Yield: 8 servings
Arroz Con Gandules (Puerto Rican Rice and Pigeon Peas)
Arroz con Gandules is Puerto Rico's national dish served year round, but especially for the holidays. It's a flavorful rice dish made with gandules (pigeon peas), green olives, and sofrito.
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon or diced ham, optional
- 2 tablespoons oil, vegetable oil, olive oil, or achiote oil
- 1 cup canned gandules, or frozen, drained from the water
- ¾ cup tomato sauce
- ½ cup green olives, sliced or whole, or capers
- ¼ cup sofrito, thawed if using store bought frozen sofrito
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon adobo seasoning
- ½ packet Sazon con culantro y achiote, or 1 tsp homemade sazon seasoning
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- 3 ½ cups water, or low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 ½ cups arroz Rico, medium grain white rice
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Instructions
- Heat a large heavy bottomed pot like a dutch oven, or a caldero if you have one, over medium heat. If using ham or bacon, slowly cook the meat until crispy, remove meat from pot and set aside leaving the drippings. If not using meat, add oil before continuing with the next step.
- Add the gandules, tomato sauce, green olives, sofrito, salt, adobo seasoning, sazon, black pepper, and cumin. Stir to fully combine and cook for about 5 minutes. Once the mixture becomes fragrant, pour in the water and bring it to a boil over high heat.
- Using a fine mesh sieve, rinse your rice well with water in the sink and then add the rice to the pot. Stir until rice is submerged and pigeon peas are distributed evenly and bring to a boil once more.
- Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and cook for about 25 minutes. You can add your ham or bacon back in now if you want, or wait to add it in again before serving. It is important to keep the pot covered with a tight fitting lid to trap the steam and keep the moisture in, to properly cook the rice. If you don’t have one, make one out of foil.
- Optional: Half way through cooking, remove the lid and stir by folding rice from the bottom up, but do not disturb the rice at the bottom of pan. This is a very touchy subject as some Puerto Ricans insist that you don't stir the rice while cooking to get the best pegao (the crispy, golden layer of rice that forms at the bottom of the pot). However, I find stirring it once helps it cook more evenly. Whatever you do, do not stir it more than once.
- After simmering for 25 minutes, remove the arroz con gandules from the heat and let it sit untouched (with the lid on) for 10 minutes. This is called letting the rice "steam". The rice is done once all the liquid is absorbed. After letting the rice rest, remove the lid, fluff/stir the rice and serve warm!
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Notes
Storage: Store leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Reheat: Add the rice to a microwave safe bowl and pour in 2 teaspoons of water and stir. This will keep it from drying out. Set the microwave to 1 minute, stirring as needed.
Freeze: Transfer cooled arroz con gandules to an airtight freezer safe container. Freeze for up to 3 months. For best results, transfer to the fridge to thaw before reheating.
Video
Nutrition
Serving: 1 serving, Calories: 388kcal, Carbohydrates: 66g, Protein: 8g, Fat: 10g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 5g, Trans Fat: 0.03g, Cholesterol: 7mg, Sodium: 786mg, Potassium: 252mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 1g, Vitamin A: 148IU, Vitamin C: 2mg, Calcium: 27mg, Iron: 4mg