We’re truly enjoying producing the Dining Traveler Cooking Series, a video series where we try recipes from our favorite destinations at home. For part three of the series, we shot at La Cosecha, a contemporary Latin American market in Washington, DC. This edition is dedicated to one of my favorite destinations, Puerto Rico. We’re going to make a quintessential Puerto Rican dish: arroz con gandules. Arroz con gandules is a savory yellow rice dish, often flavored with pork belly, sausage, or other goodies is a fixture on a Puerto Rican celebratory menu.
My Mom’s Arroz con Gandules Recipe
This recipe is adapted from my mother’s arroz con gandules recipe. Nothing says home to me more than walking into my parent’s house and smelling the salchichón cooking in the caldero. Treating myself to a bowl of this dish brings me so much comfort. Although arroz con gandules is a traditional Puerto Rican recipe, I find it a crowd-pleaser. My husband, who is from Holland, LOVES arroz con gandules. A lot of my family members have asked my mom how to make arroz con gandules and she graciously obliged and shared her recipe with me.
Easy and Low Cost
The recipe is simple to make, and I love that you can feed a big crowd at a relatively low food cost. I like to add salchichon (sausage) or pork belly for that extra flavor, but you can also omit those ingredients to make it vegan. Either way, it is a crowd-pleaser. This dish is one of the most traditional Puerto Rican dishes, and every family has a unique way of making it. I personally love to taste different versions.
Tips on How to Make Arroz con Gandules
Arroz con Gandules is easy to make but it takes patience and a good caldero to get that nice “pegao” the sticky part of the rice that some people like my dad love so much. My advice is to keep your eye on the pot, don’t over stir, and don’t use too much water. My mom also shared this tip that takes the rice to next-level flavor: cover the rice with a plantain leaf the last 5-10 minutes of cooking. It gives it a slight taste of “pastel.” The dish pairs perfectly with our pernil recipe. Also, it is easy to make your own sofrito at home. My friend Reina from Sofrito Project has a great sofrito recipe.
PrintRecipe: How to Make Arroz con Gandules
Arroz con Gandules (rice and pigeon peas) is a traditional Puerto Rican rice dish made with pigeon peas, sofrito, and usually pork belly or sausage.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 20 1x
- Category: Rice
- Cuisine: Puerto Rican
Ingredients
3 Cups White Rice
2–3 Tbsp Vegetable or Canola Oil
1 Cup of Chopped Salchichón or pork belly
3/4 Cup Sofrito
1/2 Spanish Style Tomato Sauce
1/2 Cup Pitted Spanish-Style Olives
2 12 oz Cans of Gandules
2 Tbsp of Achiote (Annatto Seed) Oil
1 Tbsp Sazón
1 Tbsp Adobo
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Optional: Banana Leaf
Instructions
Heat Oil in Caledro
While the oil heats, rinse the rice in a mesh colander with cold water, set aside
Add salchichón to the oil and cook for a few minutes. Add sofrito, sauce, and gandules, achiote oil, and spices.
Let it cook for 5 minutes until the flavors come together.
Add rice, stir, add enough water that it covers the rice around one inch. Probably around 5-6 cups.
Stir and cook in medium heat until the rice absorbs the water, around 10-15 minutes.
Once the water is absorbed, stir the rice again and cover.
In the words of my mom, “LEAVE THE RICE ALONE”. Let it cook for around 20 minutes, uncover, and stir it. If it feels too dry, add a little more water.
Lower the rice to medium-low heat.
It should take another 10 minutes to cook. If you’re using the banana leaf, place it at this time on top of the rice and cover.
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