Flavors · Cuenca

Mote pillo

Mote, cooked white corn, sautéed with egg, onion, achiote and milk, served with fresh cheese and coffee. It is Cuenca’s most typical dish; in 2023 the city requested its registration as a traditional specialty.

Traditional dish from Cuenca, Azuay

Also known as: Motepillo, Mote pillo cuencano

Updated October 2026

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Mote pillo — Cuenca, Ecuador — Mote pillo

Mote pillo — Cuenca, Ecuador

Mote pillo is a sauté of mote, the large-kernel cooked white corn. The mote goes into the pan with butter or fat, white onion and achiote, which gives it a yellow color, and at the end beaten eggs mixed with a little milk are added and stirred until set. The result resembles scrambled eggs with corn kernels.

It is Cuenca’s most typical dish and one of the three motes that the Ministry of Tourism’s gastronomic map lists for Azuay province. In April 2023, the municipality of Cuenca and the city’s restaurant association submitted to the national intellectual property office a request to register mote pillo as a Traditional Guaranteed Specialty, after standardizing the recipe with local cooks.

The dish is regarded as mestizo: mote comes from the Andean tradition, while eggs and cheese arrived with the Spaniards.

In Cuenca, mote pillo is mainly a breakfast dish, served with slices of fresh cheese and black coffee. It also accompanies roasted pork and appears at the city’s foundation festivities.

Other towns in the southern highlands, such as Cañar and Loja, have their own versions, with variations in the onion and achiote.

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Where it comes from

Cuenca , Azuay
Cuenca’s most typical dish; the municipality requested its registration as a Traditional Guaranteed Specialty in 2023.

Ingredients

Mote (cooked white corn), eggs, white onion, achiote, butter or fat, milk and salt. Served with fresh cheese and coffee.

How it is eaten

Served hot for breakfast, with slices of fresh cheese and a cup of black coffee. Also served as an accompaniment to roasted pork.

When it is eaten

Breakfast, year-round. It also appears at Cuenca’s foundation festivities.

Your questions

Questions about Mote pillo

What is mote pillo?

A sauté of mote, cooked white corn, with egg, onion and achiote, served with fresh cheese and coffee for breakfast in Cuenca.

Is mote pillo already a Traditional Guaranteed Specialty?

In 2023, the municipality of Cuenca and the restaurant association requested that registration. The request was submitted; the page does not state that it was granted.

What is the difference between mote pillo and mote pata?

Mote pillo is a sautéed mote with egg, a typical breakfast dish. Mote pata is a mote soup with pork and pumpkin seed, typical of Cuenca’s Carnival.

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