Arroz con pollo is just chicken and rice, but the sum is so much more than the parts. It has a pile of sauteed onions and green peppers, the rice is fragrant with saffron and rich with tomatoes and I could just eat it forever.
I don't actually make it very often, because the process takes much longer than I can usually spend on a weeknight, so this is more of a weekend dish but I'll also break it out for company if I can get out of work early enough. We were having friends over a couple weeks ago and I had such a strong craving for this that I rearranged our meal plan for the week so that I could make it.
The recipe is right here (I trust Epicurious to keep their recipe links functional, so I think it's safe just to post the link but let me know if it goes dead).
My comments -
There is no universe in which this makes four servings, unless all four people are starving teenage boys who like enormous amounts of rice. When I make this recipe as written we have enough for four people plus generous leftovers. So maybe 6 - 7 servings is more accurate?
I don't like to bother with a whole chicken, so I just get bone-in thighs and drumsticks (or whole legs). Never, ever skinless.
This is much heavier on the rice than the chicken, so if you want a higher protein to carb ratio, you might want to increase the amount of chicken. Obviously you could decrease the rice, but that will be a bit trickier because you'll have to figure out the liquid ratios. Also, the rice is delicious.
I don't have a saucepan large enough for this recipe. It calls for a 6-7 qt pan that is 12" wide and 4" deep. My beloved stainless steel saute pan (I posted about it here ages ago and I'm still in love and use it almost every day) is 4 quarts, which is perfect for almost everything, but a bit too small for this. My workaround is a little annoying. I use my saute pan right up until the point where you are supposed to add the rice. Then I move the chicken over to one of my Dansk pans, which are larger and still oven-safe. I add the rice to the saute pan and bring it to a simmer, then transfer everything to the Dansk pan with the chicken. Yes, this is a little frustrating, but I'm not willing to invest in a slightly larger pan just for this one recipe. I have considered trying to scale the recipe down a bit so I can just use my normal pan, but I love the leftovers so much that I haven't attempted that yet.
Sorry for the lack of finished product photos, but did I mention that this recipe is time consuming? I've never managed to get it on the table while it's still light enough to take pictures.
mmmm, looks delicious, send me some please by email attachment . . . (*__*)
ReplyDeleteThis sounds awesome. Putting it on my to-make list!
ReplyDeleteBefore I could find a day when I had all the time in the world to make this, I tried making it with boneless thighs and breasts, marinated overnight and not pre-simmering the wet ingredients. It was delicious and took maybe half the time on the day-of that the recipe claims. I have no clue if following the recipe to a tee would make it better, and I'll probably never find out. But marinading overnight was a very good decision, and might be worth considering going forward?
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good solution! I'd never risked trying to marinade overnight because it's the marinade is so acidic and I was wondering if it would "cook" the chicken. Glad to know that it works!
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