It’s Hispanic Heritage Month. Let’s eat!

September ushers in the strangely straddled Hispanic Heritage month (Sept 15 – Oct. 15). I’ll be doing lots of appearances around town to celebrate, but this month I thought I’d share some Latin magic through my kitchen.

Here’s Arroz con Pollo – chicken and yellow rice. It’s one of those dishes that every Latin cook aspires to make well, the kind women fight about and secretly criticize behind each other’s backs. There are a million recipes, but here’s mine.

Ingredientes

Olive oil (about 5 T)

1 whole chicken cut up or (better) a collection of thighs and legs

2 T red wine vinegar

1 T dried oregano

½ pound medium grain white rice

1 small red pepper, finely chopped

1 small onion, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic mashed

1 small tomato, seeded and chopped

¼ cup pimento-stuffed olives (I cut these in half)

1 T tomato paste

1 beer

2 ½ c water

1 c white cooking wine

salt to taste

Also, the following spices you’ll have to borrow from me or pick up at the International Food aisle:

• Bijol
  

  To dye your rice

• Sazón Accent con azafrán (comes in a box)
  

  a spice packet that gives it that little magic

Instrucciones:

You’ll need a pot that’s not too deep. I have a nifty pan for this, see? It’s large, but a little shallow. A dutch oven works fine, too.

Put your chicken pieces, vinegar, salt and oregano in a gallon-size ziplock bag. Squish around to coat. Let marinate for at least an hour.

Pat each piece dry. Using half your olive oil, brown chicken about 2 minutes on each side. Transfer to a platter.

In the same pot, add remaining oil and sauté onions, garlic, and red pepper, about 4 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook for another couple of minutes. (Basically, we call this a sofrito.)

Place chicken pieces back in the pot, right on top of the sofrito.

Add olives, water, beer, wine, tomato paste and one envelope of Sazon accent con azafrán. Add a little salt, about the size of a quarter. (Sorry, this is how my grandmother measures.) Get mixture to boil, reduce heat to simmer. Cook covered for 30 minutes.

When you have about 10 minutes left to go on the chicken, measure out your rice and rinse it several times until the water is clear.

Using about 5 or 6 shakes of Bijol, dye the rice yellow. (Don’t go overboard. A little goes a long way.)

When your chicken mixture has cooked, add the rice directly into the pot. Swirl it in until it disappears. Cover and set your timer for 20 minutes.

The rice will soak up the tomato mixture. Turn the rice over slowly when the 20 minutes are up. If it is still soupy, keep cooking. Sometimes, you can put a paper towel between the cover and the pan to help soak up the moisture. This rice tends to be on the moist and sticky side, but it shouldn’t drip.

You can decorate the finished product with petite peas (which my family hates). Many people also decorate with pimentos cut into strips. (Also boycotted at my place.)

Serve with a nice bread, salad, and a chilled wine. ¡Buen provecho!

Catch me at Tuckahoe Area Public Library this Saturday, September 10, 2 pm, for a reading of Tia Isa Wants a Car and arts and crafts afterward. One lucky visitor wins a school visit and a signed copy of Tia Isa for their school library.