Mexican Arroz con Pollo burst the flavor of my families traditional rice and chicken of choice. Use tasty thighs and drumsticks, or white meat chicken breast. The possibilities vary based on your poultry pick. It’s ready to eat in under an hour with your favorite salsita.
I’ve shared my simplified recipe steps in preparation of this meal below. Here’s my one pot, nutrient packed chicken and rice recipe with vegetables. I’ll go through my favorite veggie picks too for your inspiration.
I hope you find it useful and helpful with keeping the dishes to a minimum. Enjoy more flavor! 😉
Ingredients
Grocery Quick List: chicken, water, rice, tomato sauce, carrot, chayote, peas, onion, garlic, serrano, spices and salt.
- 1.5-2 lbs chicken, drumsticks or thighs
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1 cup rice
- 3 cups water
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 whole onion, white or brown
Vegetables used:
- 1/2 cup peas
- 1/2 chayote
- 1/2 cup tomato sauce
- 1 large carrot, cut medium lengths
- 1 serrano pepper, whole
- Optional: 5-8 sprigs cilantro, last for flavor
Spice used: DIY Mexican Spice, or bouillon of choice.
Ingredient Notes
- Chicken – You’ll season the chicken lightly with salt when searing before adding other ingredients. Since chicken takes longer to cook, I always cook it just about half way through. Then with remaining time, it fully cooks with the rice. Leaving you 100% positive your chicken is cooked.
- Oil – Olive oil or vegetable oil. It’s essential in cooking this rice. The dish can be made without oil but it’ll be on the softer, risotto texture. Think aguado. This is your heads up.
- Water – I use the exact amount needed. Rice dishes that lack liquid or have too much are the culprit for rice dish unhappiness. This recipe is useful, you’ll never have bad rice again, try it!
- Rice – uncooked, medium or long grain rice is my go to. Rinse the rice for best recipe result. I’ve also used jasmine and basmati when out of others.
- Garlic and Onion – A must in cooking this dish. If you like eating the ingredients in small diced bites for all the nutritional value; small dice the onion and mince the garlic. Otherwise, make it as I listed it, and tell me about it below!
Vegetable Variation Tips (Rice and Veggie Combination Ideas)
- Peas, carrots, potatoes.
- Carrots, green beans.
- Carrots, potato, green beans.
- Chayote, carrot.
- Chayote, corn.
- Red bell pepper, corn.
- Corn and green beans.
- Any frozen medley of your choosing.
- Optional spice: add a whole jalapeno or serrano.
Ways To Spice It Up
To keep this dish kid-friendly, I suggest keeping the spice on the side.
Easy to make salsas that go with the recipe
- Salsa Ranchera
- Salsa Verde
- Warm Tomatillo Sauce
- Pico de Gallo, for chunky, crisp, salsa fresca!
If it’s avocado season, don’t forget LQC favorite, creamy avocado salsa.
Arroz Con Pollo Step-By-Step
To make the arroz con pollo
Prep all ingredients and pat dry chicken before proceeding.
We’ll work on the chicken first, and cook it for a short time before adding all the other essential ingredients.
A printer-friendly recipe card with instructions is available at the bottom of this post.
Then the rice, sauce, broth [strategically over the rice] and spices and veggies of choice.
Gently wiggling the serving spoon so everything is nice and distributed before covering to cook. It’s all about the process.
Foods To Eat It With
Wondering what to serve with Chicken and Rice, here are a few of our
- Sliced cucumber and lime
- Black beans
- Mixed green side salad
- Macaroni salad with ham
Ways To Flip [Arroz Con Pollo]
- Shred any extra chicken to make Ensalada de Pollo, Enchiladas, or Chicken Taquitos.
- Rice for side dish or to eat in soups like beef or chicken.
Storage
Properly store and cover rice recipe. It will last 5 days in the refrigerator for best taste. Since this is a small batch, it’ll likely be gone after day two or three.
Pro Tips / Receta Notes
Recipe yield: about 5 cups, enough for 3-5 persons
Do I need to rinse the rice before? Every cook is different. I always rinse the rice before cooking this single pot meal.
Pan size: I like using my large pot for recipes like this. It’s a 5.5 quart stainless steel saute pan. I can easily move foods in it because it’s spacious enough for all the ingredients to melt right into.
Arroz Con Pollo, on the bone or off.
EAT DELICIOUS, EVERY DAY!
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Arroz con Pollo Recipe [Mexican]
DESCRIPTION
Equipment
- 1 Large saute pan
- 1 Knife for chopping
- 1 Vegetable peeler if adding potato
- 2 Bowls for serving your delicious arroz con pollo
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 5 chicken drumsticks about 1.5 lbs
- 1.5 – 2 tsp sea salt reduce to 1.5 tsp if using fine sea salt
- 1 cup rice rinsed
- 1/2 whole onion
- 2 whole garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup tomato sauce canned and preferably unsalted.
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin up to 1/2 tsp if you like cumin flavor.
- 1/2 cup frozen peas
- 1 large carrot peel and cut medium lengths.
- 1/2 large chayote or swap with quartered potato.
- 1 serrano pepper whole, not chopped.
- 5-8 cilantro sprigs optional herb
Alternative to DIY Mexican Spices
- 1.5 tbsp bouillon of choice sazonador
Instructions
To make the Arroz Con Pollo
- Heat large saute pan for 2 minutes on medium heat. Once heated add garlic clove and let fry in oil for 1 minute.
- Quickly and carefully add chicken, in single layer, to pan. Cover immediately (use lid to block oil popping). Turn up to medium heat and cook for 10 minutes.
- Once cooked for 10 minutes, use tongs to safely turn over chicken.
To add the Rice and Vegetables
- In this order, add the rice over the chicken; then tomato sauce; then pour the broth over every area where the rice is.
- Add all spices and salt. Lay all vegetables in the pan in the way you would like them to appear.
- Using a pan safe spoon, stir into the liquid in so all ingredients blend.
- Cover with lid, and let cook on medium heat for 22 minutes. Set timer as a reminder. After 22 minutes, set to low heat for remaining 6-8 minutes (at this point, add optional cilantro sprigs).
- Leaving on medium heat the entire time will result in evaporation of your liquid in the rice much faster. We don't want any burnt rice. Thus our low and slow end cook time.
Once cooked
- Remove lid and sample texture of you rice ensuring it is to your liking. If it's great, safely slide pan onto different burner. Keep covered with lid for 10 minutes.
Enjoy your delicious Arroz Con Pollo!
Notes
- Recipe yield: 5 cups chicken and rice from scratch.
- Storage: Store any remaining chicken and rice in food safe container with lid and refrigerate. Enjoy within 7 days. Allow recipe to cool to room temp before refrigeration.
- Rinse the uncooked rice for best recipe result.
- Substitutions: Not all arroz con pollo is made with vegetables. This is my way of healthy-ing up my traditional rice and chicken recipe.
- Many arroz con pollo meals are made from onion, garlic, tomato, rice, and chicken and the sazon of your choice. If you’d like to share your fave added veggies, please leave comment below so the LQC Community can try it too. Thank you!
- Spice: This recipe uses fresh pepper, whole, in the cooking of the arroz con pollo. This releases a light spice flavor.
- Important note: Chopping a fresh pepper and placing it in the pan to cook will result in a spicy flavor of the whole dish.
See full post and tips on LatinasQueComen website for all vegetable combinations encouraged in making this Arroz Con Pollo Mexican-style.
Nutrition
Equipment
- Large pot with lid (see Pro Tips / Receta Notes for more details)
- Pan safe spoon
- Tongs
- Knife
- Can Opener (if using canned sauce)
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