Arroz Con Pollo En Sopa: Chicken & Rice Soup

Time: 40 minutes

Servings: 8

In Comayagua, Honduras, where my family lives, we have a recipe called arroz con pollo that is a favorite dish that my family eats most every time. All my life this plate was my favorite and unique for my family because it can be healthy and give us energy. This plate is hot and tastes good where some people use spice but in my home this was not spicy. Most people make this food for culture where my grandmother teaches my mother how to cook this plate. In my family, we make this food when we have birthday or special days. This food always makes me think when I’m younger and eating it was all I wished. A special memory I have of this food is when my mother cooked it when I’m back from school and sometimes when I’m back from my work or carry it for lunch. This food makes me feel connected to memories from my family and my culture that I need to not forget where I come from because the culture from each country was different. My family’s recipe is unique because it is a plate that you can find and most people know how to cook it, but for my family it is unique because we cook with different tastes and we don’t add all the spice from the recipe, for example we add cassava and shoots of corn logs. If you travel from one part to another in Honduras, the native people know what I’m talking about. When you try this recipe, you will feel a perfect taste depending on who prepared it but most people can give you the best taste and a perfect moment that you will not forget.

Ingredients

1. 1 whole chicken
2. 1 large russet potato
3. 2 carrots
4. 1 tomatoes
5. 2 stalks celery
6. 2 garlic cloves
7. 1 tablespoon of salt
8. 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
9. 1/8 ground cumin
10. 1/8 cilantro
11. ¼ head cannonball cabbage
12. ½ white onion (not red)
13. ½ cup rice
14. 1 dash Crystal hot sauce
15. 1-2 quart water or 1-2 quart chicken stock

Tools & Utensils

1. Measuring spoons
2. Chef’s knife
3. Cutting board
4. Spoons
5. Pot
6. Measuring cups

Instructions (from Mario’s La Fiesta Mexican restaurant)

1. Extract giblets from chicken and remove the liver.
2. Place chicken in a pot of water just large enough to hold it.
3. Cover with 1-2 quarts of water and add the giblets.
4. Add salt and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam.
5. Reduce heat, cover pot, and simmer for 20 or more minutes.
6. Chicken should fall apart after cooking.
7. Completely bone out the cooked chicken.
8. Separate white meat for use in the finished soup.
9. Begin washing rice.
10. Bring stock and giblets back to a fast simmer.
11. Crack the bones and return them to the stock with the skin.
12. Bring stock to a boil and reduce heat.
13. Cut carrots into coins, dice potatoes into 1/2” cubes and add with cabbage cut into 1” chunks.
14. During the last half hour of cooking add all other spices.
15. Adjust salt to taste (this recipe can take a lot of salt).
16. Avoid adding too much cumin, it will spoil the flavor.
17. When the rice begins to “bloom” turn off the heat.
18. Wait a few minutes because it is very hot.
19. Disfrútalo!

 Zenster. “SOPA DE POLLO CON ARROZ (CHICKEN AND RICE SOUP).” Accessed July 16, 2020. https://www.food.com/recipe/sopa-de-pollo-con-arroz-chicken-and-rice-soup-8568.

This piece is from the publication The Native People Know What I’m Talking About, written by twenty-one students in the eleventh grade at Boston International Newcomers Academy (BINcA).