Oh you have reached the Holy grail of Dominican cooking, The Pollo guisado, or Pollo GUISAO’ as we Dominicans Say it. This is chicken with a load of flavor in it, super flavor, and the left over sauce gets sprinkled onto the white rice (with beans) this gets served with to make this a meal you shant soon forget. The term itself translates to something like a chicken stew, so guisado can be anything from chicken, to beef, to fish, but for what we are trying to do we shall stick to chicken on this one. Now you may hear that Puerto Ricans invented this recipe, and you will hear Dominicans are the rightful owners of this dish, I frankly leave the arguments to those who care, and save my tongue for the important part… EATING THE FOOD! This is a must try in my book.
INGREDIENTS:
1 whole chicken cut into pieces, (could be small or larger) leave bone-in
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon sugar
2 large tablespoons sazon seasoning
1 large chicken bouillon cube, crumbled
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 lemons cut in half
2 green bell peppers
1 small red onion chopped into fine strips or rings
1/2 teaspoon of mashed garlic
4 plum tomatoes cut into quarters
1 Large carrots,
2 medium potatos
pitted olives
Water, to cover chicken
Kosher salt
DIRECTIONS:
1.In a bowl mix the chicken, oregano, onion, squeeze int he juice of the lemon, celery, tomatoes, olives and vegetables a pinch of salt and garlic. Marinate for 30 minutes.
2. In a pot heat up the oil, Add the sazon seasoning and the bouillon and cook until the sugar lightly browns.
3. Add the chicken by itself and cook until meat is light brown, make sure to flip as needed.
4. Add enough water to just cover the chicken, and bring water to a boil.
5. Add the remaining ingredients, cover and and simmer until all the ingredients are tender, adjust water if necessary until a sauce is formed.
6. Serve with white rice along with the sauce of the chicken, and red beans.