How to Cook Arroz Aguado
Serves: 8
Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 1 hour
Ingredients needed to make Arroz Aguado:
- 4 chicken thighs
- 2 chicken breasts, halved crosswise
- 1 cup long grain white rice
- 2 canned plum tomatoes, cut into ½’’ slices +2 tbsp juice reserved
- 2 celery stalks, thinly sliced crosswise
- 3 red potatoes, peeled and diced
- 3 carrots, sliced
- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 zucchini, sliced crosswise
- 3 cups water
- 1 quart chicken broth
- 2 fresh mint sprigs
- 10 fresh cilantro leaves
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
For serving:
- 1 ripe avocado, peeled, stoned and diced
- 2 limes, chopped into wedges
- ¼ cup fresh mint, chopped
- 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
- Pickled jalapeno chiles
Cooking instructions for Arroz Aguado:
- Drizzle oil in a large pot and heat it over moderately high flame until it sizzles.
- Throw in the onions, garlic, carrots as well as the celery, along with a dash of salt and sauté them for a minute, stirring throughout.
- Empty the can of tomatoes into it, along with the reserved tomato juice and continue to cook for about 5-7 minutes, while stirring, until the onions soften.
- Rub a dash of salt and generous amount of black pepper all over the chicken breasts as well as thighs and drop them into the pot.
- Pour in the broth as well as water and stir them all together along with the rice and fresh herbs.
- Cook the mixture over high heat until it starts boiling and reduce it to a simmer.
- Continue to simmer for about 25 minutes over moderately low heat, while skimming off any foams accumulating on the surface of the soup, from time to time.
- Transfer the chicken into a bowl, using tongs, and get rid of the herbs.
- Plop the potatoes and zucchini into the soup and cook for about 15 minutes or until they are cooked through.
- While the soup simmers, peel off the skin of the chicken and discard the bones from it.
- Pull the meat with your fingers and toss the shreds into the soup.
- Sprinkle a dash of seasonings to taste, give it a good stir to mix and ladle it into soup bowls.
- Top it up with chopped herbs, diced avocado and pickled jalapenos.
- Serve hot alongside lime wedges.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
