Arroz Relleno

This is a great dish to impress your friends and family with. It may look intimidating, but its actually very simple to make and the decoration is what really makes it stand out. This dish is similar to arroz con pollo, but much more simple. Surprisingly, there is no recipe for arroz imperial in either of Nitza's cookbooks, but I believe this may be a predecessor.

-------------------------------

Arroz Relleno (Stuffed Rice)

Time: about 1 hour

Makes approximately 8 servings

Ingredients:

5 lbs. chicken

¼ lb. (1 stick) butter

1 onion

1 cup tomato sauce

½ cup cooking wine (vino seco)

4 cups chicken broth

3 cups rice

1 tbsp. salt

Garnish: Pimentos, green peas, and maduros

Directions:

• Season and cook chicken to your liking in a large frying pan
• Shred the chicken and keep warm (optional: make a broth with the remaining carcass)
• In a large pot, melt the butter on high heat and sauté the chopped onions until then become a light golden color
• Add the tomato sauce, cooking wine, chicken broth, salt, and rice into the pot
• Stir occasionally until it reaches a boil, then reduce to low heat and cover for approximately 20 minutes, or until the rice is fully cooked.
• Grease a round mold with butter and fill it halfway with rice. Stuff the middle with shredded chicken, then finish filling the mold with rice.
• Unmold on a serving dish and garnish with pimentos, green peas, and maduros.

Notes & Comments:

• I personally just seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper before cooking in oil. But if you have the time, you can season and cook it however you like. The goal is to get tender and tasty chicken that can easily be shredded.
• I think this would be really cool to make individual servings with small bowls.
• This pairs well with a green vegetable, such as lettuce, avocado, asparagus, etc.
• I like mixing both white and dark meat, but you can make this with one or the other depending on what you prefer.

--------------------

Receta Original:

--------------------

ARROZ RELLENO

2 pollos (2½ lbs. c/u)

¼ lb. mantequilla

1 cebolla

1 taza salsa de tomate

½ taza vino seco

4 tazas de caldo

3 tazas de arroz

1 cda. de sal

        Cocine los pollos en cacerola de modo corriente. Haga con. Los menudos un caldo al que la echa sólo 1 cucharadita de sal. Desmenuce los pollos.

        Caliente la mantequilla y sofría en ella la cebolla picadita. Cuando este dorada, añádale la salsa de tomate, vino seco, caldo, arroz y sal. Déjelo a fuego median hasta que esté cocinado el arroz. Ponga la mitad del arroz en un molde da anillo engrasado con mantequilla, coloque las masas de pollo (que deben conservarse calientes hasta este momento) y cúbralo con el resto del arroz. Desmóldelo y adórnelo con pimientos morrones, petit pois y plátanos fritos.  De 8 raciones.