Cooking Mexican Spanish Style Cuisine

I think it's pretty safe to say that most people love Spanish style food, whether it's Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rican or Dominican does not make a difference to me. All Spanish style cuisine tastes wonderful. Although I have had some that I would not repeat having, but for the most part I love Spanish style food. During the time I lived in New York was 1994-2002 and I made several friends that were Puerto Rican, Dominican and Mexican. They all thought me how to cook authentic Spanish style cuisine. I do have a few favorite dishes and one of them is "Pollo Guisado" otherwise known as Stewed Chicken in English. Pollo Guisado is amazingly tender and juicy, full of flavor and spices and is usually served over Rice. I personally like to serve Pollo Guisado with yellow rice, pink beans and fried sweet plantains. Below is the recipe for the Pollo Guisado, Yellow Rice and the Pink beans. My beer of choice to match to this dish would defiantly be Corona Extra. The bold flavors of the beer would accentuate this amazing dish beautifully. You could go with another Mexican beer called Tecate, but I find that this beer leaves a lingering bitter taste after you drink it. So I choose the unparalleled flavor, the unmistakable color and the one of a kind taste that Corona Extra offers.

Pollo Guisado Ingredients (this will feed a family of 6)
• 2 ½ lbs of chicken (can use boneless, skinless breast or skinless thighs)
• 1 Medium Yucca Root (or 2 small)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons Sofrito
• 3 to 4 small cans Heinz tomato sauce (this will depend on how much chicken you use)
• 1 Jalapeno (fresh use half- if in a jar use about 8 slices)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 ½ tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 lg Onion (chopped)
• 1 lg Bell Pepper (chopped)
• 7 Cloves Garlic finely chopped (I sometimes use 8 or 9 cloves)
• ½ a bunch of Cilantro (finely chopped)
• 4 Packages of Goya Sazone (this can be found on the international food isle)

Pollo Guisado Preparation

This dish can be made in the Oven, Stove or Crock-pot

First make sure that you wash your chicken before you work with it. After washing place chicken in a large mixing bowl, add 4 packages of sazone, white vinegar, salt, chopped garlic and sofrito mix together and put the seasoned chicken into the crock-pot. Add 3 cans tomato sauce, chopped onion, bell pepper, jalapeno and cilantro and mix together, if the sauce does not cover the chicken then add the 4^th can of tomato sauce. Peel yucca root and cut into 2 inch cubes then add to the chicken mixture.

Crock-pot cooking instructions- Place all ingredients in the crock-pot and cook on high for several hours, usually takes 6 hours or until chicken is tender.

Stove cooking instructions- Place all ingredients in a large saucepan and cook on medium heat for 1 hour 20 minutes. If you cook this dish on the stove, it will require more attention and can possibly burn.

Oven cooking instructions- Place all ingredients in a 9 by 13 inch pan, cover with tinfoil and bake on 350 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes.

Yellow Rice Ingredients and Preparation
• 4 Cups water
• 2 Cups Jasmine Rice (or plain long grain white rice)
• 2 Packages of Goya sazone seasoning
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon sofrito

Bring 4 cups water to a boil, add rice, sazone, olive oil and sofrito and stir until it boils again. Turn down to simmer, cover and let simmer for 20-25 minutes. Note- do not check on the rice until at least 20 minutes have passed as this will cause the rice to turn out mushy. Rice cooks itself. After the rice is done, fluff with a fork and serve.

Pink Beans Preparation
• 2 cans pink beans
• A Pinch of cilantro
• 1 Garlic clove (chopped)
• 1 package sazone
• 2 tablespoons sofrito

Mix all ingredients together in a medium saucepan and simmer on low for 30-40 minutes. Make sure that you do not have to stir the beans too often; this will cause the beans to burst open. Cooking them on low prevents this from happening.

References for this article came from mexico.com and mexicanfood.about.com