Asopao de Pollo

Puerto Rico's soupy chicken and rice, built on a spoonful of recaíto and finished with more chopped recao, green olives, and peas

Origin: San Juan & Puerto Rico

From the journey of Rice.

Asopao sits between a soup and a risotto and declines to be either. The rice is cooked in a great deal of broth with the chicken and served whilst it is still loose, so it is eaten with a spoon from a bowl, and it thickens as it stands, so that the second helping is never quite the same dish as the first. It is what Puerto Rico makes on a rainy day, for somebody who is ill, and late at night after a party, and a family asopao is judged on whether the rice still has its shape. It is built, like nearly everything on the island, on recaíto: the green paste of ají dulce, onion, garlic, and recao, the Puerto Rican name for culantro. Recao is the herb that separates Puerto Rican cooking from the neighbouring Hispanic kitchens, which lean on coriander instead, and it is grown on the island in quantity: Christopher Ramcharan recorded a 1988 harvest of 165,000 kilograms worth some $201,000. A handful of fresh recao chopped over the pot at the end is what keeps an asopao smelling bright after all its simmering. Olives and capers, alcaparrado, go in near the end, a trace of the Spanish larder, and peas and strips of roasted red pepper go on top.

Ingredients

Chicken

1 kg chicken thighs and drumsticks, on the bone
1 tsp dried oregano
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp salt

Asopao

2 tbsp annatto (achiote) oil, or olive oil
120 g recaíto or Puerto Rican sofrito
2 tbsp tomato sauce
2 l chicken stock
250 g medium-grain rice, rinsed
60 g alcaparrado (pimiento-stuffed olives and capers)
100 g frozen peas

To Finish

1 handful recao (culantro) leaves, finely chopped
1 roasted red pepper, in strips

Method

Rub the chicken with the oregano, garlic, and salt and leave for 30 minutes if you have time.
Heat the annatto oil in a heavy pot and brown the chicken in batches. Return it all to the pot, add the recaíto and tomato sauce, and fry for 3 minutes until the recaíto smells cooked.
Pour in the stock, bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for 25 minutes. Lift out the chicken, strip the meat from the bones, and return the meat to the pot.
Add the rice and alcaparrado and simmer uncovered for 18 to 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until the rice is tender but still whole.
Stir in the peas for the last 3 minutes, then take off the heat and fold in the chopped recao.
Serve at once in deep bowls with strips of red pepper on top and tostones or bread alongside.

Notes

Recao and ají dulce are sold in Caribbean and Latin American grocers. Without recao, use twice the quantity of coriander with its stalks, and accept that the dish will be milder. Asopao de camarones, with prawns in place of the chicken, is made the same way and the prawns go in with the peas.

The Gastrographer

Name: Asopao de Pollo
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: San Juan & Puerto Rico
Ingredients: 1 kg chicken thighs and drumsticks, on the bone; 1 tsp dried oregano; 2 garlic cloves, crushed; 1 tsp salt; 2 tbsp annatto (achiote) oil, or olive oil; 120 g recaíto or Puerto Rican sofrito; 2 tbsp tomato sauce; 2 l chicken stock; 250 g medium-grain rice, rinsed; 60 g alcaparrado (pimiento-stuffed olives and capers); 100 g frozen peas; 1 handful recao (culantro) leaves, finely chopped; 1 roasted red pepper, in strips

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control