April 8, 2015

Recipe: Arroz Sin Pollo

Arroz con pollo is a staple in just about every Spanish speaking household. You may not have ever had it since it doesn't really appear on the menus of Latin restaurants (except for the really authentic ones) and is pretty basic, but I grew up eating it and it's one of my favorite dishes.

My grandfather (on my mom's side) was an unbelievable cook and, despite being a vegetarian for 9 years now, I can still taste his arroz con pollo. My grandmother (on my dad's side) makes a pretty good one too!

When I was at Sundance, we rented a condo and spent our first night shopping for groceries. One of the girls in the group is a chef and cooked a fantastic meal for us. She's Puerto Rican and gave us her spin on arroz con pollo. Taking her recipe and making a few changes of my own, omitting the chicken of course, I present to you Arroz Sin Pollo (translation: rice without chicken).


The ingredients are fairly simple but there might be a few things you don't have on hand. 

-Long grain rice (white rice is traditional but brown works too)
-1 can crushed tomatoes
-1 packet sazon (found in the Spanish section of your grocery store)
-Adobo seasoning
-Red & green bell peppers (2 each)
-1 yellow onion
-2-3 cloves garlic
-Juice of 1 lemon

1. Cook rice over the stove top (not the rice cooker) with the lid off until approximately 3/4 an inch of water remains in the pot.
2. While rice is cooking, prepare all vegetables: chop the peppers and onion, peel and chop the garlic.


3. When the water on the rice has mostly soaked into the rice, stir in 1 packet of Sazon and the can of crushed tomatoes, bring to a simmer and allow the liquid from the tomatoes to soak into the rice. 


4. Heat olive oil in a separate pan. Stir in the garlic, onion and peppers. When the vegetables have been cooked, mix into the rice.


5.  Season liberally with Adobo. Drizzle lemon juice over the mixture.


Serving suggestions: If you absolutely need the chicken, you can season it with a mixture of adobo and flour and drizzle it with some lemon juice before cooking. Alternatively, you can season some shrimp with the Adobo seasoning and saute. For a more substantial vegetarian dish, serve the rice stuffed inside peppers.

I find that fresh goat cheese sprinkled over the top adds a nice tangy addition if you have some on hand. 

Notes: There are a few types of Sazon and Adobo. I use Sazon con Azafran and Adobo All Purpose Seasoning. 

This definitely isn't the most traditional version of arroz con pollo, but it's one I've been cooking up a lot lately and I love it!

Do you think you'll try this?
What are some traditional foods that you like to cook?

2 comments:

  1. This looks deliciously amazing!!!

    I love cooking chicken and mushrooms and my great grandmothers enchiladas!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, this looks super tasty!! I'm definitely going to have to try this one soon!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...