Saturday, April 20, 2013

Chicken and rice

This is a dish that we had in Amazon down in Ecuador last fall, it is simple down home food and I am sure that there are versions of this all over the world.  You could use almost any vegetables and some beans could also have been added for more protein. I used the vegetables that I had on hand, but actually in a pinch you could use frozen mixed vegetables, but then you would have to add them at the end. It is really a one dish meal, and we just had a green salad to complete the meal.


This fed 5 for dinner plus two lunches during the week.

4 whole chicken legs
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 yellow onion chopped
2 cups of rice
5 carrots chopped
5 ribs of celery chopped
1 can of corn
Small bunch of chopped parsley
1 cup of frozen peas

In a large pot place the chicken legs 2 carrots, 2 ribs of celery and 1/2 onion roughly chopped. Cover with water and add the bay leaves and salt and pepper.


Simmer for 1/2 an hour and then turn off the heat and leave to sit for 1/2 an hour with the lid on.


The chicken should be falling off the bone, and you have a delicious rich chicken stock.  Remove the chicken and vegetables and simmer the stock until you have 4 cups.  Discard the vegetables and shred the chicken and set aside Refrigerate if you are not going to make the dish right away.



Put the olive oil in to the same pot (which hopefully some one has washed up for you) then saute the the remaining half onion until it is translucent and add the rice and the remaining unfrozen vegetables.


Stir to coat with the onions and oil, then pour the 4 cups of stock over and add the parsley.


Put the pot to simmer and cook for 10 minutes with the lid on.  Then add the peas.


 Add the chicken


Stir the peas and chicken into the rice and with a lid on simmer for a further 5 minutes check that the rice is cooked, when it is, turn off the heat. This will hold for a while in the pot, but you do not want to leave it for too long or the rice will become mushy.


We had this sitting on the deck with a crisp green salad and a crisp white wine. A delicious simple but very tasty dish, that tastes as good, if not better the next day. For extra zing serve with a hot sauce such as serrachi which is how it was served in Ecuador


Roll on summer.

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