Combinations, variations enliven chicken with rice

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The first time I ever had arroz con pollo was at my Ecuadorean-born college roommate’s house. Her grandmother lived with them, and for dinner that night, she cooked up a pot of the dish – I recalled liking it very much but in those days I wasn’t paying much attention to how food was cooked. Mainly what I remember from the visit was that the family spaniel bit my foot.

So as I put together the recipe for this week, trying it out at home, it hit me: this is Spanish rice with chicken in it! No mystery there – the name just means rice with chicken and since it is Spanish – well, there you go.

I had help for this from two readers. Zelma Merritt found her version of the recipe “in an old Mary Margaret McBride encyclopedia of cooking that I purchased from Graves Shop ‘n’ Save when they were in Caribou.” Josephine Ross from Hampden sent along a recipe from a club in Panama where she and her husband used to enjoy it when he was stationed there. These two recipes could not have been more different.

The McBride one was pretty stripped down: chicken, rice, tomatoes, lightly seasoned, and done in the oven. The Panama recipe on the other hand was elegant and full of all kinds of interesting stuff from raisins to sherry, and served with peas and pineapple and garnished with pimento. As Josephine said, “it is delicious and as pretty as a picture.” Of course, it would take a bit more effort to produce but it would make a major presentation on the table.

I decided to average them out in order to come up with something similar to what I remembered at my roommate’s house. I borrowed the browning instructions, the tomato quantity and the chicken with bones in from Zelma’s recipe and I put in raisins, sherry, vinegar, Tabasco, and more liquid per Josephine’s recipe. Both called for onions.

You know, if you leave the bones in the chicken, the dish will be more flavorful. Now, if I were having company, or making this at a restaurant, such as the club where the Rosses went, then I might be inclined to used boned chicken. But it is cheaper and not much trouble to cut up a whole chicken yourself, and that way you can have all the extras for soup or stock. That is what I did.

My husband came along during the cooking process and noticed I was putting in raisins. He is exceedingly fond of raisins, and when he saw I was putting in only a quarter cup, he peered at the recipe and said, “I’m sure they meant one and a quarter cups,” instead of the mere one-quarter. Actually, I think you could put in more raisins. Or none, it is up to you.

Josephine’s recipe called for a small can of peas heated up and pineapple chunks coated with bread crumbs and browned briefly. These are arranged around the platter with the finished chicken and rice on it, further trimmed with strips of pimentos. Zelma’s recipe called for sliced olives and green pepper rings for garnish. There is a lot of scope here for creativity.

Arroz con Pollo

Serves 4-5

One 3- or 4-pound chicken, cut up

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 cups of stewed or diced tomatoes

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon of pepper

2 cups of water

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon of Tabasco (optional)

2-4 cloves of garlic (to taste, optional)

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

1/4 cup sherry (optional)

1 tablespoon of vinegar (optional)

1 1/2 cups rice

Figure on cooking this for about an hour and a half at least. Put the cut-up chicken in a heavy pot with the olive oil, and brown on all sides at a medium high heat for about 15 minutes. Add the onions, tomatoes, salt, pepper, water and any or all of the optional ingredients, reduce the temperature and cook altogether for about three-quarters of an hour to an hour. Half an hour before you wish to serve it, add the rice, cover the pot and simmer for another 30 minutes. Check halfway through to make sure there is enough liquid for the rice, and if necessary add a bit of hot water.

When you are ready to serve, take the chicken out and put it on a platter, surround it with the rice, and garnish to taste. I like the idea of the green peas and or green pepper rings.

Small bites

. Sherrill Libby of Levant, sent me a copy of the cookbook “Sew, You Can Cook!”, which was assembled by the Brewer Stitchers. The Bangor Area Chapter of the American Sewing Guild, the group teaches sewing to the public at Jo Ann Fabric the first Saturday of the month. Members also make pillowcases for a homeless shelter, kiddies’ outerwear for a day care center, even catnip bags for an animal rescue facility.

There are a lot of delicious sounding things in “Sew, You Can Cook!” One thing that caught my eye and that I intend to try is Cookies on Demand (a basic mix) that you can make ahead. When you need cookies in a hurry, you add other ingredients to a couple of cups of the mix and you are all set. Neat idea.

To acquire the cookbook, send a check for $10 plus $1.42 postage ($11.42 total) payable to Sherrill Libby, to Mrs. Libby at 73 Overlock Road, Levant, ME 04456-4511.