Meals · Skillet & sheet-pan mains
Arroz con pollo al azafrán (Spanish saffron chicken and rice)
The rice Spanish grandmothers make on a Sunday: juicy chicken, a sofrito of pepper, tomato and pimentón, a little serrano ham and short-grain rice that drinks up saffron broth until it is moist and golden, with green beans and peas folded through.
- Time
- 65 min (20 prep + 45 cook)
- Servings
- 4
- Per serving
- 581 kcal
- Protein
- 46 g
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 lb boneless, skinless breast chicken breast, in large chunks
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 oz jamón serrano, serrano ham, diced
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 medium red red bell pepper, diced
- 2 tsp paprika, sweet Spanish pimentón
- 2 ripe medium tomatoes, grated, skins discarded
- 1/4 cup white wine, dry
- 1 1/3 cups sushi rice, short-grain: bomba, Calasparra or any round rice
- 1 good pinch saffron, crumbled
- 3 cups chicken broth, low-sodium, hot
- 5 oz green beans, trimmed, in short lengths
- 3/4 cup frozen cooked frozen green peas
Steps
- Salt the chicken. Heat the oil in a wide, heavy casserole or deep frying pan over medium-high heat and brown the chicken for about 3 minutes, turning, until golden but not cooked through. Lift it onto a plate.
- Lower the heat to medium. Add the ham, onion, garlic and red pepper and cook for 10 minutes, scraping up the brown bits, until soft.
- Stir in the pimentón for a few seconds, then quickly add the tomato and cook for 4 minutes until it darkens. Pour in the wine and let it bubble until nearly gone.
- Stir in the rice and saffron for a minute so every grain is coated, then pour in the hot broth and bring to a boil. Shake the pan to level the rice. From here do not stir.
- Cook on a gentle simmer for 10 minutes, then push the chicken with its juices, the green beans and the peas lightly into the rice. Cook 8–10 minutes more, until the broth has been absorbed and the rice is just tender, and the chicken reaches 165°F.
- Take off the heat, cover with a clean cloth and leave for 5 minutes. To keep leftovers, cool them quickly in a shallow dish and refrigerate within an hour: 3 days, reheated with a splash of broth until piping hot.
Good to know
How do I get a soupy rice (arroz caldoso)?
Add 2 cups more broth and serve it as soon as the rice is tender; it should still move in the plate. It has to be eaten at once, because the rice keeps drinking.
Can I use chicken thighs?
Yes, thighs stay juicier if you reheat it, at about 52 instead of 58. Brown them for 6 minutes and put them back with the broth, so they cook with the rice from the start.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 111
- Protein
- (33%)
- 9 g
- Fat
- (16%)
- 2 g
- Carbohydrates
- (51%)
- 14 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 282 mg
About 35% of the alcohol remains after cooking; the label counts only that.
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 2324 kcal goes into the pot and 2474 g of ingredients comes out as about 2090 g of food: 111 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.