Table Trotter

Dinner night · Paraguay

Chipa Guasu with Grilled Steak

Paraguay's savory fresh-corn-and-cheese bake, soft in the middle and golden at the edges, beside salt-crusted skirt steak cooked asado-style in a hot pan and a simple tomato-onion salad. Gluten-free, about 70 minutes, mostly oven.

Paraguay · back to the map
On our list — not yet cooked
Chipa Guasu with Grilled Steak: Paraguay's savory fresh-corn-and-cheese bake, soft in the middle and golden at the edges, beside salt-crusted skirt steak cooked asado-style in a hot pan and a simple tomato-onion salad
AI-generated illustration
Prep
20 min
Cook
50 min
Total
70 min
Serves
2 adults + 1 child, with chipa guasu left for breakfast
Budget
$18–$28

Chipa guasu ("big chipa" in Guaraní) is a savory corn pudding-cake: corn kernels, part of them blended to a loose batter, mixed with sautéed onion, eggs, milk and a lot of crumbly, salty white cheese, baked until the top is golden and the inside custardy. It is the fresh-corn cousin of sopa paraguaya, the cornmeal bread, and in Paraguay it comes off the side of the grill at an asado. Here it sits beside skirt steak seasoned with coarse salt and seared in a cast-iron pan, with a tomato-and-onion salad for sharpness. Without the steak, it is a complete vegetarian dinner.

Why it's on our list

Paraguay is one of the biggest beef-eating countries on earth, and its signature dishes are corn and cheese, so a plate that puts the two together felt like the honest introduction. The technique I want to learn is the chipa guasu itself, a savory bake that uses whole corn kernels as both structure and flavor, with no flour at all; I expect it to land between cornbread and a frittata. The steak is deliberately simple so the corn is the star. Honest adaptation: a Paraguayan asado is cooked slowly over wood coals with larger cuts; skirt steak in a screaming cast-iron pan is the 8-minute weeknight stand-in. The chipa guasu bakes unattended and the steak and salad take 15 minutes at the end. Nothing is spicy, so my son's plate is ours.

Field notes · Origin & culture

Chipa guasu is one of the many kinds of chipa, the corn- and cassava-based breads of Paraguay whose roots lie with the Cario-Guaraní people of the Asunción area; the pre-contact version, mbujapé, was corn or cassava starch mixed with animal fat. The modern dish came from the meeting of Guaraní corn cooking with the cattle the Spanish brought in the 1550s, which added cheese, milk and eggs; Franciscan missions are often credited with spreading the recipes. Chipa guasu uses fresh corn where sopa paraguaya uses cornmeal; both appear at asados, and both are built on queso Paraguay, a fresh, salty cow's-milk cheese. Beef is the center of Paraguayan social eating: the asado is a weekend ritual, and the country ranks among the world's top beef consumers per person.

Noteworthy ingredients

  • Corn: Fresh sweet corn in season (about 6 ears) or 2 lb frozen kernels, thawed. Paraguayan corn is starchier and less sweet than US sweet corn, so this version balances the sugar with plenty of cheese and salt.
  • Queso Paraguay substitute: Paraguay's fresh cheese is salty and melts a little. Crumbled queso fresco plus shredded mozzarella or Monterey Jack is the closest supermarket version.
  • Skirt steak: Thin, quick and beefy, the cut that takes best to a very hot pan. Flank steak is the alternative; cook it a minute or two longer. Coarse salt only, as an asado would.
  • Pork lard or butter: Traditional recipes use lard; butter or oil is fine.

Prep — 20 min

  1. Heat the oven to 375°F. Grease the baking dish generously with butter or lard.
  2. If using fresh corn, cut the kernels off the cobs. Blend half the kernels with the milk to a rough, soupy batter with some texture left. Leave the other half whole.
  3. Dice the yellow onions. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in the medium skillet over medium heat and cook the onions with a pinch of salt 8–10 minutes until soft and golden. Cool a few minutes.
  4. Beat the eggs with 1 teaspoon salt and some pepper. Stir in the blended corn, the whole kernels, the onions and both cheeses. The batter will be thick and lumpy.
  5. Pat the steak dry and salt both sides generously with coarse salt. Let it sit at room temperature while the chipa guasu bakes.
  6. Salad: cut the tomatoes into wedges and the red onion into thin half-moons; tear the lettuce. Whisk the olive oil, vinegar, a squeeze of lemon, salt and pepper; dress at serving.

Cook — 50 min

  1. Pour the batter into the baking dish, smooth the top, and dot with the last tablespoon of butter. Bake 45–50 minutes until deep golden, the edges pull away from the dish and the center is set but tender. Rest 10 minutes; it firms as it cools.
  2. About 10 minutes before the chipa guasu is done, heat the cast-iron skillet over high heat until smoking. Add the oil and lay in the steak (in two pieces if needed). Cook 3 minutes undisturbed, flip and cook 2–3 minutes more for medium-rare; flank steak needs a minute longer per side.
  3. Rest the steak 5 minutes on a board, then slice thinly across the grain; skirt steak is chewy if cut the wrong way.
  4. Dress the salad.

Serving

Cut the chipa guasu into squares and put one or two on each plate, warm, beside a fan of sliced steak and a pile of salad. Paraguayans would add a spoon of chimichurri-style sauce; a jar of it is a fair shortcut for the adults. My son's plate needs nothing changed; the end pieces of the steak are the most done if he prefers that. Leftover chipa guasu is eaten for breakfast in Paraguay, which I intend to copy; it keeps three days. Leftover steak is a sandwich tomorrow.

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