Arroz con pollo is a popular dish in many Caribbean and Latin American countries, with roots traced back to Spain. The dish typically includes chicken, rice, beer, broth, saffron, and sofrito, with cumin and coriander adding spice. The Moors are believed to have created the original dish, with their use of exotic spices and communal dining customs. There are many variations of the recipe, but most involve browning chicken, adding sofrito and rice, and cooking until the liquid is absorbed.
Arroz con pollo when translated from Spanish to English means rice with chicken. It is popular in many Caribbean and Latin American countries, especially Costa Rica, Honduras, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, along with Columbia, Cuba, Peru and Panama. Although most of the inhabitants of these countries claim that the dish originated with their ancestors, its roots are often traced to Spain.
Regardless of its country of origin, Arroz Con Pollo’s ingredients are pretty standard. They generally include chicken, rice, beer, chicken or vegetable broth, saffron, and sofrito, along with bay leaves, cumin, and coriander to add spice to the dish. Sofrito is a common Spanish staple, which is a blend of garlic, sweet and hot peppers, and onions sauteed in olive oil. In some recipes, saffron is replaced with paprika or annatto seeds, which come from the achiote plant and give dishes a slightly peppery flavor.
Historical accounts of Arroz Con Pollo state that after the Moors invaded Spain in 711, they migrated to the Strait of Gibraltar, a coastal region in southern Spain that made it easy for goods to be exchanged through local ports. They reportedly imported many exotic spices, including saffron, one of the signature ingredients of arroz con pollo. This fact, along with the inclusion of colorful vegetables favored by the Moors in the recipe, further supports the theory that they created the original dish of pollo con arroz.
The use of cumin and coriander in most of the ingredients in the arroz con pollo recipe also points to the Moors as the likely creators of the dish, as these spices were available to them before most other cultures. Moorish custom was also heavily leaning towards a family-style communal dining room. Since this dish is traditionally served from a pot passed around the table, historians point to this ritual as supporting the premise that roast chicken originated with the Moors.
There are nearly as many arroz con pollo recipes as there are cultural groups that claim the original dish as their own. The basic steps typically start with heating saffron, annatto seeds or paprika in olive oil and then browning parts of a cut up chicken. Most recipes recommend marinating chicken in adobo, a spicy marinade available at Latin markets, for 24 hours before cooking.
After the chicken is browned on all sides and the annatto seeds are removed, if applicable, the bay leaf and sofrito are added to the pan and stirred into the chicken parts. Arborio rice is added to the pan, along with beer and broth, and the mixture is cooked until the liquid is absorbed by the rice. Different recipes recommend covering the pan or leaving it uncovered during the last step.
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