Description
Arroz Con Gandules is a traditional Puerto Rican dish featuring flavorful medium-grain rice cooked with pigeon peas, tomato sauce, olives, and a blend of spices. This savory one-pot meal is often enriched with bacon or ham for added depth and is known for its slightly crispy bottom layer called ‘pegao.’ It is a staple at Puerto Rican celebrations and offers a delicious taste of Caribbean comfort food.
Ingredients
Scale
Meat and Oil
- 4 slices bacon or ham, optional
- 2 tablespoons oil (vegetable oil, olive oil, or achiote oil)
Main Ingredients
- 1 cup canned gandules (pigeon peas), or frozen, drained
- ¾ cup tomato sauce
- ½ cup green olives, sliced or whole, or capers
- ¼ cup sofrito, thawed if using store bought frozen sofrito
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon adobo seasoning
- ½ packet Sazon con culantro y achiote, or 1 tsp homemade sazon seasoning
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- 3 ½ cups water or chicken broth
- 2 ½ cups arroz Rico, medium grain white rice, rinsed
Instructions
- Prepare the pot and meat: Heat a large heavy bottomed pot like a dutch oven or caldero over medium heat. If using bacon or ham, cook slowly until crispy, then remove and set aside, leaving drippings in the pot. If not using meat, add oil and heat before continuing.
- Add aromatics and seasonings: Add gandules, tomato sauce, green olives, sofrito, salt, adobo, sazon seasoning, black pepper, and cumin to the pot. Stir well to combine all ingredients thoroughly.
- Bring to a boil: Pour in the water or chicken broth and increase heat to high. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil.
- Add rice and combine: Add the rinsed rice to the boiling mixture. Stir carefully until the rice is fully submerged and pigeon peas are evenly distributed.
- Simmer the rice: Reduce heat to medium-low and cover the pot tightly. Cook for about 25 minutes. Optionally, you can add the cooked bacon or ham back in at this point or wait until serving. Traditionally, a banana or plantain leaf covers the pot to trap steam and impart aroma, but a tight-fitting lid works well.
- Optional stirring for even cooking: About halfway through cooking, remove the lid and gently fold the rice from the bottom once to distribute heat evenly without disturbing the crispy bottom layer.
- Rest the rice: After 25 minutes of simmering, remove the pot from heat and let it sit covered for an additional 10 minutes to steam and absorb remaining liquid.
- Fluff and serve: After resting, remove the lid, fluff the rice gently, and stir before serving warm. Enjoy your Arroz Con Gandules!
Notes
- Storage: Keep leftovers in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Reheat by adding 2 teaspoons of water and microwaving for 1 minute, stirring as needed to prevent drying out.
- Freezing: Place cooled Arroz Con Gandules in an airtight, freezer-safe container and freeze up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
- Rinse the rice: Rinsing rice thoroughly before cooking is essential to avoid sticky or gummy results.
- Rice type: Medium grain rice is traditional. Long grain is an acceptable substitute. Avoid short grain rice as it results in overly sticky texture.
- Stirring caution: Avoid excessive stirring to maintain the crispy bottom layer, or ‘pegao.’ Stir only when adding rice and once midway through cooking if desired.
- Tight lid: Use a pot with a tight-fitting lid to ensure even cooking and proper texture. If none available, cover with foil.
- Capers substitution: If using capers instead of olives, add 2 tablespoons of capers without juice where olives are called for.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 310
- Sugar: 3 g
- Sodium: 600 mg
- Fat: 9 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.5 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 6 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 48 g
- Fiber: 6 g
- Protein: 8 g
- Cholesterol: 15 mg
