Arroz con pollo (Latin chicken and rice)
65 min · 36 g protein · 481 cals / serving
The one-pot chicken and rice that Latin families from Puerto Rico to Colombia grow up on: chicken thighs marinated in sazón and garlic, browned, then nestled into golden, tomato-and-sofrito rice that cooks in the chicken's juices, with peas, sweet peppers and green olives. Squeeze lime over the top and it needs nothing else.
Ingredients
Chicken
- 2 lb (about 8 thighs) chicken thigh, boneless, skinless thighs, halved
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- 1 packet sazon seasoning, with coriander and annatto
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
- 2 tsp olive oil
Sofrito
- 1 medium onion
- 1/2 green bell pepper bell pepper
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, plus culantro if you can find it
Rice
- 1 medium tomato, diced
- 1 1/2 cups white rice, long-grain white rice, rinsed
- 2 2/3 cups chicken broth
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1/3 cup green olives, pimiento-stuffed, halved
- 1 2/3 cups cooked frozen green peas
To serve
- 1 lime, in wedges
Steps
- Toss the chicken with the vinegar, half the sazón, the garlic powder, oregano and salt and leave 15 minutes, or up to a day in the fridge.
- Heat the oil in a wide Dutch oven or caldero over medium-high heat and brown the chicken about 4 minutes a side until golden; it will finish cooking in the rice. Set it aside.
- Blend or finely chop the onion, green pepper, garlic, cilantro and green onion into a sofrito.
- Cook the sofrito in the same pot over medium heat 4–5 minutes, scraping up the browned bits, until soft. Add the tomato and the rest of the sazón and cook 2 minutes, then stir in the rice for 1 minute until every grain is coated and glossy.
- Pour in the broth, add the red pepper and olives and bring to a boil. Nestle the chicken and its juices into the rice and boil, uncovered, 6–8 minutes, until the liquid sinks to the level of the rice and you see little holes on the surface.
- Scatter over the peas, cover tightly, turn the heat to low and cook 20 minutes without lifting the lid. Then take it off the heat and rest, still covered, 10 minutes, until the rice is tender and the chicken reaches 165°F.
- Fluff the rice around the chicken with a fork and serve with lime wedges.
Good to know
My rice was mushy or crunchy. What went wrong?
Mushy usually means stirring after the lid went on or too much liquid; crunchy means the lid let steam escape. Rinse the rice, use the amounts here, cover tightly (a sheet of foil under the lid helps) and do not stir while it steams.
Where is it from?
Everywhere: Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Peru and Spain all have their own. Peruvian cooks make it green with cilantro, Cubans add beer and saffron, Puerto Ricans add olives and gandules.
Can I use chicken breast?
Yes, though thighs stay juicier through the long steam. Breast pieces score about 62 instead of 54; brown them lightly and tuck them in deep.
Alternatives
Per
- Calories
- 112
- Protein
- (31%)
- 8 g
- Fat
- (25%)
- 3 g
- Carbohydrates
- (44%)
- 13 g
- of which sugar
- 1 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 360 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 2883 kcal goes into the pot and 2804 g of ingredients comes out as about 2565 g of food: 112 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.