I love stews and braised meats, especially once the weather dips below 73 degrees in Southern California. This past weekend when our temperatures dipped and the breeze kicked up I was hankering for dinner in a pot. Sunday I made arroz con pollo. There are many variations on this classic dish, the one below is very simple and you can easily add your own extra ingredients to change the dish to your family's tastes. The prep for this takes about half an hour, most of it spent browning your chicken. Before you start cooking layout your chicken in a roasting pan or cookie sheet with edges so the juice doesn't get all over the counter. I use 10-12 thighs, if you prefer you can use a cut up chicken. I use thighs because I love the flavor of the meat and also all the pieces are the same size so they cook evenly. Don't go all healthy and skinless on this one, the skin renders and adds flavor to your dish, you can always pick it off when you eat it (heresy!).
With your chicken laid out season well on both sides with salt and pepper; I also sprinkle with small amount of cumin, cloves and red pepper. Leave the chicken out until room temperature before browning. Not all day, but about half hour before you are going to start cooking.
In a dutch oven or heavy bottom pot pour about a quarter cup of vegetable or canola oil, I also add about 2-3 tablespoons of butter. Put the pot on medium heat and bring to temperature. Then depending on the size of your cooking vessel place 3, 4 or 5 pieces in the oil, I always start skin side down. You do not want to crowd the pan so the chicken pieces should not be touching if possible, if it takes your 3 or 4 rounds to brown all the chicken so they can have room then take the time you will be rewarded with beautifully browned chicken.
Brown the chicken about 5 minutes and then turn and brown about 5 more minutes. When your skin/meat has a nice brown color and starting to get dark in some areas you are good. Take out the chicken and set in a dish that will hold the juices. (Here I squirt a little fresh lime juice over the chicken I just took out of the browning pot). Repeat with your remaining chicken until all your pieces are browned and in the holding dish (again each time you pull chicken out try a squirt of some fresh lime juice).
When all your chicken is finished take a look at how much oil you have left in the pot, probably more than you want, and while it is filled with flavor, you may want to pour some of it out--I always do. I discard oil until there is just enough to barely cover the bottom of the pan.
While the chicken is browning dice 1 onion, brown, red, white, your choice; and several cloves of garlic.
Once your chicken is out of the pot and your have discarded any oil you are discarding turn the heat to medium low and toss in your onions. As they begin to sweat use a spoon and scrape the bits off the bottom of the pan. When your onions get just closed to becoming browned pour in about a quarter cup of dry vermouth, or the white wine you didn't finish last night, or as my mom used to do open a new bottle, take a swig to make sure it tastes good, pour some in the pot and then some in a glass. Once you have the wine in raise the heat a bit and reduce for about 3-4 minutes.
Time for everyone to go swimming! Add your 2 cups of rice, chopped garlic and can of black beans--do not drain toss all the juices in. At this point you can add: canned tomatoes, olives, carrots, celery, diced chilis, cooked sausage, whatever you want. I go simple just rice, beans and garlic.
Once they are all in give a couple of stirs and mix everything up. Now add your chicken pieces, and pour in all the juice that is in the dish.
When the chicken is in pour in about 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth or stock (if you make your own and save this is a good time to break it out). I say about 1 1/ 2 cups because it depends on how much liquid is in the in the other ingredients you added, you want a total of about 2 cups liquid so if you add can of beans with liquid, can of tomatoes with liquid, can of olives with liquid, you will want to back down to about 1 cup of liquid maybe. But if you are going to error do so on the side of too much liquid rather than too little.
Once the liquid is in cover and bring to temperature so liquid is bubbling on the sides of the pot, a heavy simmer. Turn the heat down to a simmer and walk away for about half an hour.
You're done, arroz con pollo for dinner! You can serve from the pot or put in a casserole or on a platter with the chicken spread over the bed of rice. This feeds quite a few, the advantage in our home is that there is plenty of left overs I can bring to lunch and get jealous looks from my co-workers!
Arroz con Pollo sounds fancy, sounds difficult, sounds intimidating. But as you can see it is really simple: brown some chicken and toss in some ingredients, simmer and serve!
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