Arroz con Pollo (Dominican Style)

One of my best friends is Dominican. She was my roommate in college and I loved it when she made her Arroz con pollo. I have been wanting to make it for quite some time now, but she is one of the people who is naturally a great cook. She just adds spices, tastes it, etc... so it was hard to get a recipe for this. She sent me this link and said that it's similar to how she makes it. I thought I would try it. The chicken was so good! The rice was alright, so I made a few changes.

Preparation Time: 25 minutes plus at least 1 hour marinating time
Cook Time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients:

4 lbs Chicken (I used 10 chicken legs)
2 cups long grain rice
3 cups water
1 green bell pepper (capsicum)
1 red bell pepper (capsicum)
1 onion
3 cloves of Garlic
1/2 cup fresh cilantro (coriander)
2 limes
2 Tbsp Spanish Olives
1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp Salt (for marinade)
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Oregano
2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1/2 cup Vinegar
2 Tbsp Sugar

Instructions:

First you want to soak the chicken while you prepare the marinade. Put it in some water and 1/2 cup vinegar.

 Prepare the marinade by chopping up your ingredients and combining all the ingredients (peppers, onion, garlic, cilantro,  lime juice, Spanish Olives, Worcestershire Sauce, Salt, Pepper, Oregano, and chicken) in a Ziplock bag. Let it marinade for at least an hour. I ended up letting mine marinade for 2 nights because we got invited to dinner the night I was going to cook this.

When you're ready to cook. Heat the oil and sugar in a pot.

When it starts to caramelize and gets dark add just the chicken to the pot (Don't discard the marinade!)

 Cook the chicken for 10 minutes, then turn over to the other side and let cook until the juices have reduced down. You might have to gently stir every once in a while so the chicken doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Once your chicken is brown and cooked through (about 20-30 minutes), add the marinade to the pot. Lightly cover and cook for 10 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the pot and add 3 cups of water, 2 tsp salt, and 1 tsp pepper. Let it come to a boil and add the rice. Once the rice has absorbed most of the water, cover and let it continue to cook on medium/low for 20-30 minutes.

The rice should be fluffy when you return to the pot. Return the chicken to the pot (on top of the rice), cover, and let it heat through for 5-10 minutes, then serve.

Coconut Rice

I posted a curry and suggested you try coconut rice with it, but never gave a recipe. So here are a couple that I use.

Casandra's Coconut Rice

One day I decided to put coconut milk in my rice instead of water and I loved it! So this is my recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups rice
3-4 cups coconut milk*
1 tsp salt

*Usually I put the milk in an inch above the rice.

Instructions:

Wash rice off with water then put in a saucepan.

Add salt and coconut milk to rice and begin to boil over medium heat.

Let rice boil for 15 minutes. Take off heat and cover for 5-10 minutes to continue cooking.

You'll have moist, coconut rice for dinner in less than 30 minutes!





The other rice recipe is a copy cat version from a restaurant that I like to eat at occasionally. I found this recipe and had to try it!



Ingredients:

2 cups long grain white rice
2 1/2 cups water
1 (14 oz) can coconut milk
1/2 TBS sugar
1 can red beans (drained and rinsed)

Instructions:

Combine water, coconut milk, and sugar in a saucepan.

Stir in rice and beans. Bring to a boil over medium heat.

Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 18-20 minutes, until rice is tender.