Arroz Imperial Con Pollo - Imperial Rice With Chicken

"A favorite recipe among Miami-based Cubans. It is ideal for a luncheon or even for a brunch(so they tell me) because it is light, yet flavorful. Slightly labor-intensive but it is well worth the work. Great comfort food! Serve with an Argentinian Merlot Trumpeter or Beringer Alluvium white. Also, a nice salad of mixed greens and a deliciously cool fresh fruit dish. Found on cooksrecipes.com where I was able to put the exact quantities along with the ingredients."
 
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photo by Salvi Pascual photo by Salvi Pascual
photo by Salvi Pascual
photo by midalis1105 photo by midalis1105
Ready In:
2hrs 5mins
Ingredients:
22
Yields:
1 beautiful dish
Serves:
8-10

ingredients

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directions

  • Wash chicken and place in a stock pot.
  • Approximately 1-1/2 quarts to 2 quarts of water to fully cover meat.
  • Bring to a boil and simmer with 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves, 2 sticks celery, 2 carrots, all chopped into large chunks, and salt & pepper to taste.
  • Cook uncovered until the meat falls apart - keep checking, the broth and chicken.
  • Remove chicken and reserve the broth.(You will use some of the broth to make the rice).
  • Skim excess fat, if any, from the top and strain the broth.
  • When cool enough, shred chicken into small pieces by hand.
  • In a large frying pan, saute the bacon briefly.
  • Drain most, but not all of the excess fat.
  • Add a tiny bit of olive oil and heat.
  • Add onion, green pepper, green onions, oregano, and bay leaf.
  • Saute onions until translucent.
  • Add the garlic and saute for one additional minute, stirring occasionally.
  • Add tomato sauce, chicken and sherry.
  • Bring to a boil reduce heat and simmer(uncovered) approximately 15 minutes to thicken sauce.
  • Add peas, pimentos, lime juice and pimento stuffed olives, during the last five minutes of cooking.
  • Salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.
  • In a large covered pan, mix the rice with the chicken broth and/or paprika.
  • Bring to a boil, cover and cook over low heat until the rice is thoroughly cooked and most of the broth absorbed, about 20 minutes.
  • Add the mayonnaise to the cooked rice, a little at a time, and mix thoroughly.
  • Preheat oven to 325°F.
  • Spread 1/3 of the rice mixture onto the bottom of a 13x9x2" (we use a foil baking pan - ease of clean-up).
  • Layer chicken mixture on top of the rice.
  • Then add another layer of rice mixture.
  • Generously sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese on top of this layer.
  • Add the remaining rice.
  • Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese on the top layer, then spread the shredded Monterey Jack completely over the top.
  • Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned and the cheese melts completely and bubbles.
  • Enjoy, you've earned it!

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Reviews

  1. Good recipe but added Adobo to the rice and used Sofrito and Recaito instead of tomato sauce to make it more traditional and add a lot more flavor. Never took out the bacon just drained the excess grease to add more flavor to chicken
     
  2. I really tried to like this dish but it was bland and hot mayo and chicken was not to my liking I live in Miami and am currently eating this and don't like it Sorry
     
  3. I like Cuban food,but.this was surprisingly bland. Creamy yes, but bland.
     
  4. I love all Cuban food in general, but Imperial Rice is my favorite one. I love how you guys maintain the Cuban tradition of using mayo and not only cheese on top, which seems to be more wide spread in the restaurants here in Miami. As far as I can tell, the only recipe that I tried and I would rate according yours is the one located in http://recipescookbook.org/recipe/How-to-make-Imperial-Rice
     
  5. I made this recipe for about 12 adults. I followed the recipe, but used 2 whole chickens and obviously doubled most ingredients. Everyone loved it! It was amazing.
     
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Tweaks

  1. Good recipe but added Adobo to the rice and used Sofrito and Recaito instead of tomato sauce to make it more traditional and add a lot more flavor. Never took out the bacon just drained the excess grease to add more flavor to chicken
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p>Hello all, thank you for visiting My Page but forgive me for&nbsp;it is a work in progress! :) As I am sure you have noticed I changed my Chef Name to Manami which means love &amp; beauty. ;) Just thought I should get with the program - my geisha &amp; my icon! :) Don't fret, I won't change it again! <br /><br />I am 70 years young and I live in a nursing home, which is out of this world, I am treated like a princess and the world is my oyster! I have a private room and during the season I do taxes for most of the staff, as well as my personal clients that have been following me since I left the business world about 25 years ago. I was rear-ended by a van and it turned my whole world upside down. Why dwell on that? <br /><br />I am an American Jew (from NYC) who moved to Havana, Cuba when I was 2 1/2 years old, lived there until a few days after Castro took over and vamoosed it out of that country as fast as my legs would carry me! I&nbsp;was on a forced hiatus from the UofM, due to illness. <br /><br />From there my sister, mother and I went to NYC to work and my father went to Haiti in Port-Au-Prince, where he and my uncle had purchased some tiny cocoa plantations &amp; a chocolate factory - for the choccolate liquer - to make baking chocolate (the real bitter stuff). We joined my father about 2 months later where I spent 2 of the most carefree &amp; wonderful years of my life! It is the stuff that movies are made of! (A la Grace Kelly - even my clothes were like hers)&gt;&nbsp;</p> <p>I then continued my studies in upstate NY and hated it because it was too, too cold!:( Went back to NYC to work and see what I wanted to do with my life - I was all of 20 years old and had to drop out of school because of illness and then because of the weather! Yuck - so I got a job in a Textile Buying Office as a receptionist and soon I found myself buying trimmings! Loved it and was very happy with the work I was doing. <br /><br />However, I got an offer from two young guys who had a factory in Cleveland, Ohio, where they made Maternity Clothes and they wanted me to be in charge of the shipping dept, keep inventory and in my spare time - help with the designing!! I couldn't pass it up - the offer sounded so great and the salary was twice what I was making in the NYC. So I went to Cleveland, got married, had both my children and got a divorce 15 years later. <br /><br />Then my children and I moved to South Florida and have been here since 1978, I can't count that far back :) <br /><br />Learned how to do taxes with H&amp;R Block and worked simultaneously&nbsp;as a Supervisor in 2 offices&nbsp;for them for 15 years. Then after the accident everything went spiralling downwards until I could no longer walk alone even with a walker - so the next step was a wheelchair. Stayed at home with a lot of help (nurses, PT therapists) fixed the bathroom so I could bathe myself and fixed the kitchen so I could help warm-up meals (was taught how to cook in rehab) and so forth and so on. <br /><br />However, the fire department had other plans for me, I called them too often to pick me up off the floor - how embarassing! So they gave me a choice - either a home or they would have to call HRS! :( (very sad) <br /><br />It was there, in my home where I was robbed! <img title=Cry src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-cry.gif border=0 alt=Cry />&nbsp;All my cookbooks (all my Julia Childs Cookbooks, my Settlement Cookbook which had been my mothers - published in 1939 - with all her notes) my mother's cookbooks from Cuba &amp; Haiti, all my handwritten recipes. They also took all my Delft collection, some antiques that I had in the kitchen like my rolling pin, a beautiful old &amp; used wooden bowl, a charcoal-iron that was brought north when my parents left Haiti, it was hand-painted &amp; was gorgeous, as well as all the other things that are too numerous to mention! <br /><br />That proved to be the last straw &amp; from there it was an ALF,<img title=Yell src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-yell.gif border=0 alt=Yell /> which was horrible, and then on to another home where the administrator of that home became the administrator here and voila, here I am. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile /></p> <p>I have a beautiful large private room with a private&nbsp;bath, furnished to my liking: eclectic!&nbsp;<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /> My room is large enough to house my office and all the other odds and ends with which I like to surround myself.<br /><br />During tax season, mostly, my room is always full (of course I love it that way)! I have a blanket&nbsp;my daughter bought for me in New Mexico and that is on my bed. You guessed it - that is where everbody sits or on my great grandfather's arm chair which is in great shape. <img title=Smile src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-smile.gif border=0 alt=Smile />&nbsp;Update 01/11/2008 that time is here again :) Have started doing taxes already and not just regular taxes but corporations, partnerships and 1040X - ammended returns! Whoopee! I love the feeling I get when this time comes around and I get into gear!!! I love it! :) <br /><br />The head chef, the kitchen supervisor &amp; the dietician enjoy the recipes from Zaar; the ones that I post, as well as, the others. We are in the process of changing the menu right now - so we have been doing a lot of figuring. The administrator is so cute because every once in a while she asks for a recipe and then she gives me a pack of paper so I can print them. <img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /><br /><br />I am president of the resident council and most of the family members come to me to take care of their grievances - this way I do my part - and the staff can take care of the larger problems! It has been working for 10 years - why change if it ain't broke?<img title=Wink src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-wink.gif border=0 alt=Wink /></p> <p>Well, it's time to say hasta luego folks. <img title=Laughing src=/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-laughing.gif border=0 alt=Laughing /><br /><br /></p>
 
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