homemade venezuelan chicha: the drink that made me grow tall and strong :-)

the homemade venezuelan chicha recipe: a rice based, very sweet, very refreshing milk drink

What made me grow tall and strong?

Venezuelan chicha and lemon and condensed milk granitas!

Every Sunday of my childhood, the same story:

• Casa d’Italia (some sort of country club for Italians living in Venezuela),
• cheer dad playing tennis,
• swimming pool and tequeños (yes, my dear Italian friends, in Venezuela, not only you take a bath immediately after your meals, you also eat in the water :-))
• lasagna for lunch
• and more swimming pool.

Mixing cultures?

That’s the norm when you live in Venezuela.

Back home, to recover from heat… granita with lemon juice and sweet condensed milk (try it, you won’t regret it) or a very Venezuelan recipe: homemade chicha.

A rice based, very sweet, milk drink.

my homemade Venezuelan chicha recipe

So here we are, ready to make the chicha venezolana recipe.

I studied a lot and tried a few recipes before understanding how to make chicha, a delicious chicha, There are a lot of options as per chicha recipes, some absurd, some ok.

This is how to make chicha and get the exact flavor and consistency I treasure from my childhood.

5 from 1 vote

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venezuelan chicha

a Venezuelan refreshing drink

Course drink

Cuisine venezuelan

resting time 2 hours

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 4

Calories 335 kcal

Author Claudia Rinaldi | Gourmet Project

Ingredients

• ½ cup white rice
• 1.5 cups water
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 pinch salt
• 5.3 oz sweet condensed milk 150 gr
• 8.5 oz organic whole milk 250 ml
• more water
• ice

Instructions

1. Place rice, cinnamon, water and the pinch of salt in a pot. Let rest a few hours.
2. Bring to a boil and cook circa 15 minutes. Until rice is very tender, almost over-cooked (add water if necessary).
3. Let chill.
4. Place rice (remove the cinnamon stick), condensed milk and milk in the mixer. Pulse until creamy and add water (I added ½ cup) if you need it more liquid. It will take you at least 5 minutes to completely liquefy rice, but it’s worth every minute.
5. When ready to serve, add 5-6 ice cubes per each glass and blend again. If not, store in the refrigerator up to a couple of days.

other Venezuelan recipes

Venezuelan cuisine reflects the mix of cultures of that wonderful land.

My Venezuelan side of the family, for example, has Greek, Spanish, indigenous of course, and Italian origins. And that’s only what we know for sure. {I’d love to test my DNA, and I will, sooner or later}

Same goes for the kitchen: each population brought their traditions, recipes, and ingredients, and mixed them with local recipes and ingredients.

The result?

Excellent, as always when you mix things and try, try try.

Think of arepas, huevos pericos, carne mechada.

Well.

Don’t just think of them.

Make them. (Recipes are linked.)

You’ll be glad you did.

And, as I am the paladin of mixing cultures, again and again, I also made rum flavored fried arepas…

but I also stuffed them… with dulce de leche. And as it wasn’t enough, I added walnuts grain.

Let’s say it was one of the most glorious moments of my kitchen life.