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Clay-Pot Stew · Wine-Braised Goat

Chanfana

Chanfana — street food from Centro, Portugal
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: Missvain / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0

It's traditionally baked in a black clay pot inside a wood-fired bread oven, using nothing but old red wine as the cooking liquid — no water or stock at all.

Goat or mutton is slow-cooked for hours in a sealed clay pot submerged in strong local red wine with garlic and bay leaf, until the meat falls apart. Village bakeries and market stalls around the Beira region sell it by the portion, still in its pot.

Why it's made this way: The dish likely began as a way to use bread ovens' leftover heat after the day's baking was done, and cooking tougher cuts for hours in wine broke them down into something tender without needing a stove.
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Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.