Arroz Con Pollo

A special event isn’t very special unless my Mami’s arroz con pollo is there. Arroz con pollo, which translates to chicken with rice in English, is a typical party food in Panama. Growing up we had it at every holiday and it was usually requested on birthdays. We’re guaranteed to have it every year on my brother’s birthday. There are also a variety of ways that you can make it; here is a basic recipe for arroz con pollo. Feel free to tweak it to meet your wants and needs.  

Now, to continue with my recent experience with cooking.

Making this dish for class started off a little rocky. One would think getting the ingredients is the easiest part, but it didn’t turn out that way this time. Now I understand why my mom use to say that cooking her dishes from back home would be a pain in the butt. However, after I put on my chef hat the process went a lot smoother. It became a bonding experience filled with laughs, conversation, and the occasional bit of concern (I’m not much of a cook).

I began with boiling the chicken breast in the chicken broth. I checked on it about 8 times! Once the chicken looked cooked I took it out to strip the meat from the bone. Once the meat was all stripped from the bone I added the rice to the broth, yes the same broth I took the chicken out of. I then added the veggies, olives, capers, and chicken. After tasting this you probably don’t think you need to add any seasoning, but to give it that Panamanian flavor I added sazon Goya and chicken flavor bouillon. Once all the ingredients were in I stirred it then covered it for about 5 minutes to let the flavors come together. To finish, if I were in your position, fix yourself a plate and enjoy!

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 choices of seasoning, mixing the ingredients and the final product :)