Yield: 8 servings
Arroz Con Gandules (Puerto Rican Rice and Pigeon Peas)
Arroz con gandules, also known as Puerto Rican Rice with Pigeon Peas, is Puerto Rico's national dish for a reason! It's a flavorful rice dish made with gandules (pigeon peas), green olives and sofrito.
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon or 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
- 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 homemade sazon seasoning
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- 3 ½ cups water
- 3 cups arroz Rico, medium grain white rice, rinsed
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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, ground black pepper and ground cumin. Stir to fully combine.
- Once the mixture becomes fragrant, pour in the water and bring it to a boil over high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil and then add the rice. Stir until rice is submerged and pigeon peas are distributed evenly.
- 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. Traditionally the rice would be covered with a banana or plantain leaf. However, a tight fitting pot lid will work just fine!
- About 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 - some Puerto Ricans insist that you don't stir the rice while cooking to get the best pegao, crispy rice bottom. However, I find stirring it once cooks everything more evenly. Whatever you do, make sure you only stir it once or the rice will become sticky/mushy.)
- After simmering for 25 minutes, remove the arroz con gandules from the heat and let it sit for an additional 10 minutes before serving. This is called letting the rice "steam". The rice is done once all the liquid is absorbed.
- After letting the rice rest for about a half hour, remove the lid. Fluff and stir the rice, then serve warm!
Video
Notes
Storage: Store leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days. To reheat, just 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.
Rinse The Rice: It is super important that you rinse your rice. Use a fine mesh sieve and rinse your rice with water in the sink. This quick step will save you a lot of heartache later by giving you perfectly cooked rice.
Different Types Of Rice: Medium grain rice is the traditional rice used in Puerto Rico to make Arroz Con Gandules. If for some reason you can not find medium grained rice, the next best substitute is to use long grain rice. Short grain rice is the worst choice because the final dish will just be too sticky.
Don’t Over Stir: You can not stir this Puerto Rican rice over and over again, otherwise you will wind up with mushy rice and without a crispy pegao on the bottom. I recommend only stirring it when you add the rice and then once again midway through cooking.
Tight Fitting Lid: Make sure your pot or caldero has a tight fitting lid to ensure your rice gets the proper texture. If you don’t have one, make one with foil.
Capers: If you want to use capers (with or in place of the olives), add a couple of tablespoons of capers - without juice - when the recipe calls for olives!
Nutrition
Serving: 1 serving, Calories: 441kcal, Carbohydrates: 77g, Protein: 9g, Fat: 10g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 5g, Trans Fat: 0.03g, Cholesterol: 7mg, Sodium: 786mg, Potassium: 263mg, Fiber: 5g, Sugar: 1g, Vitamin A: 148IU, Vitamin C: 2mg, Calcium: 27mg, Iron: 4mg