Arroz con Pollo (Chicken and Rice)

My husband and I always found Arroz con Pollo on the bland side so my mom helped me create this recipe that heavily seasons the dish every step of the way. She also blends the sofrito, tomatoes and pimiento into a very flavorful paste to mix back into the sauce instead of leaving it chunky. It gives every bite more flavor and has made the dish one of our favorites. You can also add chorizo to make it even better but today I cooked without it.

2 lbs Boneless Chicken (I use thighs or breasts but if cooking with bone-in chicken, cook 3 lbs)
1/4 cup Olive Oil
Sofrito (1 green pepper, 1 white onion, 6 garlic cloves)
1 can tomato sauce or plum tomatoes
1 can chicken broth
1 cup white wine (can also use a light  beer)
3 pimientos
3 packages Goya Sazon con Azafran
2 bay leaves
2 cups white rice
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper very generously at every step (see recipe below)

Take chicken out of refrigerator to become room temperature. Rinse off, pat dry and salt and pepper both sides generously. Create sofrito by cutting white onion, green peeper and 6 cloves of garlic. You can cut in bigger chunks than usual because you are going to blend after cooked. Heat up olive oil over medium heat until fragrant and saute sofrito until onion soft. Salt and pepper sofrito very well as arroz con pollo can get bland and needs to be salted correctly every step of the way.

Once onion is soft, not browned, add chicken and brown both sides lightly. Then add liquids (wine, tomato sauce and chicken broth) pimientoes and spices (Goya packages, bay leaves and more salt and pepper). Simmer and then reduce heat to low for one hour.

After an hour, remove chicken from broth. I use cooking tongs to remove and place on platter. Allow it to cool and the shred (or debone and shred if you are using a whole chicken).

Once chicken is removed from pot, blend tomatoes, onion, pepper and garlic into a smooth consistency. This step is alot easier with a hand blender but if using a regular blender please let broth cool down first or else it tends to splatter out of blender and onto everything - including yourself - not fun. Once cooled down, scoop out vegetables with a slotted spoon into blender and make puree.  Return chicken, now shredded, into pan over low heat.

Add one and half cups to two cups of rice, depending on the rice to chicken ratio you like in your completed dish.

Cook for approximately another hour until rice is soft. Stir and check on rice often - taste for additional salt as well. I use a thick bottom pan and cook on low temperature. It is very easy to burn rice on bottom of pan so stir every 10 - 15 minutes to combine flavors and prevent burning. You can garnish with peas by adding frozen peas toward the end or strips of pimientos but we like it just as is. Enjoy!

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