Pollo Guisado

This is a meal that I watched my grandfather make a million times when i was a kid. As of far back as I could remember, I was always hanging out in the kitchen watching. I was so young sitting on the kitchen floor as my grandmother made her famous soup. I would watch really hard and wanting to know what she was doing. As i got older I could stand on a step tool and watch closer. She would at times give me the peels from the potatoes and onions and I would pretend to make soup. When I got a little older, I could actually help and I learned a lot. My grandfather was a chef so when I watched him cook it was different. I could only watch no helping but that was fine because it was fun watching him and listening to his work stories and his fancy skills with his knives and all his kitchen stuff, it was different then the things we had at my home, I would think to myself. So anyway, one of the things I loved was his pollo guisado (chicken stew). He would take anything he had in the frig and create this delicious stew. That's another thing I could say about him, he was so good at what he did it, when it seemed like there was nothing to eat he would make a delicious meal that came out of nowhere. As a young kid I thought that was cool and would practice what I saw at home because with grandpa I was only allowed to watch the cooking.

Healthy food and affordable is what this is all about. I know some people have their issues about poultry: store vs farm raised/organic. And that is fine. I enjoy fresh poultry but I am also trying to keep things under a budget. But I do however try to only purchase organic corn and whole wheat products when I can. So I purchased this whole chicken at Sam's Club (2 whole chickens for like $10) and had my husband cut it up for me because I still cannot cut cut a whole chicken in a nice way. It looks like an animal attacked after I'm thru with it. I'm still learning.

  
















I froze the breast for another meal and I will be using the legs and thighs for the stew and the middle part is for making broth. The wings are for a super bowl app I'm gonna show you guys in another posting. I just wanted to show you how one whole chicken can be stretched put into a few meals. Eating healthy on a strict budget is possible, but it takes so work.

I seasoned the chicken legs and thighs with sazon and adobo (recipe here), poured a little apple cider vinegar on them and placed them in the frig.

 




This is how I make my chicken broth. To make: take the chicken parts and put them in a large pot and fill with water. Bring to a boil and let it simmer and reduce a little. When it does, add roughly chopped celery, onion, carrot (you can add any veggie you have in the frig at this point, remember this is to make the stock we will be straining it and tossing it), bay leave, sea salt and pepper. Let this simmer and reduce more, about 40 mins. We want a nice tasty broth here.

 

Pull out the chicken parts and set aside to cool. Then strain the rest and toss in the trash. When the chicken is cool enough to touch, pull the meat off and place in a container and put in the frig form a later meal. You can use this for soup if you making it or chicken salad which is what I'm gonna make with it.

That is the chicken broth that I will be using for this stew. So I set this aside. Usually I would have some broth in my freezer but I used the rest of it the other day. The extra the I have I will be putting in containers and freezing for a later time. Let's get started.

Heat up a cast iron pot or pot of your choice, add some oil olive (I have been using coconut oil). Brown the chicken and then take it out and set it aside. Pour extra oil out. Time to make sofrito.

To make sofrito you need:

one medium onion, chopped
one medium green pepper, chopped
lots of garlic, chopped
handful of cilantro, chopped
a few sprigs of recao leaves, chopped

Put all this in the pot and cook until veggies are translucent. Add the tomato sauce and stir it around. If you need fill the can up with water and pour this over the veggies if it looks like it is getting dry. Let this cook a little then add the adobo and sazon and stir. Add broth, beer, carrots and potatoes. Bring to boil. Add the chicken, olives and bay leaf. Bring to boil and let this simmer until it cooks down. Serve over brown rice or yellow rice and bean. Enjoy!

My Pollo Guisado Recipe

6 chicken legs and things, skinned and most of the fat trimmed
1 C chicken broth, homemade or canned low sodium
2 medium carrots, sliced
2 medium red potatoes, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium pepper
half a garlic bulb, minced
handful of cilantro, chopped
1 T adobo
1 T sazon
8 oz can of tomato sauce, no sugar no salt
12 oz bottle of light beer, Corona or Bud but here I used 2 shots of whisky and some water
capers or Spanish olives
bay leaf
salt the pepper to taste