Estofado de Pollo Con Patatas (Chicken and Potato Stew)

Earlier this year I made a delicious Catalan style beef and potato stew , I had learned from Nuria's blog "Spanish Recipes" called "Estofado de Ternera Con Patatas", one of my readers "Fernando" commented asking me if he could substitute chicken for the beef, I thought a chicken variation of this would be delicious and so with the weather slowly cooling I decided to make it. It was different, but equally delicious :)

Like I said in the post for the beef version, if you love gravy, potatoes, and chicken this dish is for you. Served over a mountain of steaming white rice this dish is another one of those comfort foods.

Ingredients:
-1 whole chicken cut into segments (your choice how you want to cut it, I cut it into bite sizes)
-salt to taste
-ground black pepper to taste
-flour to dust chicken
-extra-virgin olive oil (about 1/4- 1/2 cup)
-1 onion minced
-4 cloves garlic minced
-1 carrot, peeled, minced
-1 large ripe tomato very finely minced or grated
-1/2 cup dry white wine
-2 bay leaves
-1 tsp dried thyme (or 3 fresh sprigs)
-1/2 tsp dried oregano (or 1-2 fresh sprigs)
-4 large potatoes peeled, cut into large chunks
-2 tsp chicken bouillon powder (optional)
-water enough to cover all ingredients
-1/2 cup frozen peas (you can use fresh too)

Directions:
(1) Like always don't forget, clean/ wash your chicken well, cut into segments, season it with salt and pepper (I used about 2 tsp. salt, and 1/2 tsp ground black pepper), coat the chicken in flour and shake off excess.
(2) In a large deep- pan heat generous amount of extra-virgin olive oil over medium high heat, brown the chicken on all sides (be patient you can chop everything while doing this), set chicken aside.

(3) In same pan add onion, carrot, garlic and sautee for 5-7 minutes until translucent,
add grated tomato, bay leaves, thyme, and oregano allow everything to cook together until the tomato is reduced and loses it's liquid it'll start frying in the oil about 5-7 more minutes.
(4) Add wine raise heat stir well and reduce it by about half. Now throw your chicken, add water enough to cover all ingredients (you may want to have your water already heated up and boiling in a seperate pot to speed things up), bring to a boil, add potatoes, chicken bouillon, taste for salt and add more if needed.
(5) Allow everything to cook together 30 minutes, on medium low heat, after 30 minutes, stir in your peas, let it come to a boil then turn off. Ready to serve :)
PLEASE NOTE:
So after making the chicken variation I had an idea, this dish would also be delicious if you omitted the potatoes and instead added some sliced button mushrooms towards the last 5 minutes of cooking... mmmmm.... next time I'll do it... wait sounds like "Chicken in Mushroom Sauce" to me :D ... wait there's a beef dish called "Fricando" (Catalan beef and mushrooms) maybe I'm on to something ha ha yeah I'm a dork sorry lolz. well more future posts to come :D

Arroz Caldoso Con Pollo (Soupy Rice with Chicken)

In Spanish "Arroz" means rice, and "Caldoso" means soupy, so direct translation would be "Soupy Rice" "con" means with and "pollo" well everyone knows this it's chicken :D

In Spanish cuisine as in Spain soupy rice dishes like this can be cooked with almost anything pork ribs, chicken, seafood, etc. it's essentially in it's most basic form rice with a sofrito (sautee of onion, garlic, bell pepper sometime tomato) with a lot of liquid and some spices married with your choice of protien.

Cuban Cuisine shares the same type of dish except it's called "a la Chorrera" (see my post for "Arroz Amarillo Con Camarones a la Chorrera" for explanation ha ha) and can be thicker reason it's shared is because back before the communist pigs took over Cuba in 1959 a large proportion of Cuba's population were "Criollos" and Spaniards (meaning Cubans born of almost pure Spanish ancestry, example my grandmother is from Spain and my grandpa is Cuban born of Spaniard parents)

So here's my recipe similar to my Tata's (see note below)

Ingredients:
-1 whole chicken, cut into segments, cleaned/ rinsed well, skin on, bone in
-1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
-1 onion chopped
-1 green or red bell pepper chopped
-1/2 head garlic minced
-1 carrot, peeled cut into rounds (optional I use it to add some sweetness and more color)
-2 large tomatoes finely chopped or grated
-12 cups water
-2 cups short-grain rice
-2 bay leaves
-1 teaspoon cumin
-2 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder (optional but makes it more savory/ adds umami)
-salt to taste
-colorante/ bijol, or saffron your choice (to make the porridge a golden yellow)

Optional for garnishing purposes:
-handful or peas for garnish
-fire roasted red bell pepper strips for garnish

Directions:
(1) Heat extra-virgin olive oil on medium high, add onion, bell pepper, garlic, and carrot sautee until translucent, add tomato stir well,

(2) Throw water, bay leaves, cumin, salt, the saffron or bijol, and the optional chicken bouillon powder. Bring to a boil, throw your chicken cut in segments and cleaned in and let boil on medium low for 20 minutes covered.

(3) After 20 minutes, add your short- grain rice, bring to a rolling boil, give a good stir, and simmer on medium low for 30 minutes, giving a good stir and scraping the bottom so it doesn't stick every 10 minutes.

(4) It's done as it cools it thickens, don't expect it to be real real soupy it's more like a thick porridge,
Garnish if you'd like I only had peas on hand no fire roasted red bell pepper
Remove from heat, serve with a salad and if your not watching your carbs or weight some good crusty bread, this picture was me and my Tata enjoying lunch :)

PLEASE NOTE:
-Using skin-on bone in chicken makes a world of a difference for these types of dishes.

Grandmother's Variation:
-My Tata does this slightly different, she simply throws everything in the pot minus the olive and rice, boils everything together 20 then she adds the rice gives it a good stir and let's it cook an additional 30 minutes turns off another good stir and it's ready. Most people however I've seen sautee the aromatics I do too. My grandma's logic "Asi lo hacia mi papa a lo gallego, y tambien el pollo con piel y todo ya tiene bastante grasa igual si lo aces con costilla no tienes que acer sofrito asi queda bien y igual de rico" translates to "That's how my dad did it the care free simple way, the chicken already has plenty of fat and same thing if you make it with pork ribs, you don't have to sautee in aromatics it comes out just fine"

P.S.
From now on every time I want thick porridge like rice and chicken I will make it this same exact way because it was the best "a la Chorrera" type of rice and chicken dish I've had! Trust me it's simple but something about boiling the chicken for a while in the water forming a stock, and everything just simmering together for an appropriate amount of time gave a WOW flavor.

For the dry version see "Arroz Con Pollo en forma de Paella"

Arroz Con Pollo en Forma de Paella (Chicken and Rice in Paella form)

Before I begin for this recipe your going to need a "Paellera" which is a large flat round pan, or a large round kinda flat clay pot, if not it won't come out the same or work. Also if your burner is too small it won't work well or you'll have to rotate it many times.

I've been looking forward to making a Seafood Paella, but wanted to give myself a practice round so I made "Arroz Con Pollo" (chicken with rice) and cooked it in the same fashion (cooking time, liquid ratios, technique) that I would use to make the seafood paella.

Traditionally the technique to cook "Paella" is to cook outdoors on charcoal or wood fire or indoors over flaming coals. Some people use large burners also. The rice is never covered, it's cooked open in a large flat pan called a "Paellera"in english a "Paella pan" I didn't feel like cooking it outdoors and was okay using one of my normal stove burners since it was large enough, and I ended up using to burners towards the end to get my rice to cook evenly. Rotating and technique was important on my stove top.

I've made this dish before for a friend at his house, unfortunately his stove was really small and the burner so i could never get my paellera in the center of the fire, the rice didn't cook evenly, parts burnt and the fire just wasn't large and wide enough to make all the water evaporate perfectly. I ended up with mushy rice.

But here at home it came out perfect :)

Ingredients:
-3 lbs. chicken cut into small pieces
-1 onion minced
-1 bell pepper minced
-1/2 head garlic minced
-2 ripe grated tomatoes or chopped or 1/2 cup tomato sauce
-salt to taste
-ground black pepper to taste
-1 teaspoon ground cumin
-2 bay leaves
-1 can or bottle of your favorite beer or 1 cup dry white wine
-5 cups water plus 1 more so I guess 6 (you may need more depending on your burner or stove)
-2 1/2 cups short grain rice
-1 tsp. bijol/ colorante/ saffron or a sazon goya packet with achiote or azafran for color

Optional:
-1/2- 1 cup frozen peas for color
-1 fire roasted red bell pepper cut into strips for color

Directions:
(1) Heat a the large pan on high heat, when hot, quickly add olive oil, lower heat to medium high, sprinkle with salt so chicken won't stick to much, and add chicken, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Brown chicken on all sides

(2) While chicken is browning, chop your onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Once browned, stir in onion and bell pepper, allow to cook down until translucent, add garlic cook until fragrant, add tomato sauce stir well and reduce, add all your spices, bay leave, cumin, oregano. Stir well, and stream in beer all of it, allow to reduce on high heat and it will deglaze everything to until it's thick and coats the chicken.
(3) Add your water and bring to a boil on high heat, add saffron or bijol or whatever coloring you used, along with 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon (optional) lower heat to medium high and allow chicken to boil for about 10-15 minutes uncovered or more until it's tender.
(4) Somewhere in between while doing all that stuff, clean your rice by washing it 3 times, and drain it well, add it to the boiling pot in the form of a cross (I don't know why it's superstition or tradition I guess)
(5) Spread it evenly, throw your peas (optional) allow to boil on high heat for 5 minutes, then lower heat to medium high for 15 minutes
(6) Turn off heat, cover with a cloth, and seal with a top if you have one let it rest at least 10 more minutes (this will make the harder rice on top poof or be tender enough to eat)
(7) Uncover, decorate with fire roasted red bell pepper
(8) Served it at the table family style so everyone can just pile it up on their plates, along with a delicious salad. Felt like doing this close- up
On my plate, I went a little light on the yellow coloring but it was still delicious
PLEASE NOTE:
*I have a pot of boiling water on the side, in case the rice absorbs all the liquid to quickly and needs more, I ladle hot boiling water or broth carefully.

*Also this is the best Arroz Con Pollo I have made, my family loved it! From now on this will be the "Arroz Con Pollo" I will be making :)

Estofado de Pollo Con Hierbas Aromaticas (Chicken Stew with Aromatic Herbs?)

Lately in Southern California this week it's been nothing but cold and rain rain rain, something not so common down here. So in my house it's been nothing but hardy bean and meat stews, soaked with crusty warm bread and or hot rice as well as creamy vegetable soups we just consume as a hot drink. Mmmmm... and my mom's been making lots of hot chocolate for me when I come from school.

Anyways with this weather I felt like eating a hearty stew with chicken, potatoes, carrots, and meaty mushrooms in a thick soupy sauce of course to eat with my rice or bread.

I had/ still have tons of fresh herbs (a grip load of thyme I need to use up soon because it will go bad this week) and I decided to make this chicken stew throwing a bunch of fresh herbs I had. Let me tell you this chicken was so flavorful and aromatic, but yet mellow and pleasant.

I don't know what to call this dish honestly... it's not traditional or authentic anything, it's prepared like very typical Cuban and Spanish tomato based meat stews except I threw a bunch of fresh herbs that somehow married with the sweet smoked Spanish paprika really well, my boyfriend however felt that this harmony made it feel like it was missing something? (he's use to more bold tastes I guess, or that was just his personal opinion... I did feel it very mellow and not over powering so maybe that's his interpretation of missing something)

So back to not knowing what to call it, well it is a stew made with chicken and has tons of aromatic herbs so I guess it's okay to just label it "Estofado de Pollo Con Hierbas Aromaticas"/ Chicken Stew with Aromatic Herbs, not very creative I know if any of you think of another name let me know :)

Ingredients:
-3 1/2- 4 lbs chicken
-1 large onion minced
-1 medium bell pepper minced
-1/2 head garlic, peeled, minced
-1 can 8 oz. tomato sauce
-1/2-1 cup red wine or white wine (your preference)
-2 large sprigs fresh rosemary
-4 small sprigs fresh thyme
-4 small sprigs fresh oregano
-12- 15 whole black peppercorns
-2-3 bay leaves
-1 teaspoonful sweet smoked Spanish paprika or cumin just something smokey (optional I just felt like adding it, I used smoked Spanish paprika)
-4 medium potatoes peeled left whole or cut in half
-1 lbs. carrots, peeled cut in half or left whole
-1 lbs. fresh or reconstituted mushrooms (I used shitake mushrooms I rehydrate)
-1 cup fresh or frozen peas (I use frozen and add it the last 5 minutes of cooking)
-salt to taste
-2 teaspoons chicken bouillon (optional)

Directions:
(1) Cut chicken into segments, wash really well, pat-dry set aside. (in my house we usually wash the chicken by washing once with water, then drain, then we submerge in water in sink with fresh squeezed lime and squeezed lime halves, as well as salt and drain twice more then pat-dry and set aside, this gets rid of that "chicken taste" and any slimy residue most chicken has)
(2) Heat a large pan on high heat, when hot add olive oil, lower to medium high and immediately add chicken pieces one by one, sprinkle with salt and let brown on all sides.

(3) Set chicken aside, and now saute onions, bell peppers until tender about 5-7 minutes, then add garlic together with rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, black peppercorns and stir well until fragrant about 1-2 minutes., add wine and allow to bubble and reduce a bit, then add tomato sauce.

(4) Add chicken back, along with potatoes and carrots, add enough water to barely cover everything.
(5) Now bring to a boil on very high heat, remove any scum, add chicken bouillon powder or cube crumbled in, cover and cook on medium heat or medium low for 25 minutes, add peas and fresh mushrooms and cook an additional 5 minutes.
(5) Serve :)
(6) If using dried mushrooms add them together with the chicken, potatoes, and carrots. I soaked dried shitake mushrooms in water for 6 hours (well I just left it over night) then drained, washed, and cut ready to use in my recipe.

Please Note:
-I threw all the fresh herbs whole, you can tie it into a bouquet so you can remove later, or remove all the rosemary, thyme, and oregano leaves from the stems and chop them finely then add, and if whole black peppercorns bother you, you can throw ground I guess. Heck I think you can substitute all the fresh herbs with 1 teaspoon of the dried version of them and still get similar results.
-you can probably use chicken stock instead of water if you wanna avoid bouillon.

Pollo al Ajillo (Chicken in Garlic Sauce)

Pollo al Ajillo is a very common, simple, and easy dish in Spanish cuisine, it is also common in Cuban kitchens as well. The dish is prepared with chicken or rabbit, your choice. Everyone cooks it differently however, but the simplest and common elements in all of them is olive oil, salt, water, wine, and garlic.

The rest can vary, the cooking methods, how much garlic, how the garlic is cut, what combination of herbs to use, with potatoes without it's all personal preference. Also some Cuban cooks like to make the sauce lemon flavored by omitting all the herbs and only using bay leaves and lemon juice of course don't forget the salt. And for those that like heat spicy dry peppers can be used. Heck I've seen recipes surfing the web that make a soy sauce version of the dish ha ha pretty cool in my opinion :)

However if preparing with rabbit I believe using fresh herbs and bay leaves is important to help mask the gaminess it may have.

I currently have lots of fresh herbs and Travis brought me a small "Bouquet garniat" which had fresh thyme, rosemary, and sage today so that's what herbs I used to prepare the in addition to some bay leaves I tied with the Bouquet "Pollo al Ajillo" let me tell you the Pollo al Ajillo we made today at home with the "Bouquet garniat" was a hit in my house EVERYBODY loved it.

Ingredients:
-extra-virgin olive oil
-3-4 lbs. chicken meat cut into pieces (I use legs and thighs, a whole chicken cut up can be used)
-12 cloves garlic minced or cut into thin rounds your choice
-1 cup white wine plus a couple more splashes
-1 1/2 cup water or chicken stock (you can use water with 1 tsp. chicken bouillon)
-salt to taste
-10 black peppercorns (may replace with fresh ground black pepper)
-3 bay leaves
-1 sprig rosemary
-2 sprig thyme
-1 small bunch sage leaves (you can replace it with oregano, I used sage leaves because I had them on hand)

Directions:
(1) Heat pan on high heat, when real hot add generous amounts of olive oil, add chicken seasoned liberally with salt brown on all sides, set chicken aside.
(2) In same oil, fry the garlic until beautiful and golden, then add white wine, water or stock bring a rolling boil add chicken back along with black peppercorns, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves and sage all tied into a bundle with string, cover and simmer on medium low for 30 minutes.
(3) Turn off heat, remove bay leaves, thyme, rosemary and oregano sprigs.
(4) Dust liberally with finely minced parsley if desired to garnish
(5) Serve with fried cubed potatoes or me having some Cuban descent everything goes well with white rice :) a salad would be good if desired to. Don't forget to spoon over those flavorful juices over the chicken. A salad goes nice or some vegetable side (I just like eating veggies with everything, I had a vegetable soup as a starter that my mother made with beef bones, and tons of greens we had in the fridge)
PLEASE NOTE:
(1) This is optional but you can add about 4 fried cubed potatoes to the dish towards the end of cooking, or actually add cubed potatoes that are raw to simmer with the chicken probably like the last 20 minutes of cooking.

(2)You let the liquid reduce half way to the chicken, if it seems to dry though add a mixture of 1/2 water and wine to add more liquid if it somehow reduces during cooking waayyyy to much.

Pollo al Curry (Spanish Style Curried Chicken)

Your probably wondering why I referred to this dish as "Spanish Style Curry" well I saw a recipe for this type of curried chicken at Pilar Lechuza's blog, "La Cocina de Lechuza", and based on the many comments from fellow Spaniards it seemed to be a favorite dish, I read many of the variations some commentors had to say. The commonality between all of them was they used garlic, onions, chicken, salt, half and half, and curry powder (Pilars recipe only uses that and is the most basic).

Some variations included adding 1 teaspoon of sweet smoked spanish paprika. Other's in addition to the sweet smoked spanish paprika added cubed apples and raisins for a crunchy and sweet contrast.

Living in Southern California with so many cultures I've had many types of curries (Veitnamese, Indian, Thai, Japanese, and even the Mexican Mole sauces pronounced mol- ay are in a way a type of curry each of these cultures has their own distinct way of preparing it with many variations.

Pilar's recipe appealed to me for it's simplicity, I used her recipe as a guide line but used my own proportions and added 1 heaping teaspoonful of delicious sweet smoked Spanish paprika.

Ingredients:
-2 1/2- 3 lbs. boneless, skinless, chicken leg meat (or breasts I have preference for leg meat)
-1/2 head garlic very finely minced, or mashed to paste through mortar or press
-1 large onion finely minced
-extra-virgin olive oil
-2 cups half and half
-1 tablespoon curry powder (I use Madras Curry powder)
-1 teaspoon sweet smoked spanish paprika (optional I love it though)
-salt to taste

Directions:
(1) Firstly, cube chicken meat into 1 1/2 inch pieces, season with salt to taste, and mix well with all the garlic, set aside to let marinade while you prep everything, or if your in a hurry start browning the chicken. Heat olive oil on medium high heat (high but not super high) and when oil is how brown chicken. After chicken is browned (maybe 10 minutes) set aside.
(2) In the pan drippings, sautee onions until translucent (maybe 6 minutes), add chicken back, throw in curry powder and paprika, stir until the spices are fragrant. Then add half and half, more salt to taste if necessary and incorporate well, when mixture comes to a boil turn off heat your done.
(3) Serve with fluffy white rice. Pilar serves it with some rice that she prepares my heating some olive oil, sauteeing some garlic, adding rice then chicken broth. ( I think)

Note:
This dish is very very fatty and rich so be warned if your paranoid of fat. I'm not.

Pollo en Chilindron (Chicken and Pepper Stew)

Pollo en Chilindron is a Chicken and Pepper Stew that is typical of Aragon region of Spain in Zaragoza, somewhere around Northeastern Spain but is also widely known in Spain and some Cubans also adopted this delicious dish. It's basically chicken in a delicious tomato based sauce with lots of red bell peppers and onions with a smokey flavor.

There are several versions of this dish I have seen, the common stuff is they all have tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, and something to make it smokey (be it some sort of cured meat, paprika, or something that adds heat which is optional)

I don't know if my recipe is "authentic" or not or even "traditional" but this is what I came up with after observing many other recipes and is what suits my families taste, we like bold flavors, rich sauces, and lots of garlic.

Ingredients:
-1 small Chicken (about 3- 3 1/2 lbs.) cut into 8 pieces (segments)
-6 slices of bacon minced
-3 large red bell peppers julienned
-1-2 large yellow onion julienned or
-1 head garlic cloves peeled (mashed to a paste)
-4 ripe large tomatos pureed or 2 cans tomato sauce
-1 cup dry white wine
-1 tablespoon sweet smoked spanish paprika
-1 tablespoon ground cumin
-1/2 tablespoon hot smoked Spanish paprika (more if you like spicy to taste)
-2 large bay leaves
-salt to taste
-extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:
(1)Season chicken with salt, and brown on all sides in olive oil on medium high in a large deep pot (takes about 15-20 minutes total) Set aside in a seperate plate.

(2)Add minced bacon and render it's fat when browning add onions and bell peppers cook down 5-7 minutes, then add garlic sautee 3 minutes, hten add paprika's and cumin sautee 30-60 seconds until fragrant.

(3)Add wine and let reduce a but, then tomato and simmer 5 minutes. Add chicken back and coat well with sofrito mixture. Dilute sauce with water IF DESIRED (maybe 1/2 - 1 cup water or non at all depends)

(4)Simmer covered until cooked around 35-45 minutes. Serve with good bread or steamed rice and maybe a raw salad if desired dressed in olive oil, salt, and vinegar or lemon or lime.

Please Note:
*In my house we also make a version of it that we do using lamb, mutton, or goats meat that is Spanish in origin but Cubanized a bit:

"Chilindron de Carnero" (Cuban Goat or Lamb Stew)

*The American variety and also Hungarian Paprikas have a completely different taste to the sweet smoked Spanish paprikas which are smoked with some type of oak wood. I buy "La Chinata" brand online (well I really don't my wonderful boyfriend ordered me some for my birthday) it's from "La Vera" they are very flavorful and delicious.