The chronicles of 16th-century relate eating achojcha (Cyclanthera pedata) with religious ceremonies associated with fasting and purification of indigenous peoples during the pre-Hispanic Inca period. Later, in colonial times, achojcha and chicken were mingled to nourish the indigenous population, Spaniards, and black people, and the results of colonial miscegenation ended up combining the modernity of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Our aim is analyzing this process of the colonial-social period from the 18th to 21st century in the case of the Andean space of Jujuy (Argentina). The example of nourishing with achojcha informs us about the change from food associated with indigenous, religious, and cultural forms to food that accounts for the deep colonial miscegenation as part of domestic cultivation and consumption of mestizos. Likewise, nourishing with chicken corresponds to the same process, however, this time it was a strategic incorporation as the food of the colonized indigenous society shared with the mestizo society as a whole. We focus the cultural and nutritional process that gives rise to modern Argentina considered a nation where people have changed their indigenous identity from the colonial era to a European mestizo identity. We analyze the change in popular and social consumption of achojcha replaced by chicken, a dish that is known as “picante de pollo”. This changing process in food preference informs about the modern and postmodern conflict that the Argentine people have with their Native American cultural traditions. Therefore, during festive performances, people eat “picante de pollo” (spicy chicken) instead of achojcha, which also reinforces Argentina’s identity crisis with the American Indian. Regarding the research design and methodology, we apply historical comparison and the analysis of ethnographic records with techniques such as critique of historic archival documentary sources and a critical and reflexive analysis of ethnographic material of food performances in festive contexts.