Arroz Con Pollo with Salsa Verde

Originally posted July 25, 2008

Arroz Con Pollo (Chicken with Rice) is one of my favorite Spanish dishes. The chicken is tender and the rice is fluffy. (I made a large pot of it for our staff here at www.distinctive-decor.com and they loved it.)

My recipe is a conglomeration of many recipes. (This brings up a practice of mine. I always research multiple recipes and take what I like from each one. I then piece the recipe back together and give it a whirl. If I like it; I keep it. If not, I go back to the drawing board. This is not a hard thing to do; I promise!)

For this recipe to really be great you need a heavy cooking vessel that retains heat well and can be placed into the oven. I use a 9-1/2 quart Le Creuset French Oven for this, the larger the better. They are somewhat expensive, but the results are outstanding. Consider the investment because I use mine for Sunday pot roasts, soups, stews, braising or even boiling 2 lbs of pasta.

Arroz Con Pollo

1 Fryer or purchase an already cut-up chicken
Enough cooking oil to brown the chicken and sauté your sofrito
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons paprika
cayenne pepper to your taste (go sparingly if you make the salsa condiment)
Chorizo sausage
1 yellow onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 green bell pepper chopped

3 bay leaves
4 cups long grain white rice
1 can diced tomatoes with liquid
6 cups chicken broth, warm
(Green olives are optional—if you want them in the dish, scatter them over the top after the dish has cooked.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix the paprika, cayenne, salt, pepper and cumin to make a dry rub. Coat each chicken piece with the rub. Gently place the chicken, skin side down, in your heavy, enameled cast iron Dutch/French oven heated to med-high. Brown both sides of chicken pieces and remove to a plate. This will take about 10 minutes.

Saute your chorizo in the French oven and cook for a couple of minutes. (If you are using dry chorizo you need to chop it up and sauté it before browning the chicken. Once crispy remove it and reserve until you reinsert the chicken later. The fat rendered from the dry chorizo will serve as your browning fat for the chicken.) Add your sofrito--onions, peppers, bay leaves and garlic. Saute until softened thoroughly (almost falling apart). Add the broth and tomatoes and cook for another two minutes. At this point, taste the mixture and adjust seasonings. Add the rice and boil (stir a few times to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the Dutch oven. Once you have achieved a boil, reduce heat and cook until the mixture simmers for 7 minutes. Reinsert the chicken (lay it on top so the rice will cook evenly.) Put on the lid and pop your dutch oven into the oven preheated to 350 degrees. Cook the dish for 20 minutes or until the chicken is done and the rice is tender.

(After 20 minutes remove the dutch oven from the oven and check the doneness of the chicken and rice. If your rice is not as tender as you like it and all liquid has been absorbed simply add a few cups of hot water and cook in the oven 10-15 minutes longer. If liquid still remains place back into the oven until visible liquid has been absorbed.

Believe it or not, arroz con pollo can be a little flat on the tongue because the rice tends to weaken the flavor. Sometimes it needs something tangy to really highlight the flavors. This salsa verde is a great way to add that tang and still be true to the dish.

Salsa Verde (Green Sauce):
2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
One whole bunch of fresh cilantro leaves
5 scallions roughly chopped with green ends

2 garlic cloves

1/2 cup olive or canola oil
2 Limes, juiced

Place all ingredients into a blender or food processor. Blend well. Pour as much as you like over your arroz con pollo.