One thing that I've learned in the past year, is that the wider the base of my pan the better my rice comes out. I now reach for my double fryer pan vs. a pot when I make this as I think I get a better final product.

This makes an easy weeknight meal, served with a simple salad and of course a side of avocado as well!

Here is what you'll need:

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2/3 cup sofrito (I used Goya frozen sofrito)
• 1/4 cup olives with pimentos (I prefer Goya Alcaparrado)
• 1/2-3/4 cup frozen green peas
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• 2 packages Sazon: Con Culantro Y Achiote 
• 1 tsp Adobo
• 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2 cups hot water
• 2 cups white medium grain rice (I prefer Goya)

In a large double fryer pan over medium high, heat olive oil.  Add sofrito, olives, peas, chicken bouillon, Sazon and Adobo. Mix well to combine and cook for 3-5 minutes. 

Add shrimp and stir to coat shrimp with seasonings.
Add hot water and rice, and bring to a boil. Stir, reduce heat to medium-low and cover.

Let cook over medium-low, covered, without opening or stirring (really, no peaking!), for 22-25 minutes.  Uncover, stir once and serve.  Serves 4.

Source: Originally seen on The Novice Chef

• 1 lb ground beef
• 2 cups water
• 16 ounces tomato sauce
• 28 oz canned plum tomatoes, undrained
• 1/2 cup uncooked white rice
• 1 large green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 large red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 beef bouillon cube
• 1 teaspoon pepper

Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Season ground beef with salt and pepper, add to pot and cook until brown.  Drain excess fat.

Add remaining ingredients to pot, stir and break up tomatoes using a wooden spoon.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low.  Cover and simmer 30 minutes or until peppers are tender.  Serves 4.

Source: Taste of Home

As you're reading this post, I'm in Costa Rica and perhaps I have eaten this dish today.  Last weekend, I started getting really excited about our upcoming trip so I decided to make a traditional Costa Rican breakfast for us to chat over as we planned the final details of our trip.  Gallo pinto is part of the traditional Costa Rican breakfast, and in preparation of our trip I decided to try my hand at cooking it. 

As you can imagine, just like with any traditional dish, there are several variations to be found.  I settled on this one, and am really glad I did.  We eat a lot of rice and bean dishes, and this may be my favorite yet.  The big distinction in this preparation is that some of the vegetables are added close to the end of cooking which helps them retain their freshness and add so much flavor.  I can't wait to see how close this dish comes to the real thing. 

Here is what you'll need:

• 3 Tbsp olive oil, divided
• 1 cup Goya medium grain white rice
• salt to taste
• 1 small or medium onion, diced and divided
• ½ small red bell sweet pepper, diced and divided
• 3 tsp chopped fresh cilantro 
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup, 1/2 can, black beans, liquid reserved

In a large pan on medium high heat, add 2 Tbsp olive oil and saute dry rice for 2 minutes, stirring as needed.  Add salt.  Add 1/2 of the diced onion, 1/2 of the diced pepper and cilantro to the pan and saute minutes, stirring as needed.

Add chicken broth to the pot.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cover.  Cook for 20 minutes, resist any urges to lift the cover, until rice is tender.

Once rice is done, push rice to the edges of the pan leaving a well in the middle.  Add 1 Tbsp of olive oil to the pan inside the well, add remaining onion, pepper and beans.  Stir and saute for 2 minutes.  Add 1/4-1/2 cup of liquid from the beans to moisten the mixture and give it color.  Serves 4.

Chicken and rice - delicious!  Since JR and I were first together I've tried to make him a good chicken and rice dish.  After all, I knew I needed a few Puerto Rican dishes in my back pocket to keep him content between visits to his parent's home. 

I didn't have great success, and since no one in JR's family measures ingredients I was sure I'd never get it right.  Then I tried this recipe from Jessica.  This is the one, and JR agrees!  And with each attempt JR says my rice texture gets better (yay me!). 

I usually make this when I have half a rotisserie chicken to use up, and today was no different.  Since I use cooked chicken, I made a few modifications to the instructions.  There are a few things I'd like to point out: 1)  the bottom of my rice almost always burns a little (don't worry, that's the best part, and we fight for it!) and 2) for the sofrito, if you can't find it in the produce section of your grocery store, use this Goya Recaito from the freezer section (Don't waste you're money on this one.  Trust me.). 

By the way, if you've never seen Jessica's blog be sure to take a look around.  I think you will like what you see, and her stories are sure to make you chuckle.

My modifications are included here :

• 2 Tbsp olive oil 
• 3/4 cup sofrito or recaito (I prefer Sofrito Ponce, it's local, or homemade)
• 1/2 cup sliced olives with pimentos (I prefer Goya Alcaparrado)
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• 2 packages Sazon: Con Culantro Y Achiote 
• 2 tsp Adobo (I prefer Badia)
• 1/2 rotisserie chicken (I break up the breast meat and put the leg in whole) 
• 3 cups hot water
• 3 cups white medium grain rice (I prefer Goya)

In a large stock pot, heated over medium high, drizzle olive oil.  Add sofrito, olives, and chicken bouillon and cook for 3-5 minutes.  Add Sazon and Adobo, mixing well. Then add chicken and mix together making sure the chicken is coated.

No, this isn't Puerto Rican rice and beans as you may have initially thought.  Even though that's what we eat most often in our house, I saw this recipe and decided to give it a try.  Not only do we love beans, we also love chicken sausages and I'm always looking for new ways to use both in meals.  Bonus, this is a quick weeknight meal!

JR really liked this, but I'm not sure if I like the cumin in it.  It has nothing to do with the recipe, rather my struggle with cumin which is why I used so little.  Next time I may omit it.

 
I made a few changes to the recipe which I included here:

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 14 oz hardwood smoked chicken sausage
• 2 1/2 cups of cooked pink beans (about 1 1/2 (15 oz) cans)
• 1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes
• 1 cup chicken stock
• salt and pepper

• 1 1/4 cups medium-grain white rice
• 1/2 tsp olive oil
• salt

In a 3 or 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, heat olive oil.  Add onion, celery, pepper, salt and pepper to taste.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables softened and begin to brown.  Add sausage and continue cooking, stirring frequently until sausage begins to brown.  Lower heat to medium.  Add garlic and cumin, and continue cooking about 1 minute.

Add beans, tomatoes, and broth. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thick and the flavors have blended, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, add rice, 2 cups of water, a pinch of salt and olive oil to a medium pot.  Cover pot and turn heat to high.  Bring to a boil, then immediately turn heat to low.  Let cook about 15 minutes until you see air holes form throughout the rice. Fluff with a fork.

Serve beans over rice.  Serves 4.