An Instant Pot arroz con pollo recipe, Puerto Rican-style
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I’d love to tell a story about how I learned to make Puerto Rican food at the knee of my abuela. That I learned to listen for the sizzle of the sofrito hitting the fat in her battered pot, that I knew where she kept the can opener and that I loved to help measure the rice for her arroz con pollo.
But the truth is, I barely knew my father’s mother and haven’t spoken to my father in decades. As some things are, it’s better this way.
Instead, I learned to make arroz con pollo from my Iranian mother, who learned from my father’s mother, and whose instincts in the kitchen — a superpower sense of smell, a pitch-perfect taste for slight variations in flavor — taught me more about how to be a great cook than my overpriced culinary school.
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That’s why I’m confident that nothing was lost in translation, and that this recipe is true to my family’s Puerto Rican-style arroz con pollo.
Except for one thing: It can be made in an Instant Pot.
Tinted rouge with achiote oil, this arroz con pollo is a gorgeous mess of chicken and rice, flecked with grassy cilantro and briny Manzanilla olives.
It starts out like any other chicken-and-rice dish. On the multicooker’s saute setting, brown seasoned chicken legs in a touch of fat. Next, start a makeshift sofrito: Diced onions, bell pepper and cilantro go into the pot, and cook until they soften. (If you have sofrito, use that instead!) Turn off the heat, then, add garlic, paprika, oregano and cumin — or sazón! — and let them toast slightly before adding a can of tomatoes, the browned chicken, a little broth, a handful of olives, a few capers and olive brine.
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The brine is my grandmother’s “secret ingredient.” It was her way of adding salinity and acidity, which perked up the fattier flavors and gave her arroz con pollo a characteristic scent — briny but balanced. Believe me: It’s better this way.
The last step is the easiest. Seal the lid and set the multicooker to pressure cook. After just 10 minutes of cooking, plus 5 to 10 minutes to release the steam, dinner will be done.
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