Puerto Rican · meal

Chicken asopao

Name: Chicken asopao
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 2
Cuisine: Puerto Rican
Ingredients: 4 whole Bone-in chicken thighs; 3 tbsp Sofrito; 4 leaves Culantro; 4 whole Ají dulce; 1 tsp Achiote; ¼ cup Tomato sauce; 1 tbsp Capers; 8 whole Green olives; 1 whole Zucchini; 2 cups of florets Cauliflower; 3 cups Chicken broth; 1 tsp Dried oregano; 2 tbsp Olive oil; Salt and pepper (to taste)

Brothy, orange and full of culantro, like the one after the beach. The chopped cauliflower goes in at the end and plays the grain; the zucchini gives it body. Forty minutes in a single pot.

Serves

2 people

Amount

2 servings

Time

40 min

Steps

Why this one and not another

Forty minutes in a single pot and twenty of them are a simmer that barely shivers, with nothing to touch. It's the one in the batch that holds up worst to sitting, and not because of the chicken: the vegetables keep drinking the broth inside the bowl. That's why it gets served looser than looks right, and the second portion wants half a cup of hot broth before it goes back to the table.

Where it comes from

Asopao comes from sopa, soup, and that is what it means: rice that stopped halfway, brothier than a stewed rice and thicker than a soup. In Puerto Rico it's rainy-day food and coming-back-from-the-beach food, and it's served in a deep bowl with the broth covering the chicken. Here the grain is cauliflower pulsed into bits, and that changes something fundamental that has to be said: rice soaks up the broth and cauliflower doesn't, so the body has to come from somewhere else. It comes from the zucchini and from the twenty minutes of bone in the pot. Without bone-in thighs this is colored water.

Raw chicken and raw vegetables, the same kitchen

Never the same board for raw meat and for what goes in the juicer. If you only have one, vegetables first and meat after. And don't wash the chicken: it splatters.

1Ingredients and how to prep them

Ingredient	Amount	How to prep it
Bone-in chicken thighs	4 whole	Skin off, bone in. The bone is what makes the broth: without it this is colored water.
Sofrito	3 tbsp	—
Culantro	4 leaves	Whole, pulled out at the end. It's the long serrated leaf, not cilantro.
Ají dulce	4 whole	Chopped. They aren't hot.
Achiote	1 tsp	—
Tomato sauce	¼ cup	No added sugar: check the can.
Capers	1 tbsp	Rinsed.
Green olives	8 whole	—
Zucchini	1 whole	In thick half-moons.
Cauliflower	2 cups of florets	Chopped down to rice-sized grains. It goes in in the last minutes.
Chicken broth	3 cups	—
Dried oregano	1 tsp	—
Olive oil	2 tbsp	—
Salt and pepper	to taste	—

Bone-in chicken thighs4 whole
Skin off, bone in. The bone is what makes the broth: without it this is colored water.
Sofrito3 tbsp
—
Culantro4 leaves
Whole, pulled out at the end. It's the long serrated leaf, not cilantro.
Ají dulce4 whole
Chopped. They aren't hot.
Achiote1 tsp
—
Tomato sauce¼ cup
No added sugar: check the can.
Capers1 tbsp
Rinsed.
Green olives8 whole
—
Zucchini1 whole
In thick half-moons.
Cauliflower2 cups of florets
Chopped down to rice-sized grains. It goes in in the last minutes.
Chicken broth3 cups
—
Dried oregano1 tsp
—
Olive oil2 tbsp
—
Salt and pepperto taste
—

2Steps

In this order. The box on each step is the specific pitfall: what goes wrong there and why.

1
Brown the thighs in the achiote oil
8 min
Achiote in the oil for a minute, then the thighs, dried and seasoned, four minutes a side, until they leave fond stuck to the pot.
Heads up
That stuck-on fond is the asopao. An asopao made by dropping the chicken straight into the broth comes out pale, with nothing standing behind the tomato flavor.
2
Sofrito, ají dulce and oregano for three minutes
4 min
Turn the heat down, add them over the chicken and scrape the bottom until the kitchen smells of it.
Heads up
Cook it until it really perfumes. Raw sofrito in a broth shows up far more than in a thick stew: it just floats there, tasting of raw onion.
3
Broth, tomato sauce, culantro and capers
3 min
Everything in, bring it up to a boil and drop it right back down.
Heads up
Four culantro leaves, not ten. It's far stronger than cilantro: overdone it leaves a cough-syrup taste that covers the chicken and never comes off.
4
Gentle simmer for twenty minutes, uncovered
20 min
The surface should barely shiver, with the pot half covered.
Heads up
If it boils hard, the chicken frays apart and the broth goes cloudy and greasy. It should shiver, not bubble.
5
Zucchini five minutes, cauliflower three
5 min
The zucchini first, and only at the end the chopped cauliflower and the olives. Pull out the culantro leaves.
Heads up
The cauliflower goes in at the end or it disappears: twenty minutes in the pot and it breaks down into grit, and then the asopao is cloudy with nothing to bite.
6
Serve it right away, brothier than you think
2 min
In a deep bowl, with the broth covering the chicken.
Heads up
The asopao keeps thickening in the bowl: the cauliflower keeps drinking the broth. Serve it at the consistency you want to eat and three minutes later it's a dry stew.

3If something goes wrong

What happens	Why	What to do
It came out dry and thick	It sat too long, or there wasn't enough broth.	It gets served brothy on purpose. If it already thickened, half a cup of hot broth and a short boil.
The broth came out cloudy and greasy	It boiled hard instead of shivering.	Gentle simmer and half covered. If there's fat on top, run a spoon across the surface.
It tastes like cough syrup	Too much culantro, or it stayed in when you served.	Four whole leaves and they come out before serving.

It came out dry and thick
Why: It sat too long, or there wasn't enough broth.
What to do: It gets served brothy on purpose. If it already thickened, half a cup of hot broth and a short boil.
The broth came out cloudy and greasy
Why: It boiled hard instead of shivering.
What to do: Gentle simmer and half covered. If there's fat on top, run a spoon across the surface.
It tastes like cough syrup
Why: Too much culantro, or it stayed in when you served.
What to do: Four whole leaves and they come out before serving.

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Why this one and not another

Where it comes from

▲Raw chicken and raw vegetables, the same kitchen

1Ingredients and how to prep them

2Steps

Brown the thighs in the achiote oil

Sofrito, ají dulce and oregano for three minutes

Broth, tomato sauce, culantro and capers

Gentle simmer for twenty minutes, uncovered

Zucchini five minutes, cauliflower three

Serve it right away, brothier than you think

3If something goes wrong

This recipe is one of the meals in the plan

Raw chicken and raw vegetables, the same kitchen