Mi Fricase de Pollo (My Version of Chicken Fricassee)

There are tons of versions of Cuban "Chicken Fricassee" in Cuban cooking a chicken "fricassee" is basically a tomato based chicken stew that includes wine and sometimes a combination of olives, capers and raisins which gives a "sweet and sour" taste created from the sweetness of raisins and acidity of capers and olives. Or some people just use olives which is slightly sour or pungent. Often times it includes potatoes :)

Personally I've tried so many versions of Chicken Fricassee... (including my grandmother's which I have on my blog)...

BUT I genuinely prefer this version which is very smokey and earthy, the smokiness and earthiness comes from smokey cumin, and black peppercorns in combination with the browning the meat in thundering high heat with no oil or very little oil which creates a smokey caramelized browned layer in the pan (in french they call this a "fond" which my grandma uses for some of her best stews especially her Carne Con Papa, Rabo Encendido and Fricase de Pavo), simmered in a rich wine and tomato based sauce with potatoes and carrots. I love the carrots in this because it lends a hint of sweetness and marries well with potatoes. You may add some whole or sliced pimiento stuffed olives to it towards the end if you'd like :)

I use the same method my grandmother uses for her stews I mentioned above just applied it to chicken and I just love it done this way :)

Serve this with some fluffy white rice preferably steamed with a bit of salt and some generous drizzles of olive oil and you have a very comforting meal.

Ingredients:
-1 whole chicken 3-4 lbs cut into 8 segments or more (cleaned and washed, you could also use drum sticks and thighs)
-1 large green bell pepper minced
-1 large onion minced
-1/2- 1 head garlic peeled mashed to a paste
-1 can 8 oz. tomato sauce
-1 1/2-2 cups red wine
-3 cups water (depends how thick or thin you want your sauce)
-1 teaspoon ground cumin
-1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
-2-3 bay leaves
-salt to taste (at least 1 1/2 teaspoon )
-4 potatoes peeled and halved
-8 carrots cut into large chunks peeled or 1 large jumbo carrot (about 1 pound)
-1/2 a bunch of washed clean minced cilantro or parsley (about 1 cup after minced)
-about 2-3 tablespoons oil that can stand high smoking point to brown meat (like canola or other vegetable oil although traditionally lard would be used I assume I just used canola but next time I'll use lard ;) olive oil would smoke and get it's flavor destroyed, eh I'm not sure my grandmother just does it like this, or does it without oil if the meat has fat
-extra-virgin olive oil about 1/2 cup?

Directions:
(1)Wash and clean the chicken meat. Pat dry. Season with salt. Heat on very high heat the pan until it's really hot, add oil (not the olive oil just an oil that can stand high heat like canola, or other vegetable oil or lard) it will quickly heat to almost a smoking point, add meat and brown on all sides (about 4 minutes on each side or longer but be careful don't turn the bottom of the pan completely black just let it brown and a little black is not bad you will need the drippings to form the sauce and deglaze if it's all black then you ruined your sauce)
(2) Set chicken aside in a separate plate, now lower heat to medium and add extra-virgin oil, add minced onion and bell pepper, stir well scraping the bottom, let it cook down at least 5-7 minutes. Make some space pour more olive oil and sautee garlic with onion and bell pepper about 3-4 minutes. Now add ground cumin, black peppercorns and bay leaves and sautee another minute.
(3) Add red wine and crank up heat so it bubbles and deglaze the pan when the wine reduces somewhat add tomato sauce and cook down the tomato sauce for about 5-6 minutes on medium high stiring occasionally.
(4) Add water now and bring to a rolling boil, add chicken meat, carrots and potatoes along with any oil and drippings it released, spoon sauce over it and coat well. Cover and well and cook for about 30-45 minutes or until chicken, potatoes and carrot are tender
(5) When done turn off heat and add minced cilantro or parsley for color. Serve with lots of white rice to soak up the sauce this dish
Some story:
So if you noticed that's some gigantic carrot I have there in the picture, they are called "Jumbo Carrots" it's a very large variety (each one weighs in at around 1 lbs.) I've seen these at Asian stores and I went to "Seafood City" (a Supermarket chain of Filipino stores) they were 4 lbs. for 1 dollar and I was like, "These be wonderful in a stew with potatoes and meat" and heck even for a nice cream soup or something, and I just loved using them they looked so hearty in the stew and pretty :) here's some pictures so you get an idea how large it was:

I was going to add it to the stew cut this way but decided to halve those rounds of large carrot

Fricase de Pavo (Turkey Fricassee)

This is my Tata's recipe, very rustic filling delicious rich tomato and red wine based meat dish, it's turkey legs cut into large rounds simmered slowly until the meat if falling of the bone with chunks of potato and carrot.

I'm not sure if any other Cubans or Spaniards make this dish, but it's cooked in a very typical Cuban fashion (onions, garlic, bell peppers, tomatoes, wine, generous amounts of olive oil, etc,) then again it could be Spanish to?

Ingredients:
-2 1/2 lbs. Turkey legs cut into large rounds (excess skin removed and with long slits on the side)
-1 1/2 lbs. Turkey wing cut into segments (most of the skin removed)
-1 large green bell pepper minced
-1 large onion minced
-1 head garlic peeled mashed to a paste
-2 1/2 cups tomato sauce or pureed tomatoes
-1 1/2-2 cups red wine
-2-3 cups water (depends how thick or thin you want your sauce)
-1 teaspoon ground cumin
-2-3 bay leaves
-salt to taste (atleast 1 1/2 teaspoon )
-4 potatoes peeled and halved
-8 carrots cut into large chunks peeled (about 1 pound)
-1/2 a bunch of washed clean minced cilantro or parsley (about 1 cup after minced)
-about 2-3 tablespoons oil that can stand high smoking point to brown meat (like canola or other vegetable oil although traditionally lard would be used I assume I just used canola but next time I'll use lard ;) olive oil would smoke and get it's flavor destroyed, eh I'm not sure my grandmother just does it like this.
-extra-virgin olive oil about 1/2 cup?


Directions:
(1)Wash and clean the turkey meat. Pat dry. Season with salt. Heat on very high heat the pan until it's really hot, add oil (not the olive oil just an oil that can stand high heat like canola, or other vegetable oil or lard) it will quickly heat to almost a smoking point, add meat and brown on all sides (about 4 minutes on each side or longer but be careful don't turn the bottom of the pan completely black just let it brown and a little black is not bad you will need the drippings to form the sauce and deglaze if it's all black then you ruined your sauce)

(2)Set turkey aside in a seperate plate, now lower heat to medium and add extra-virgin oil, add minced onion and bell pepper, stir well scraping the bottom, let it cook down atleast 5-7 minutes. Make some space pour more olive oil and sautee garlic with onion and bell pepper about 3-4 minutes. Now add ground cumin and bay leaves and sautee another minute.

(3)Add red wine and crank up heat so it bubbles and deglaze the pan when the wine reduces somewhat add tomato sauce and cook down the tomato sauce for about 5-6 minutes on medium high stiring occasionally.


(3)Add water now and bring to a rolling boil, add turkey legs and wings back along with any oil and drippings it released, spoon sauce over it and coat well. Cover and well and cook for about 1 1/2 hours on low heat

(4)After about 1 1/2 hours uncover and add carrot and potatoes if nessecary add more water incorporate well (don't mix roughly you'll break the tender meat just swoosh the pan around to coat well) cover and cook another 1/2 hour.

(5)When done turn off heat and add minced cilantro or parsley for color. Serve with lots of white rice to soak up the sauce this dish can stand alone but if you wish you could accompany it with a raw salad and a cuban black bean soup or something. We ate it with a bunch of sides (because we had leftovers vegetable sides in the fridge like pickled purple beets, pickled golden beets, and guacamole that was not mashed but had everything cut in chunks that we needed to finish)
Note:
-I used 2 1/2 lbs turkey legs and 1 1/2 lbs turkey wings for a total of 4 lbs of meat. If you wish you can use 4 lbs. of turkey legs instead (which is about 4 turkey legs). I just thought the wing would lend good flavor.

-After recieving some comments from some trusted Cuban cooks (Marilyn from "My Cuban Traumas" and one of my readers Mamey aka Omar) I learned this dish is a "Turkey Fricassee" and is the secondary dish for Christmas eve and the "Lechon" (roast pork) is the first.

Variation on this dish
-Also this dish can be made without the carrot and added to it can be a combination of pimiento stuffed olives (about 1/4- 1/2 cup), raisins (about 1/2 cup) and capers (a couple tablespoons not to much) to give it a sweet and sour taste, add them when you add the potatoes during the last 30 minutes of cooking. But be warned go very light on the salt or only salt the turkey when browning when making this variation the red wine, olives, and capers have a lot of sodium. You can probably add them in the beginning but they might disintegrate (never tried it maybe I should give it a try like this also learned this from Mamey aka Omar)

OR

If you like it like Marilyn only olives and capers to keep it savory or I bet just olives to. (the pimiento stuffed olives also known as "Manzanilla Olives") with no raisins.

Pollo Al Mojo de Ajo (Cuban Garlic Chicken)

Pollo Al Mojo de Ajo is a very popular Cuban dish, especially in Cuban restaurants. It is a garlic citrus flavored roast chicken. In my house it is simply strongly flavored with garlic, lime, salt, and olive oil. Trust me that is it nothing more nothing less, but I guarantee you it is extremely flavorful yet one of the most simple dishes to make. Of course you can easily substitute the "fresh lime juice" for "Seville Oranges" also called "Bitter Oranges" and in Spanish "Naranja Agria" but it is very hard for me to get bitter oranges here I only have one friend who grows it in her yard but she and her family are a long drive away.

Also in my house we also make the "Lechon" roasted big, which is a huge deal to Cubans it is the favorite dish, which is usually made at party's they can make it in a machine called "La Caja China" (Chinese box) or it is buried in a pit enclosed in banana leaves covered with something and cooked slowly with fire (I'm not sure exactly how the buried version is.) this is usually made for large gatherings...

But in the house for just a small amount of people usually a 4-6 pound Pork Butt/ Pork Shoulder or roast is roasted in the oven seasoned the same way as the chicken, and again with the pork it is BEST to use "Naranja Agria" bitter orange, sometimes she will add a little "oregano" to it or "oregano", "pepper", and "cumin" in addition to the salt, but those are not necessary.

Ingredients:
-3-4 pounds whole chicken
-1 large garlic head (about 12 cloves) if using a smaller head use 2 heads of garlic (I used 2 heads which was about 14 small cloves it tastes so good)
-Juice of 4 limes or more up to 6 depends
-1-2 heaping teaspoons salt
-2 -3 tablespoon or 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:
(1)Mash garlic to a paste in a mortar with a pestle along with salt or use a garlic press, you have to have the garlic really mashed.
(2)Add freshly squeezed lime juice, salt, and whisk in olive oil with a fork, set aside.
(3)Cut chicken in segments, or in half, or simply leave whole (I simply cut it in half). Rinse the chicken several times, clean well, remove any small feathers it may have, the insides and clean insides really well and scrub of blood.
(4)Now stab the chicken making small piercing stab some small slits all over, make space in between the meat and skin. Smother the chicken with the garlic lime mixture and rub some inside, spoon liquids into the skin.
(5)Put in a zip lock bag, shake well, take all air out and seal well, now put in a bowl and let it marinade in the refrigerater for about 24 hours which is best but if you are more in hurry than marinade for about 12 hours at minimum.
(6)Preheat oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit or 200 degrees Celsius (for my readers outside USA). Put chicken in a oven pan, with all marinade juices, put in oven and bake for about 50-70 minutes spoon over it's juices every 20 minutes until your ready to take out.
(7)Serve with some fluffy rice and spoon some of the juices over, with a side of maybe some black beans and fried sweet plantains or "Tostones" (twice fried green thick green plantain chips I'll show you guys how to make those some other time)