Arroz con Pollo (Chicken and Rice)

Even though this is a dish that you will find in virtually all Latin American countries, Arroz con Pollo has been adopted in Puerto Rico as a traditional dish. The difference between what you will find in Puerto Rico and in the rest of the world is that Puerto Ricans will traditionally use annato, sofrito (to include the recao plant), and pimentos or red bell pepper in their preparation. I have vivid memories (and can even smell it now) of my grandmother chopping the recao leaves to add to her version of the dish. The thought alone brings me back to the “good old days” of eating my grandmother’s cooking.

Needless to say, there is a special place in my heart for Arroz con Pollo. Most preparations of the dish call for the pieces of chicken to be left on the bone while cooking with the rice. However, I differ from this philosophy because I think the rice cooks better and more evenly if the bones are removed. This is pretty much my grandmother’s recipe (or what I can recall of it), so I hope you all enjoy it!

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: About 2.5 hours, total
Difficulty: Easy
Notes: This recipe will serve 3-4 people, but feel free to double it up if you have more guests or if you want some leftovers.

Ingredients:

1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 medium green pepper, diced
1/2 medium red bell pepper, cut into strips
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp prepared Recaito or Sofrito (Goya is fine, homemade is better)
1 packet Sazón with Achiote (annato)
12-15 pimento-stuffed olives (sliced or whole, your choice)
2 chicken thighs and drumsticks, skin on and bone-in
1 cup uncooked white rice
2 oz tomato sauce
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp olive oil
Adobo, Salt, and Pepper to taste
Chicken stock or water, as needed

Procedure:

Peel back the skin on the chicken and season well with adobo (use salt and pepper if you don’t have the adobo). You should also use about half of the packet of Sazon to season the chicken under the skin. Replace the skin and season it and the other side of the chicken. Set aside.

Place a heavy-bottomed pot (preferably a dutch oven) over medium heat and add the olive oil. Once it just begins to shimmer, add the onions, green peppers, salt/pepper to taste, along with the remaining half of the Sazon packet and allow to saute until the onions turn translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and the olives and continue cooking 1-2 minutes, then stir in the sofrito, tomato sauce, vinegar, and oregano and cook, stirring frequently, until most of the liquid has dried out, about 7-10 minutes. Remove the veggies from the pot and set aside.

Lower the heat to medium-low and add the chicken to the pot, skin side down. Cover and allow the chicken to cook, undisturbed, for 30 minutes. Add the veggies back into the pot but do not move the chicken around, cover, and cook for another 30 minutes. Turn the chicken so that it’s skin-side up but make sure that it still touches the bottom of the pot, cover, and cook another 45 minutes. Turn off the heat, remove the chicken from the pot, and set aside to cool (about 15 minutes). 

After the chicken has cooled, remove and discard the skin and cartilage (or you can do what I do and just eat the skin while I shred the chicken).  Use two forks to remove the chicken from the bone and shred it.  Set aside.  The pot should have some liquid in it from the vegetables and from the chicken, so you will need to add enough to make about 1 cup of liquid.  In my case, I added about 1/2 a cup of low-sodium chicken stock.  Bring the liquid to a boil, stir in the rice, and allow the liquid to reduce until the rice becomes visible, about 3-5 minutes. Lower the heat to medium-low and stir in the shredded chicken. Place the red bell pepper strips on top of the rice, cover, and allow to cook for 25-30 minutes, or until the rice is cooked.

Buen Provecho!

Stuffed Peppers

This is my first experience making stuffed peppers. I’d only had stuffed peppers once, that I can remember, and even that dish wasn’t all that memorable. But, since I was in the mood to try something new, I decided to go ahead and experiment with this dish. However, being who I am, I have to make everything difficult and decided to use ground turkey breast instead of ground beef in order to make it healthier (and more figure-friendly).

I also decided to serve with a vodka sauce instead of a red sauce. I think the creaminess of the vodka sauce really adds a gread depth of flavor and brings it all together. It was a definite winner! This is a dish I wouldn’t mind having a few times a week.

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: About 60 minutes, total
Difficulty: Easy
Notes: This is an easy “make ahead” dish. You can also freeze the meat/rice mixture and just thaw right before stuffing the peppers.

Ingredients:

4 green peppers
1 cup cooked white rice (about 1/2 cup uncooked)
1/2 lb ground turkey
6 oz tomato sauce
1/3 cup low-sodium chicken stock
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 Tbsp feta cheese
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp each ground cumin and smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp toasted bread crumbs
1 cup vodka sauce

Procedure:

Place the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Once the oil begins to shimmer, add the onion and a pinch of salt, then saute until translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and continue to cook for 1-2 more minutes. Stir in the ground turkey, along with salt, pepper, cumin, and paprika, making sure to break it up with the back of the spoon. Cook until the turkey is cooked through, about 5-7 minutes. Add the tomato sauce and the chicken stock, then allow to cook until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 5-6 minutes. Stir in the cooked rice and allow to cool to room temperature (or refrigerate/freeze until ready to use).

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees when you’re ready to make the peppers. Cut the tops off the peppers and set aside while you remove the seeds from the inside. Stuff the peppers about half-way up with the turkey/rice mixture, then place one Tbsp of feta into each pepper before topping off with the turkey/rice mixture. Place the tops back on the peppers (this will prevent the rice on top from drying out) and cook in the oven for 35 minutes. Once the peppers are cooked, place 1/4 cup of vodka sauce on the bottom of the plate, then place the pepper on top, and top with some toasted bread crumbs. Serve immediately.

Buen Provecho!

Arroz con Cebolla (French Onion Rice)

I grew up in my grandmother’s kitchen. Since my family used to gather at her house for all holiday meals, I usually got to see/help with these dishes. One of my grandmother’s most famous dishes is her French Onion Rice. It’s basically French onion soup, beef consome, onions, garlic, mushrooms, and rice. Yeah, that’s it! Most recipes I’ve found do not include the mushrooms, but my grandmother always added them so my rendition of this dish will include them. The beauty of this dish is that it’s made from pantry staples that are easy to find, inexpensive to purchase, and keep for a relatively long time in your cupboard. MMMmmm…

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: About 35-40 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Notes: I call for butter in my recipe, but I’ve also seen it done with bacon/bacon fat. Feel free to experiment.

Ingredients:

1 large onion, chopped into rings
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 10-12oz can each, French onion soup and beef consomme (I use Campbells)
1 8oz jar sliced mushrooms, drained
2 cups white rice
1 tbsp butter
Pinch of salt

Procedure:

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot (I use a Dutch oven) over medium heat. Add the onions and a pinch of salt and allow them to sweat until they’re softened and transluscent (about 7-8 minutes). Add the garlic and the mushrooms and cook another 2-3 minutes, then remove the onions, garlic, and mushrooms from the pot.

Increase the heat to high and add the cans of French onion soup and consomme. Once they come to a boil, add the rice, reduce to medium-low, and stir for 1 minute. Return the onion/garlic/mushroom mixture, stir, and cover. Let it cooked, undisturbed, for 25-30 minutes, or until the rice is cooked. Fluff with a fork and serve!

Buen Provecho!

Arancini

Arancini (Italian for “small orange”) are small rice balls, usually stuffed with mozzarella, that are breaded and deep fried. I’ve also seen them called Suppli al Telefono, due to the long strands of mozzarella resembling telephone cords (no joke!), but that is more of a northern-Italian name. Traditionally, cooks would use left over risotto to make the arancini because, try as you might, it’s impossible to get reheated risotto to taste as good as when it’s just been made. I guess you can say they were invented more as a way to enjoy the leftovers than by a stroke of genius (though some may argue that point).

I was first introduced to arancini in the winter of 2000, when I spent four months in Sicily as part of a military deployment. We stayed in a town called Motta Sant’Anastasia, and there was (literally) a hole in a wall in town where you could walk up and get whatever the cook (an old Sicilian woman) had made that day. Though the menu varied daily, she always had arancini ready to be flash-fried and served piping hot! I found arancini all over Sicily, but I never had a better version than these. Most places would serve a side of tomato sauce with their arancini, but the old Sicilian woman would place both the mozzarella and the sauce in the center of the arancini, which made them divine!

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 3-4 minutes
Difficulty: Medium
Notes: I suggest you only stuff the arancini with the mozzarella and serve the marinara sauce on the side, as it tends to get very messy if you try to stuff both in the risotto balls. Also, don’t use shredded cheese, as this will make it almost impossible to stuff into the arancini.

Ingredients:

2 cups left over risotto
4 oz mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/4″ cubes
1/2 cup marinara sauce, warmed

For the breading:
2 eggs, beaten with 1 tbsp of water
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
Canola oil for frying
Salt

Procedure:

Place enough oil in a heavy-bottomed pan so that it will reach about half-way up the arancini and heat it to 350 degrees. While the oil comes up to temperature, use an ice cream scoop and divide the risotto into portions, then roll each portion into a small ball (they should be about the size of a golf ball). Take one piece of cubed mozzarella and place it in the center of each ball, then re-shape them if necessary.

Prepare your breading station in an assembly line. Roll the arancini in the flour (removing any excess), then in the egg (making sure to let the excess drip off), then in the bread crumbs; set aside until all the arancini are breaded. Once the oil reaches 350 degrees, fry the arancini in batches (3-4 at a time) for 3-4 minutes, moving them around so that they brown evenly. Remove to a plate lined with paper towels for draining and sprinkle with a bit of salt. Serve hot with the marinara on the side.

Buen Provecho!

Codfish Stew (Bacalao Guisado)

Codfish stew is a very typical Puerto Rican dish and can be found in almost any Puerto Rican cookbook.  As with the Italian immigrants (known as baccalá in Italian), the dish became popular in Puerto Rico due to the main ingredient being very inexpensive.  Typically, these recipes called for salt cod to be soaked for a long time in order for the fish to be edible.  To simplify my recipe, and to save time, I opted to start with fresh cod fillets that had not been previously salted (feel free to use salt cod if that’s what you can find).

I also opted to quick-poach my fish in order to get it to flake easier.  It also helps to identify the “tough” parts of the fish, that is, the flesh that is closest to the skin.  Sometimes, this part of the fish can get too tough when cooked and so if you poach it before flaking it you won’t end up with those pieces in your finished stew.

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 45-60 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Notes: Feel free to use any root vegetable you’d like. I chose potatoes because of they are easy to find, but my grandmother would typically use yucca or cassava instead.

Ingredients:

1-1.5 lb fresh codfish fillets
1 medium potato, peeled and diced in 1/2″ cubes
1 medium Spanish onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 each green and red pepper, diced
2 tbsp sofrito or recaito
6 oz tomato sauce
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp each salt and ground black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
10-12 pimento-stuffed olives
15-20 capers
1/4 cup water

Procedure:

1. Quick-poach the fish by placing it in a pot and covering with tap water. Place the pot over high heat and bring it to a boil. As soon as it boils, turn off the burner, remove the fish from the pot, and let it stand for 5 minutes. Flake the cod with a fork and set aside.

2. Place the potatoes in a pot and cover them with water. Place over high heat until it comes to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2. Add the onion, peppers, olive oil, and 1/2 tsp salt and pepper to a large pot and place over medium-high heat. Sautee them for 3-4 minutes, until the onions become translucent. Stir in the garlic and the sofrito to the pot and sautee for 1-2 minutes longer. Stir in the tomato sauce, tomato paste, olives, capers, and water to the pot until wait until it comes back to a boil.

3. Add the rest of the salt, pepper, potatoes, and the codfish, lower the temperature to between medium-low and medium, and simmer, partially covered, for 30-35 minutes or until it has thickened up and the potatoes are completely cooked through. Serve with white rice.

Buen Provecho!

Mushroom Risotto

The weather is changing and fall is upon us so I decided to make a hearty, yet comforting autumn meal that, while not low calorie, at least makes me feel better about what I’m eating. Risotto falls into this category for me. It’s creamy, hearty, definitely comforting, and can be made vegetarian (or vegan) if you truly wanted to (not that I’d ever want to do that, but I could). Just substitute olive oil for the bacon and vegetable broth for the chicken stock and you’ll be on your way to a vegan meal worthy or praise.

Making risotto takes time, patience, and a lot of stirring, so don’t plan on making it if you can’t dedicate 35-40 minutes to standing by the stove. Your time and effort will definitely be rewarded.  This dish is difficult to mess up; as long as you keep the heat between medium and medium low (about a 4 if you have markings of 1 through 10 on your stove’s knob) and stir it every 3-4 minutes, you will have a great pot of risotto to enjoy.  The most important thing is to not let the rice dry out too much and remember to keep stirring!

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Notes: None

Ingredients:

6 cups low sodium chicken stock
1 cup white wine
1 cup boiling water
2 cups Arborio rice
3 slices of thick bacon or 4 oz of pancetta, cut into cubes
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 oz dried porcini mushrooms
8 shitake mushrooms caps, sliced (save the stems for stock)
2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp salt, plus more to taste
1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1/2 cup shredded Pecorino Romano cheese

Procedure:

Place the dried mushrooms in a large bowl and place the one cup of boiling water over them. Allow the mushrooms to steep in the water for at least 15 minutes, 30 minutes would be desirable. Remove the mushrooms and strain the liquid through cheese cloth, reserving the liquid for use in the risotto (make sure you strain it well or you will have grit in your risotto).

Pour the chicken stock in a pan and place over medium heat, let it come to temperature and leave it at a slow simmer. Place the bacon or pancetta in a large pot and heat to a temperature of between medium and medium-low. Once the bacon has rendered some of it’s fat, but has not yet become crispy, add the onions and 1/2 tsp of salt, stirring to combine. Allow the onions to sweat for 4-5 minutes, then stir in the garlic, thyme, the remaining salt, and the black pepper, cook for another 2 minutes. Add the rice and allow it to cook for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the two types of mushrooms and stir to combine.

Once all the ingredients are incorporated, pour in the white wine, stir, and allow it to evaporate (about 4-5 minutes). Once the pot begins to dry out, add the reserved mushroom stock, stirring to combine, and allow it to evaporate as well. Once the pot begins to dry out, start adding the chicken stock 1/2-2/3 of a cup at a time, stirring occasionally, and allowing the stock to be absorbed and evaporate before adding more liquid.

Make sure and taste the risotto before adding the final batch of chicken stock for seasoning and add salt, one pinch at a time, until it is well seasoned. Serve immediately.

Buen Provecho!

Puerto Rican Corned Beef

I grew up in a lower-middle class family in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  One of the staples of the middle and lower classes in Puerto Rico when I was growing up is a dish made with canned corned beef (think of it as the equivalent of SPAM in Hawaii).  It was an inexpensive way to feed a family, especially when served with other affordable foods like potatoes, rice, and fried plantains.  It’s a dish that, even today, can be found in almost every lunch establishment in and around San Juan.

This dish is one of those classic comfort foods that just bring back memories of my childhood.  It kind of tastes like meat out of a can, it’s quite salty, and it’s not the prettiest thing to look at, but it’s delicious nonetheless.  If you grew up eating canned corned beef, this recipe is one you should bookmark and save.  It’s quite simple and, for those days when you just don’t feel like cooking, you can have it ready in less than 30 minutes.

As an alternative, and to sweeten the dish up a bit, use 1/4 onion (diced) and 2 tbsp caramelized onions.  You can add the caramelized onions right after you stir in the water and it will add a great depth of flavor and a hint of sweetness.  I usually make fried sweet plantains (amarillos or maduros) as a side and then mash them into the corned beef because I crave a bit of sweetness in the dish and have found that the caramelized onions bring this in spades!

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25-30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Notes: As always, feel free to play with your food.  If you want to add capers or olives, feel free (I’ve seen both used in the past).  Also, you can substitute sweet potato fries for the french fries if you don’t want as much starch in your dish.

Ingredients:

1 can corned beef
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 small pack sazón seasoning
2 tbsp sofrito or recaito
4 oz tomato sauce
1/4 cup water
1/2 lb prepared french fries
1 cup prepared white rice

Procedure:

Add the olive oil and onions into a large, straight-sided skillet.  Sweat the onions over medium heat for 6-7 minutes, until they become translucent.  Stir in the sazón and sofrito or recaito, whichever you choose to use (you can find both in the international isle in any grocery store), and cook for 1 minute.  Stir in the tomato sauce and cook for another minute.

Add the can of corned beef and break it up with the back of a spoon, then stir to combine.  Let it cook until it starts to bubble, about 3 minutes, then add the water and stir to combine.  Lower the heat to medium-low and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so, until most of the water evaporates and you’re left with a thick consistency.

After about 15-20 minutes, stir in the french fries (I prefer shoestring but feel free to add thicker fries if that’s what you like).  Serve immediately with white rice and either fried ripe plantains or avocado.

Buen Provecho!