Arroz con Pollo (Rice with Chicken)

February 15, 2009 | Filed Under Ecuadorian Recipes, Poultry, Rice | 20 Comments

We all know that there are different variations of Arroz con Pollo (Rice with Chicken) and depending on the country or region, it is made a little differently.

Ever since I discovered this particular rice recipe below, I’ve been making it at least once a week. Each time, my rice becomes better and better. I HEART it. Actually, I PUFFY HEART it. This Ecuadorian-style rice with chicken recipe has become my favorite rice recipe. When I first saw it, some of its ingredients, like beer or wine, intrigued me. Rice cooked with beer or wine? I used the wine and found that worked really well. The rice had an extra special taste.

I enjoyed everything in the rice — the seasoned chicken, the carrots, the tomatoes…. Thankfully, I didn’t have much trouble with the amount of water in relation to the amount of rice. Normally when I make these chicken rice dishes (see my jollof rice), I usually end up with too much water or too little water, making my rice soggy or dry. Uggh! Fortunately my rice turned out very well with this recipe and the more I made it, the better it turned out.

As suggested, I served the chicken rice with ripe fried plantains and pickled onions. Other times, I served it with a side salad, avocado slices and aji criollo (Ecuadorian hot sauce). It depended on what I had in the kitchen.

When one of my brothers stops by and I prepare this rice, he makes sure to take some home in some tupperware. The boy never brings back the tupperware. *sigh*

Now. I have a confession about the Arroz con Pollo photo above. While I’ve made rice and chicken several times, in this particular instance, you are looking at rice with turkey wings (the only part of the turkey that I like). I can happily write that the rice with turkey turned out just fine. The photo is of my leftovers, which I took to work the next day. Thanks, Laylita for the recipe.

Paz (the riceaholic)

Arroz con Pollo (Rice with Chicken)

Laylita’s Recipes

Ingredients:

3 lbs chicken, assorted pieces

1 tbs achiote powder

1 tbs ground cumin

½ tbs ground coriander

10 garlic cloves, crushed

2-3 tbs oil or butter1 white onion, diced, about 2 cups

2 celery stalks, finely diced

4 roma tomatoes, peeled and diced

1 bell pepper, diced

1 cup beer or white wine

1 to 1 ½ cup water or broth

2 cups rice

2 medium carrots, diced

1 cup peas, fresh or frozen

3 tbs finely chopped cilantro

Salt and pepper

Sides – ripe fried plantains, pickled onions or side salad, avocado slices and aji criollo

Preparation:

Mix the crushed garlic, achiote, cumin, coriander and salt together.
Rub the garlic seasoning on the chicken pieces.
Heat the oil or butter on medium high heat in large sauté pan, add the chicken pieces (skin side down) and cook until browned on each side.
Add the diced onions, tomatoes, bell pepper, and celery, mix well and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add 1 cup of beer or white wine, cook for about 20-25 minutes over medium heat until the liquid is reduced by half, stir frequently.
Add the broth or water, rice, peas and carrots, mix well.
Cover and cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes.
Reduce the heat to low and cook for an additional 10-15 minutes or until the rice is tender but still slightly firm.
Stir in the chopped cilantro and serve with ripe fried plantains, a small salad, pickled onions, avocado slices, and hot sauce on the side.

Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup: Happy Thanksgiving!

November 27, 2008 | Filed Under Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once blog, Corn, Eggs, Fellow Bloggers, Green Onions, Scallions, Spring Onions, Holidays, Poultry, Soups/Chowders/Gumbos, Thanksgiving, Vegetables | 18 Comments

Yes, more soup. It’s still cold here and I’m still tired and stressed. So, I decided to make more soup, using a recipe I found on Hallo’s blog.

Today, we celebrate Thanksgiving Day in the States. I never had Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup before as part of a Thanksgiving meal, but this is what I wanted to eat. It was definitely a good soup for a weary body and soul like mine. I felt much better after eating it.

What am I thankful for this holiday season? Many things. I’m especially thankful for all of you who stop by my blog with your very kind and encouraging comments. Without you, it would be no fun here.

Paz

Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup

Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once

1 litre chicken stock

4 slices ginger

6 spring onions/scallions

1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger

4 chicken thigh fillets, skinless, sliced finely

420 grams canned creamed corn

2 cups corn kernels

salt and freshly ground pepper

sesame oil

2 tablespoons corn flour mixed with a little water, optional, to thicken soup

1 egg white, lightly whisked with 1 tablespoon water

Place the chicken stock and sliced ginger into a pot and bring to a simmer so to allow the ginger to infuse into the stock.

Separate the white from the green parts of the spring onions. Slice both finely.

Heat a little neutral oil in a large pot and when it’s come to temperature, add the sliced white part of the spring onion and the ginger. Let this gently sauté for a couple of minutes before adding the chicken pieces – just add a quarter of the chicken at a time. When the chicken has changed colour, add the creamed corn and corn kernels.

Turn the heat up a little and stir this well before adding the stock (strain off the ginger slices). Add half the sliced green parts of the spring onion and let the soup simmer until the corn has cooked through.

Taste and season with salt and freshly ground pepper and a few drops of sesame oil.

If you prefer a thicker soup, then at this stage, stir in the mix of corn flour and water.

Just before serving add in the remaining sliced spring onion greens and while stirring the soup, drizzle in the lightly whisked egg white – this sets as soon as you add it to the soup so it’s important to keep stirring to break it up and get a speckled finish.

Christine’s Spatchcock Roasted Chicken for Paz

September 29, 2008 | Filed Under Christine Cooks blog, Fellow Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Poultry | 23 Comments

Please help me welcome guest blogger, Christine of Christine Cooks. Thank you, Christine!

Paz

I am so thrilled that Paz has asked me to be a guest blogger while she recovers from surgery. What a kind and caring person my friend Paz is; she checks in from time to time just to see how I’m doing, and she never fails to leave a comment on my garden blog where I love surprising her with a flower, plant, or critter she hasn’t seen before.

When I posted my Sunday Night Whole Roasted Chicken recipe a while back, Paz fairly sang its praises from the rooftops of New York and re-posted it on her blog, creating quite a bit of traffic my way. That’s just the way she is, thoughtful and generous. And because Paz was so excited about my roasted chicken, I thought it would be fun to show her another method that I think she will find funny and entertaining: Spatchcocking.

Now before your minds head to the gutter, spatchcocking (and, please do visit that link for some very funny, veddy British definitions) is simply a method by which a chicken or other fowl is opened and spread flat, enabling it to cook faster and more evenly. To achieve this, you remove the backbone of the bird, lay it flat, breast side up, and crack the breast bone to flatten it out.

That’s it. Rub it all over with olive oil then sprinkle with your favorite herbs, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Put it in a cast iron skillet with a glug or two of wine (red or white, it’s your choice) and roast it to perfection. Easy, simple and delicious! If you like giblets, tuck them in and around the bird so they roast together. Oh, and don’t forget to baste your bird with those tasty pan juices that will magically appear at the bottom of the skillet. Have fun with this one Paz!

To spatchcock a chicken:

Put a whole chicken, breast side down, on a cutting board.

Using poultry shears or other strong kitchen shears, begin cutting up one side of the backbone beginning at the tail end. You may have to use a bit of pressure to cut through some of the bones, especially when you get to the bones that connect the wings to the body.

When one side is fully cut, do the same thing on the other side of the backbone, starting again from the tail end.

When the backbone is completely severed from the chicken, set it aside and inspect the chicken where you made the cuts. Remove any small bones or shards laying about that could come loose in the cooking process and get stuck in a guest’s teeth or, worse, in his/her throat.

Small bone inspection done, turn your chicken over and spread it out on the cutting board as shown in the photo.

Using your hand or a meat mallet, push hard on the breast bone until it cracks or gives to the point that the chicken lies very flat on the board.

There. You’re done. You’ve just spatchcocked a chicken. Now, cook it…

Christine’s Spatchcock Roasted Chicken for Paz
Serves 4-6 chicken-loving people or 6-8 daintier eaters

Christine Cooks

Ingredients:
1 (4-5 pound) broiler or fryer chicken preferrably with giblets (free-range, veg fed is best)
Good olive oil
2 tablespoons (or more) dried herbs – I used Made in Napa Valley’s Meritage Rub, which I highly recommend
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
olive oil spray for the pan
1/4 cup (a few glugs) of your favorite red or white wine

Preparation:
Rub the bird all over with good olive oil. Do the same with the giblets and the backbone if you are using them (see Cook’s Notes.)

Sprinkle all over with the herb rub, salt and pepper, pressing into the skin to help them adhere.
Lightly spray a large cast iron skillet (I used a 12-inch one, an old Wagner Ware, without which I would be one unhappy cook) with the olive oil.

Place the chicken breast side up in the skillet, arranging the legs and wings so it all fits snugly. The underside (inside) of the chicken should be flat in the skillet.

Tuck the giblets around and under the wings and neck area and lay the backbone under the legs as shown in the photo.

Pour the wine over the bird, cover the skillet with foil and place in a 375-degree oven for 45 minutes.

At the 45-minute mark, remove the foil from the skillet and baste your bird, giblets and all, with the pan juices.

Close the oven and roast for 15 more minutes, basting once again during that time.

Stick an instant-read temperature gauge in the meatiest part of the thigh; a nicely done chicken should register 160 degrees farenheit and the juices from the joints should run clear.

Remove the skillet from the oven and baste the chicken one more time before transferring it to a cutting board where you will let it rest for 10 minutes during which time the temperature will rise to 165 degrees. Remove the giblets to a plate.

Pour the pan drippings into a fat separator and decant into a warm serving bowl or pitcher.

To cut into serving pieces, using kitchen or poultry shears, divide the bird into two halves, each having a breast, wing and leg. Separate the entire leg-thigh piece and finally cut the breast into two equal halves, cross-wise, leaving the wing attached to one of the pieces. This will give you three pieces from each side, which will nicely feed six hungry people. For the more dainty eaters, separate the thigh from the leg, thus being able to share your dish with 8 guests.

Cook’s Notes:

> I love giblets and I love the tasty morsels of meat on the backbone of a chicken, especially the tiny tenderloins. If you can find them, see if you don’t agree with me.

> The corn photo? Sometimes a food photo is so delectable, it must be shared. Besides, I know Paz will like it.

Pollo Arrosto per Paz (Roast Chicken for Paz)

August 4, 2008 | Filed Under Briciole blog, Fellow Bloggers, Guest Bloggers, Poultry | 27 Comments

Please help me welcome Simona of Briciole, this week’s guest blogger! Thanks so much Simona for helping out!

Paz

One of my favorite posts by Chef Paz is (Christine’s) Sunday Night Whole Roasted Chicken, which I refer to as "the disappeared roast chicken" post, because of the great photo of the empty serving dish where the roast chicken of the title once was. Reading that post made me laugh heartily and generated a lasting memory. The photo of the suggestively empty serving dish came back to my mind in the occasion of the production of my first roast chicken ever.

Let me back step a second to give some background information on my meat-eating habits. On December 25, 1997, at the end of a traditional English Christmas dinner, I told my husband that I would stop eating meat, which I proceeded to do for many years. (Clarification: the dinner was nice and was not the cause of my decision, which I had been mulling for a while.) Fast forward to the summer of 2008, when good influences of various nature have inspired me to taste meat again, and you will find me buying a Red Broiler, described as the true "slow food" chicken by the young woman who raises this variety (in small flocks that enjoy "sunshine, fresh air, grubs, green pasture, room to stretch their wings, and protection from predators") at a local farm (Wild Chick Farm). I went to pick up my order at the appointed time and location and brought it home, not a little intimidated and wondering what I would do next. You see, my mother never liked to use the oven, so, growing up, for me pollo arrosto always meant roast chicken from a rotisserie.

On Epicurious, I found Thomas Keller’s recipe for My Favorite Simple Roast Chicken, and decided to go with it. The word "simple" in the title was quite tempting, since I needed something extremely simple for my first venture. But I was also charmed by the way the famous chef describes eating the roast chicken. I followed the recipe as is, and the result was excellent. Of course, I had no benchmarks in my career of amateur cook against which to measure the result, but I also needed encouragement for future endeavors, so I declared it excellent and my husband agreed. We didn’t put anything on the cooked meat: no butter, no mustard, just the salt and pepper I had added before roasting. Delaying a bit my reward for not much toil but a lot of anxiety, I took a photo before carving the chicken.

Thomas Keller suggests serving it with a simple salad on the side. I love roast potatoes and since the oven is already on, there is no excuse for not making some, like fingerling potatoes, tossed with a bit of freshly-ground pepper and a mix of fresh herbs from my garden, finely chopped (rosemary, dill, sage). I added them half-way through the cooking time of the chicken, so they would be ready at the same time, or shortly thereafter, while the meat is resting before it is cut. Unfortunately, I have no photo of the potatoes: I can assure you, they were good.

Dear Paz, this pollo arrosto is dedicated to you, with heartfelt wishes for a speedy recovery, a big hug (Italian-style) and many thanks for our blog-friendship.

Pollo con Papas a la Florencia/Florencia’s Chicken and Potatoes

June 16, 2008 | Filed Under Argentinean Recipes, Christine Cooks blog, Cuisines, Fellow Bloggers, From Argentina with Love blog, Potatoes, Poultry, South American Cuisine | 14 Comments

I’ve written about how Christine’s Sunday Night Whole Roasted Chicken tastes so good that I’m unable to spare a few minutes to take a photo for the blog. I’ve made the roasted chicken several times since writing about it on the blog, and each time, I want to eat it immediately! No time to stop and take photos. Forget that.

Well, I’ve found another winning roasted chicken recipe that Rebecca of From Argentina with Love shares with her readers — Chicken and Potatoes. When I finished making the Chicken and Potatoes, I mustered all my human strength not to eat the chicken immediately. This time I was able to spare a few seconds to photograph the Chicken and Potatoes. Just barely. This simple Roasted Chicken dish was soooo tasty. As Rebecca described, the potatoes did have an extra tang, which made it extra special. She shares the secret to the delicious potatoes in the recipe below.

So… Now, I have two AWESOME roasted chicken recipes. Yay for me!

Paz *excited*

Pollo con Papas a la Florencia/Florencia’s Chicken and Potatoes

From Argentina with Love

Rebecca’s note:

Florencia made this for me as one of my first meals the first time I met her, and I had never tasted anything like it! Since then, it’s one she knows will be a hit, and she makes it anytime we visit. It’s one of the most satisfying meals I can think of–and the simplest to prepare! The secret is the white wine–it gives the potatoes an extra tang.

one whole chicken, cleaned

coarse salt

pepper

one lemon

olive oil

1 cup dry white wine

5 cloves garlic, peeled but still whole

5 russet potatoes, peeled and sliced into ‘fries’

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Rinse the chicken and remove the packet inside. Put the chicken in a baking pan, and drizzle olive oil over the chicken, rubbing it into the skin. Squeeze the juice of the lemon over the chicken, and stuff the lemon halves into the cavity. Salt and pepper the chicken to taste.

Meanwhile, put the cut potatoes in a bowl and drizzle in olive oil, using your hands to mix them around so that they are lightly coated in oil. Salt liberally.

Put the potatoes around the chicken in the casserole dish. Place the garlic cloves around in the potatoes. Bake for about 40 minutes. After this time, pull the chicken out, and pour the wine over the potatoes. Increase the oven temperature to 450 degrees. Return the chicken to the oven, rotating the pan, for about 30 minutes more, testing for doneness using a meat thermometer, 170 degrees.