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Mia Castro

Arroz con pollo
S29E1 American · 2022 · Mia Castro’s profile & restaurants
Arroz con pollo
Photo: El Mono Español · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons. Illustrative — arroz con pollo, not the plate from the episode.
Private chef and culinary consultant in New York City; no restaurant ownership
● @chefmiacastro

Arroz con pollo is the dish your abuela makes for the family on Sunday. It is also the dish that exposes every chef who learned the recipe from a Food Network special rather than from a kitchen where the sofrito was non-negotiable.

Mia Castro is a private chef and culinary consultant in New York. No restaurant, no brick-and-mortar — which means she lives or dies on her ability to walk into someone else's kitchen and produce a dish that tastes like home. Arroz con pollo is the audition piece. The sofrito is the audition.

Bobby has cooked Caribbean-adjacent food on television for years. He has restaurants in the Bahamas. He still got beaten on a sofrito by a chef who does not have a restaurant. The chef-pivot lesson here is that owning a restaurant is not the same as owning a dish.

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Arroz con pollo

20 min Prep
45 min Cook
4 Serves
Ingredients
  • 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 2 lbs), patted dry
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced into ½-inch pieces
  • 1 cup long-grain white rice
  • ½ cup diced tomatoes (fresh or canned)
  • 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
  • ½ cup pitted green olives, halved
  • ½ tsp saffron threads, steeped in 2 tbsp hot water for 5 minutes
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • ¾ tsp kosher salt
  • ¼ tsp black pepper
  • ½ cup frozen peas
  • ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Instructions
  1. Season chicken thighs generously on both sides with ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp black pepper. Heat olive oil in a large 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Working in batches, sear chicken skin-side down for 4-5 minutes until golden brown, then flip and sear another 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
  2. In the same skillet, reduce heat to medium and add diced onion. Cook for 3-4 minutes until softened and translucent, stirring occasionally. Add minced garlic and cook 1 minute until fragrant.
  3. Stir in diced red bell pepper and cook for 2 minutes. Add rice and stir constantly for 2 minutes to lightly toast the grains, coating them evenly with oil.
  4. Pour in diced tomatoes and cook for 1 minute, stirring. Add chicken broth, saffron with its steeping water, ground cumin, and remaining ¼ tsp salt. Stir well to combine. Return chicken thighs skin-side up to the skillet, nestling them into the rice mixture.
  5. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil (about 2 minutes). Reduce heat to low, cover tightly with a lid, and simmer for 18-20 minutes until rice is nearly tender and liquid is mostly absorbed.
  6. Scatter frozen peas and green olives over the rice. Cover and cook for another 3-4 minutes until peas are heated through and rice is fully tender with a slight bite. The rice should have absorbed all liquid.
  7. Remove from heat and let sit covered for 3 minutes. Fluff rice gently with a fork, being careful not to break up the chicken. Garnish generously with fresh cilantro and serve directly from the skillet.
Inspired by Mia Castro’s winning arroz con pollo. An independently generated recipe, not the chef’s own — it was not supplied or approved by Mia Castro.
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