Cuban · Main
Arroz con Pollo a la Chorrera
- Intermediate
- 40 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
Leads with an earthy, grounding base, a briny, maritime salinity, opening aromatic and staying there.
Ingredients
- 1.4kg chicken, jointed into 8 pieces, bone in and skin on
- 400g medium grain white rice
- 80ml olive oil
- 180g white onion, finely diced
- 150g green cubanelle pepper, finely diced
- 25g garlic, mashed
- 5g ground cumin
- 5g dried oregano
- 3 bay leaves
- 4g ground annatto seed
- 200g ripe tomato, grated
- 120ml vino seco
- 330ml pale lager
- 1.1 litres chicken stock
- 150g petit pois
- 120g jarred pimientos morrones, in strips
- 15g salt
- 1 lime, in wedges
Equipment
Grater / zester
The skills inside
Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned
Allergen screen
Found: alcohol
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Salt the chicken and brown it hard in the oil, skin down and unmoved, until the skin is deep gold and lifts away from the pan by itself; set it aside.
- Sweat the onion, pepper and garlic in the same fat until slumped, stir in the cumin, oregano and annatto, then the tomato, and cook until an orange rim of oil separates.
- Return the chicken with the vino seco, lager, stock and bay and simmer until the thigh reads 74C (165F) against the bone, about 20 minutes. 20 min
- Rain in the rice, stir once to settle it, then simmer uncovered at a lazy bubble without touching it again until the grains are tender but the pot is still loose and soupy, 18 to 20 minutes. 20 min
- Scatter the peas and morrones over the surface, cover, cut the heat and let it stand 5 minutes; ladle into bowls with lime. 5 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Sweating aromatics: soft, never browned 198 recipes
- No colour anywhere: tipped under the light the pieces are translucent to pale gold, with no tan edges, no brown tips, and no browned flecks suspended in the fat.
- The pan is quiet: a low steady hiss, not a crackle. A crackle means the moisture has gone and browning has already started.
- The largest piece pressed against the side of the pan collapses without resistance and with no crunch left at its centre.
- The fat is still clear and loose in the pan and the pan floor is clean: nothing caught, nothing browned on to deglaze, because there was never any fond to build.
- It tastes sweet and mild with no raw allium bite at the back of the throat, and none of the roasted sweetness that belongs to the next technique up the heat scale.
Where it goes wrong The heat was too high and nothing covered the pan, so the pieces took colour before they softened; the finished dish carries a roasty sweetness where it wanted a clean one, and the pieces are still firm at the centre under browned edges.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Pinot Noir or Gamay
- Also Right
- Chianti or Barbera
- From the Taps
- Bière de garde
- Zero-Proof
- Verbena iced tea
Chicken is wine’s most agreeable partner. Match the SAUCE, not the bird: cream to oak, tomato to Sangiovese’s acid, herbs to Loire whites.
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