All my life I’ve loved my Mom’s rice and beans. As most of you know, my mom is fully Puerto Rican and so are my grandparents. When I was young, we basically lived off rice and beans. Don’t get me wrong, my mom made hundreds of recipes, but that was the one I remembered the most.
Years later, I discovered that cooking from your own heritage was a great way to tap into your roots, create nostalgia, and remember those special moments with your family.
This Puerto Rican chicken and rice recipe is just one of those comforting, nostalgic ones that I come back to time and time again. I love this recipe because everything is made in one pan, is easy to cook, surprises people with its unique, delicious flavor, and is perfect for meal prep. It just so happens to be Episode 6 of my Good Mood Food YouTube series, too — watch it HERE!
Now it’s important to remember that everyone’s version of arroz con pollo is different — the great part about cooking is that you can really make it your own. This is our take on it, and one I know you’re going to love!
What is arroz con pollo?
Arroz con pollo literally translates to “rice with chicken” in Spanish. It’s a traditional dish in Spain and Latin America and is one that I grew up on thanks to my Puerto Rican grandparents and mom! The chicken and rice are cooked in one pan or pot with a wonderful blend of spices and a homemade sofrito.
Everything you’ll need to make Puerto Rican chicken & rice
You’re going to LOVE how delicious and nourishing this recipe is. My mom’s particular Puerto Rican take on arroz con pollo involves a few special twists:
- Chicken: I like to use boneless, skinless chicken thighs because they have the best flavor.
- Homemade adobo seasoning: you’re going to toss the chicken in adobo seasoning, which consists of 9 delicious spices (including salt & pepper).
- Homemade sofrito: We’re making the holy trinity of flavor here and the base for most Puerto Rican dishes: green bell pepper, cilantro (or culantro if you can find it!) and onion. Then you’ll add your sazon spices and tomato sauce and say hello to DELICIOUSNESS.
- Homemade sazon: sazon is a really popular Puerto Rican spice and I love making sazon from scratch! It flavors the rice SO much and pulls the whole dish together.
- Tomato sauce: you’ll also need some tomato sauce (and water) to cook the rice with the sofrito.
- Rice: I love using white basmati rice because of how fluffy the rice gets.
- Peas: green pigeon peas are one of my favorite things. Unfortunately, they can be difficult to find. I typically purchase them in the Hispanic section of my grocery store, head to our local Hispanic store, or purchase off Amazon. Don’t worry though — if you want to use frozen peas instead that’s totally an option and usually what I do because I often have them on hand.
Can I swap the rice?
I highly recommend using white basmati rice for the best texture, but you could also use cauliflower rice or 2/3 cup quinoa. I would NOT recommend using brown rice because it takes much longer to cook.
How to make one pan arroz con pollo
- Marinate your chicken. Start by tossing your chicken in a bowl with olive oil and the adobo spices. Cover and let the chicken marinate for at least 30 minutes.
- Brown the chicken. Next, brown the chicken in a large skillet with olive oil, then transfer the chicken to a plate.
- Make the sofrito. In the same skillet sauté the garlic, jalapeño, green pepper, onion, and cilantro. Add the sazon spices and cook for 30 seconds, then stir in the tomato sauce and water.
- Add the rice. Bring the mixture to a simmer, then fold in the rice, peas, and olives (if using). Add your browned chicken on top.
- Simmer & serve. Reduce the heat to low, cover the skillet, and let everything simmer until the rice is fluffy. Garnish with cilantro and a squeeze of fresh lime juice and serve!
Serving & storing tips
- To serve: this arroz con pollo recipe is perfect for serving a crowd because you can easily double the recipe.
- To store: simply store any leftover chicken & rice in airtight containers in the refrigerator for up to 4-5 days. This recipe is perfect for meal prep!
More family recipes to try
- One Pan Sazon Skillet Chicken
- Mom’s Authentic Puerto Rican Rice and Beans
- Turkey Picadillo (with a slow cooker option!)
- Mama’s Chickpeas in Sofrito with Arroz con Gandules
- Green Chile Chicken Pozole
Get all of my globally-inspired recipes here!
Good Mood Food Episode 6
If you make this Puerto Rican chicken and rice recipe be sure and tag #ambitiouskitchen on Instagram or leave a comment below and rate it so I can know how you liked it. Thanks for being here — have a lovely week! xo.
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Mama's Puerto Rican Chicken and Rice (Arroz con Pollo)
Ingredients
- For the chicken:
- 2 tablespoon olive oil, divided
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
- For the adobo seasoning:
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ¾ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon red cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon coriander
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- For the sofrito & rice:
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ¼ cup finely diced green pepper
- ¼ cup finely diced white onion
- ¼ cup finely diced cilantro
- Optional: 1 jalapeno, diced
- ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon oregano
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 1 ¼ cups water
- 1 cup basmati white rice (don’t use brown, it will take too long to cook)**
- ⅔ cup frozen peas (or rinsed and drained pigeon peas)
- OPTIONAL: ½ cup pitted green olives
Instructions
- Add chicken to a large bowl. Add in 1 tablespoon olive oil and your adobo seasoning: cumin, paprika, chili powder, cayenne pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, coriander, salt and pepper. Use clean hands to toss the chicken in the mixture. Cover and allow chicken to marinate for 30 minutes, or you can skip this completely and begin the cooking process!
- Next add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil to a large deep 10 inch skillet and place over medium high heat. (If you do not have a skillet a large pot will also work very well!) Once oil is hot, add in chicken and season with a little more salt and pepper. Cook until browned 4-5 minutes, then flip and and cook an additional 4-5 minutes. Remove from pan and transfer to a plate.
- In the same skillet (it should be greased enough already for sauteing) you will make your sofrito by adding in garlic, jalapeno, diced green pepper, diced onion and cilantro.
- Saute for 2-3 minutes, then add in your spices (also known as homemade sazon spices): cumin, turmeric, coriander, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper and cook for 30 seconds. Then add in tomato sauce and water and stir well to combine.
- Bring to a simmer then fold in the rice, peas and olive (if using) making sure they're evenly distributed. Add browned chicken on top.
- Reduce heat to low, cover the skillet immediately and cook for 20-25 minutes.
- After 20-25 minutes, most of the liquid should be absorbed and rice should be cooked. Serve immediately. Garnish with cilantro and serve with a squeeze of fresh lime juice.
- To meal prep: This meal serves four. Place rice in a meal prep containers and top with 1 chicken thigh. Garnish with cilantro.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
This post was originally published on April 16th, 2018, republished on March 12th, 2022, republished on October 15th, 2023, and republished on May 18th, 2024.
This was delicious! I highly recommend the optional olives. They make it special. I used white jasmine rice and had to add about half cup or so more water to get the rice tender. No biggie. Also we put grated pepper jack cheese on the skillet at the end to melt bc we love cheese. This is going to be a regular here!
Love the idea of adding some cheese! Glad it was a hit!
Delicious! Quick and easy to put together and tastes great — just what I want from a recipe! The only changes I made were to substitute corn for the peas since I don’t like peas that much and I let the chicken thighs with their rub sit covered in the fridge overnight. I may add some additional bell pepper and/or zucchini next time, not because the recipe needs it, but just to up the amount of healthy vegetables in the dish. Thanks for the Recipe!
Perfect! Such a great weeknight meal!
It is also one of my favorite recipes of all time! It is oh so flavorful! Thank you so much and I will be looking at your other Puerto Rican inspired recipes.
I’m so glad! One of our go-to dinners, too 🙂
A delicious and easy recipe that ALL my picky eaters seem to love. I’ve made this a few times now and zero complaints. Thank you for sharing and making dinner less stressful.
So happy to hear that!
I have used the same recipe for years. I am changing it to this. I used 1 1/2 C fire roasted tomato sauce and used the oven to finish it off. I forgot to add onion powder it was excellent.
Amazing! So glad you found this one!
I love this recipe! I just made it a second time. The chicken came out perfect and the seasoning is delicious. Both times using the same white basmati rice it absorbed all the liquid but did not get fluffy like normal. It left some crunchy bits despite cooking covered for extra time. The first time I made it I didn’t have the right size lid but this time I did. Any tips on adding water or heat so this doesn’t happen again?
Everything about this recipe is great! Very tasty! Only thing I did different was the tomato sauce I had wasn’t watery enough for the rice so I needed about another half cup or so.
So glad you enjoyed! And glad you were able to adjust with some more liquid.
I am not going to lie. I was looking for a recipe because mine is missing something from my grandmother’s recipe. I started watching the video and thought what does she know about Puerto Rican food then saw her grandmother so I believe it is authentic. I am giving it a try tonight thanks.
Oh and my cousin is a red head head and would be mad for assuming all Puerto ricans look like me 😂
Both my grandmother and mother are Puerto Rican! I hope you give this one a try and love it 🙂
I love the flavors and taste of this recipe, however, the rice is always kind of mushy and some rice uncooked at same time with a burnt bottom of rice. Would rate this higher if the rice actually came out with a good texture but something is off. (Sidenote: I was told to rinse rice always. so maybe added to mush) The seasoned chicken thigh recipe is DELISH! Would not change anything with that. Thanks again!
Hmm sounds like the heating element may have been uneven? I always rinse my rice before cooking!
1.5 lbs of chicken. To 1 cup of rice is crazy. My end result barely has any rice. I’d suggest 2 cups of rice and 2 cups of water.
Feel free to try it with more if you’d like! I’ve made this recipe countless times and the ratios work well for me 🙂
I have been making this dish foe 6 years and I wish I could find more like this. It’s absolutely delicious, unique, savory and spicy. I should have commented a long time ago to say thank you for bringing this in to my influence.
So happy it’s a favorite! Such a great cozy dinner 🙂
This recipe is terrific. I’ve never made arroz con pollo before (but eaten a lot of it in my life) and this made it totally unintimidating and the result blew out my taste buds in the best way 🙂 I used bone-in/skin-on chicken thighs, and I unfortunately had to omit the cilantro and swap the tomato sauce with a mix of chicken stock and tomato paste, but I included everything else, including the pigeon peas and olives, and this is now going to be a regular feature of my go-to dinners rotation. Thank you so much for sharing your mom’s recipe!
Perfect! So glad you loved it!
I made the recipe, Turned out great. But I made it .. .with brown rice instead.
To use brown rice you simply have to parboil it. Add 1 cup of rice to 6-8 cups boiling salted water then cook the rice for 13 minutes. Drain promptly then proceed exactly as the recipe reads, Same quantities of liquids, cooking times, etc.
I like red pepper in this dish. I top the rice mix with strips from a medium red pepper just before adding the chicken.
A very nice sazon mix.
Great tip on using brown rice! Glad you enjoyed!
This is easy and delicious. I like a little spicer so I added another jalapeño and some chipotle pepper. But, other than that, I made it by the recipe and it is very flavorful and delicious. Highly recommend you trying this recipe and tweak it a little to your taste
Perfect! Great tip. Glad you enjoyed!
I made this tonite on the recommendation of a friend. I did not use cilantro and substituted the water with chicken broth. Absolutely worth every spice and the time to put it all together. What a winner ! Just the right amount of heat, given I used a whole jalapeno pepper. I’m going to try it with shrimp as well.
Perfect! So happy you loved it!
A family favorite!
I’m so glad!
This was delicious! Will definitely make many more times. I reduced the cayenne pepper to 1/4 tsp for my taste and because I was adding the jalapeño. Also replaced the cilantro with flat leaf parsley. Thank you sharing this recipe!
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed!
This has become one of our family favorites. Thanks for sharing it.
So happy to hear that!
Any tips on undercooked rice? I followed the recipe exactly, cooked for 25 min and my rice is still hard!
So strange! Was the rice completely covered by the liquid? And was everything simmering in your pan? The rice won’t cook at *too* low a heat.
Loved this recipe and am about to make it for the second time however, I want to add more rice. How would I adjust the rice and water for 6 servings of this recipe?
I would make 1.5 servings of the recipe, or you can double it if you’d like!