cup) – You can substitute for heavy cream if you cannot find evaporated milk.
• 250 ml Queso Fresco – this fresh white cheese can be called different things in different countries. For example I used a Georgian cheese called adyghe which is basically the same as Mexican Oaxacan cheese. Funny how that works out sometimes. If you prefer to buy it online you can do so here.
• 150 grams Aji Amarillo Paste – This ingredient gives the signature color to huancaina sauce, as well as tons of flavor. However don’t think they final sauce will be TOO spicy. With all the dairy involved the fruitiness of the chili peppers really shines through. I recommend Inca’s Food Brand or Goya. I also always have a jar of this sauce in the fridge because I use it in my ceviche and tiradito recipes.
• 100 grams Stale White Bread – You can use fresh if you want, but stale is best. In Peru they often just throw in a few soda crackers instead of bread which you can also opt for.
• 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil – I used sunflower but any neutral oil will do.
• 1 tsp Salt – Or to taste

Instructions

To start making this huancaina sauce recipe you’ll need to crumble your cheese. You have to get a crumbly cheese since if you get a melty or soft cheese it will make the sauce gummy.

Add the stale bread (in chunks) and the evaporated milk to a bowl and mix. You want the liquid to soak into the bread and soften it up. Then add the rest of the ingredients.

You can do this next step in a standing blender or food processor, but I find it super convenient to use my immersion blender since it’s less dishes to dirty. It’s literally one of my favorite kitchen tools. Just blitz everything together until you have a smooth, yet thick sauce. If your cheese is really dry and/or grainy you can add some milk a teaspoon at a time to help the sauce blend evenly.

Place your homemade huancaina sauce in a sealable container and put in the fridge. It is commonly eaten cold or at room temperature so I guess you can kind of treat it like a Peruvian version of ketchup!