Asopao de Pollo

Ingredients

• 800 g bone-in chicken thighs, in pieces
• juice of 1 lime
• 5 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 tsp granulated sugar
• 1 red onion, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 3 culantro leaves
• 300 g long grain rice, rinsed
• 1.8 litres chicken stock
• 100 g peas
• 1 roasted red pepper, in strips
• a handful of green olives

Method

1. Season and burn the sugar

   Season the chicken with the lime, garlic, oregano and salt, then darken the sugar in the oil in a wide pot.

   5 min

2. Brown the chicken

   Sear the chicken in the caramel until it has colour on every side.

   10 min

3. Sofrito

   Add the onion, green pepper, tomato purée and culantro and cook until soft and fragrant.

   7 min

4. Rice into six times its volume of stock

   Stir in the rice and pour in all the stock. That ratio is deliberate: asopao is a soup with rice in it, not a wet locrio, and the rice keeps drinking as it stands.

   25 min

5. Peas and peppers at the end

   When the rice is soft, about twenty-five minutes, stir in the peas, roasted pepper and olives and cook two minutes more.

   2 min

6. Serve immediately

   Serve it loose and steaming, straight away. Left to stand it turns into a thick porridge — good, but no longer asopao. Loosen with hot stock if it has gone that way.