Arroz Con Pollo – chicken with rice
22 Oct
This might sound obvious, but as I was cooking this, I thought to myself: if you’ve never tasted something you’re cooking, how do you know what you’ve made is good? Or what it’s supposed to look like?
I saw the photos and recipe here. I attempted to follow the recipe carefully, but what fun would that be? I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to cook the rice first, or just in the same pan as the chicken.
It led me to pour chicken stock over 2 cups of rice in a separate pan before realizing that I’m not supposed to do that. I think that’s how I ended up with overcooked rice. But it was very flavorful overcooked rice, which is not that big of a deal.
I also tried brining for the first time and it made a huge difference in the chicken. It kept the chicken from getting dry, which is always my #1 complaint with chicken. What other cooking secrets are out there, people? I wanna hear them all!
Ingredients:
1 broiler-fryer chicken, about 2 1/2-3 pounds (cut into serving pieces, or 2 1/2 to 3 pounds of chicken thighs or breasts, bone-in, with skin on, rinsed and patted dry)
3 cups of chicken stock (depending on your rice instructions)
2 cups of medium or long-grain white rice
1/2 cup of flour for dredging
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
5 tablespoons of olive oil
1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste or 1 cup of diced fresh or cooked tomatoes, strained
1 teaspoon of salt (and to taste)
1 garlic clove, minced
Freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of paprika
Pinch of oregano
Procedure:
1. Heat 3 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
2. Put the flour in a wide bowl, mix in a generous sprinkling of salt, pepper, and paprika. Dredge the chicken pieces lightly in the flour mixture and put in the pan to brown.
3. Cook a few minutes on each side, just enough so that the chicken has browned, about 5 minutes*. Use a slotted spoon to remove from pan and set aside.
4. Add the rice to the pan to brown. Add a little more olive oil if necessary. Stir first to coat the rice with the olive oil in the pan. Then don’t stir too much or you will prevent it from browning. Let it brown and then stir a little to let more of it brown.
5. Then add the onion and garlic. Cook the onion, garlic and rice mixture, stirring frequently, until the onions have softened, about 4 minutes.
(I would imagine cooking risotto would look something like this. I always see them making it on Top Chef but never tried making it myself.)
6. Place the chicken pieces, skin-side up, on top of the rice.
7. In a separate bowl, mix together the stock, tomato, salt, and oregano. Pour the stock mixture over the rice and chicken.
8. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to low, and cover. Let cook for 18-20 minutes, depending on the type of rice and the instructions on the rice package, until the rice and chicken are done.
*I lengthened the chicken cooking time in step 3 so order to avoid overcooking the rice. It’s tough to change the temperature of one thing since both items are cooking in the same pot.
This is a great dish for a first-timer like me to try since it’s really simple and easy to follow!! Happy cooking =)
