Happy Holidays and welcome back. I am really excited to bring this recipe, or loose guide, to you all today. For Christmas day I decided to try my hand at making a traditional Cuban dish that my abuela makes for special occasions. Arroz Relleno, literally translated to stuffed rice, is a layered dish of rice, chicken, and cheese. It is basically a rice lasagna, with the fluffiest flavored rice, cheesy goodness and perfectly seasoned shredded chicken. I was a little nervous to take this on because it is hard to top your grandparent’s cooking. I don’t know if it is the nostalgia of the dish or maybe the challenge of trying to replicate something perfectly that made this feel especially challenging. I think my approach was to follow her guide, but take a few liberties so it was not a direct comparison. I am not sure I can make the bold claim that it is better, it feels a bit blasphemous, but I can say that the flavor was much richer than the original. I will also add, I was the official taste tester to ensure we were on the right track, but really my boyfriend cooked this dish. I am really bad at cooking meat, and I do not do it very often, so this was really his department. So shout out to him for making this as successfully as he did. We ate way too much and enjoyed every minute of it.
Make the stock: This is the most important step in improving the overall depth of flavor of the dish. Normally, the chicken is boiled and then that liquid is used to cook the rice. Which is good, but not great. For maximal flavor, a homemade chicken stock should be prepared. This was done the day before making the dish. First, you roast chicken in the oven. We had used some bones that were in the freezer. If you have a whole chicken, you could break it down and use the wings/bones. After roasting, add the chicken to water along with some vegetables to create the stock. Onions, mushrooms, carrots and celery are often used to flavor the stock. Let that simmer for about 4-6 hours. The foamy impurities that simmer to the surface needs to be skimmed off.
Make the rice: The rice is the main component of the dish. A yellow, Spanish style rice is classically used. Our family’s favorite is Vigo, a delicious and reliable option. We decided, however, to make our yellow rice. We cooked our rice in the Zojirushi, one of my favorite kitchen machines. The rice was seasoned with saffron, crushed red and green pepper spices, onion powder, garlic, a pinch of adobo seasoning and a pinch of turmeric for color. We made about 3 cups of rice. Once the rice was done cooking, I added about ¼ cup of olive oil while fluffing the rice.
Cook the chicken: The chicken layer of the dish is composed of shredded white meat. The chicken was poached in the stock we made to impart a little more flavor. Once cooked let it cool, then shred it. Set aside.
Sofrito: Sofrito is the base for the chicken sauce. This is a very classic preparation to impart flavor and bloom the spices. First, finely dice an onion, garlic and pepper. Classically, a green pepper is used but I really dislike them so I used an orange pepper. Sauté the veggies in olive oil until they are soft. Then add a bay leaf, salt and cumin. Once this is fragrant, add the chicken and coat in the sofrito base. To this slowly add liquid until the desired consistency is reached. I added about 1 tablespoon of tomato paste dissolved in about one ladle of the broth we previously made to the chicken. This was then mixed and allowed to reduce to thicken slightly. This process was repeated about 4 times. The sauce was red, slightly thick and coating the bottom of the pan. White wine can be used to deglaze and impart a little more flavor as needed. Olives can also optionally be added in at the same time as the chicken.
Mayonnaise: The dish calls for one layer of mayo over the rice. This can be used from a bottle or made from scratch. I chose to make my own following this recipe.
Cheese: Shredding your own cheese is imperative, not just for this dish but all home cooking. I never buy the pre-shedded options as they are less flavorful and also have a coating that inhibits melting. For this rendition, a three cheese blend was used instead of using the traditional mozzarella. Gruyere, mozzarella and a pinch of parm was used. Swiss cheese is very often used in Cuban sandwiches, so it is a very familiar flavor to the cuisine.
Build the dish!: We are now finally at the building stage. Start with one layer of rice, then add the mayo, then add the chicken, then one layer of cheese, and finally it is topped with another layer of rice. At the top of the dish I added a sprinkle of cheese and decorated with red peppers and peas.
Bake: Lastly, it is baked in the oven for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees F to melt the cheese.
So this dish was quite the labor of love. Each step took a bit of work, and a lot of garlic. The final dish was so rich and flavorful. Infusing some of the broth to each component of the dish added an improved depth of flavor and helped bring the whole dish together. It had the classic Cuban flavors with cumin, garlic and tomato. It was not dry at all with all the other steps. I would recommend this for your next gathering for something different that you might not have tried before. Don’t worry too much about the exact amount of ingredients, but more about the flavor and smell. That, at least, is what my abuela recommended and it all worked out.
Happy New Year, and here’s to more recipes in 2021.
