Arroz con Pollo -- The Apartment Smelled Like Somewhere Warm

Last week of February and I'm glad to see it go. February does what it does—wears you down by attrition, no specific cruelty, just the ongoing fact of it. The floor has been heavy this month. We lost a patient on Thursday night who had been there since October and who I'd gotten to know in the way you get to know people over months of treatment—not intimately, not as a friend, but as someone whose story you hold with care because no one else in the building is holding it the way you are. She had a daughter in Oakland who flew in on Tuesday. The daughter made it. That's the one thing I'm grateful for this week.

March is four days away. Liam's birthday is four weeks away. My birthday is in three weeks—I turn twenty-eight on the 26th—and I have arrived at the point in life where my birthday is interesting primarily because it's one day after Liam's birthday week and he's turning one and that's the event of the month regardless. I'm fine with this. I was not fine with this in my mid-twenties and I'm fine with it now and I think that's what twenty-eight means: the thing that used to matter to me somewhat less.

Chicken tikka masala from the cooking class, made at home on Sunday. It took two hours and the apartment filled with cardamom and ginger and the specific heat of long-cooked spice and Sean ate it over rice at the table and said "this is restaurant good" which is the highest compliment he gives food because Sean does not value restaurants for romantic reasons but for quality benchmarks.

The tikka masala from the cooking class set a standard I wasn’t always going to be able to meet on a weeknight, but what it gave me—what I’m still chasing—is the specific comfort of a dish that cooks long enough to change the smell of the whole apartment. Arroz con pollo does that. It’s not cardamom and ginger, but it’s warm and patient and it asks you to stand at the stove for a while, which, in the last week of February, is sometimes exactly the thing you need to do with your hands.

Arroz con Pollo

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 50 min | Total Time: 1 hr 10 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 3 lbs bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt, divided
• 1 tsp black pepper, divided
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• Fresh cilantro, for serving
• Lime wedges, for serving

Instructions

1. Season and sear the chicken. Pat chicken pieces dry and season all over with 1 tsp salt and 3/4 tsp pepper. Heat olive oil in a large, deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear chicken skin-side down for 5–6 minutes until deep golden brown, then flip and cook 3 minutes more. Transfer to a plate and set aside. Do not discard the drippings.
2. Build the sofrito. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion and bell pepper to the drippings in the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5–6 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
3. Toast the rice. Add the rice to the pan and stir to coat in the vegetable mixture. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until the rice turns slightly opaque and smells nutty.
4. Add spices and liquid. Stir in cumin, smoked paprika, oregano, turmeric, and the remaining 1/2 tsp salt. Pour in the diced tomatoes and chicken broth, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to a simmer.
5. Nestle and cook. Return the chicken pieces to the pan, skin-side up, pressing them gently into the rice mixture. Cover with a tight-fitting lid, reduce heat to low, and cook for 30–35 minutes until the rice has absorbed the liquid and the chicken is cooked through (internal temp 165°F).
6. Finish with peas. Scatter frozen peas over the top, replace the lid, and let sit off heat for 5 minutes. The peas will warm through and the rice will finish steaming.
7. Serve. Fluff the rice gently around the chicken. Serve directly from the pan with fresh cilantro and lime wedges alongside.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 480 | Protein: 36g | Fat: 16g | Carbs: 45g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 620mg