I love trying foods from different cultures and learning the history behind the ingredients and recipes. This recipe I developed for Pollo Guisado is influenced by Dominican and Puerto Rican flavors.

The key to this Pollo Guisado is the homemade sofrito and braising the chicken after browning.

In case you have never heard of it, sofrito (also called soffritto in Italian and refogado in Portuguese) is a sauce made with a blend of peppers, tomatillos/tomatoes, and aromatics. It is very popular as a base in many Latin American, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese dishes.

Each culture has its own variation for sofrito, changing some of the ingredients or the preparation. My recipe for sofrito that I used for this Pollo Guisado is inspired by multiple recipes I have seen from various cultures.

I think there are store-brand sofritos on the market, but try to do it homemade. It takes just about 5 minutes to whip up. I can’t imagine the store-brand version tasting as fresh or flavorful as homemade.

Furthermore, sofrito also freezes very well. You can make it in large batches and have it on hand for future dishes. The recipe below makes about 4 cups, double what you need for this Pollo Guisado. Freeze the rest or use it to make rice to serve with the chicken.

For the Pollo Guisado, you can use any mix of chicken pieces you want with the exception of chicken breasts. I think they would end up too dry for this dish due to the lower fat content. I have cooked this stew with all drumsticks and with a whole chicken I cut up (reserved the breasts for another recipe).

You will want to marinate the chicken for at least 30 minutes, but several hours would be best.

When slow-cooking any meat, you want to make sure you brown it first. As a result, you will get deeper flavor, better texture, and the final dish will be more visually appealing.

After browning, add in the reserved marinade and the tomato paste-broth mixture and bring to a boil.

Cover the pan and let chicken simmer over low-heat for 45 minutes.

You will end up with fall-off-the-bone tender chicken. 

However, I don’t like to stop here. I prefer to reduce the cooking liquid about 50% by uncovering the pot and increasing the cooking temperature to medium-high. The result will be a thicker, flavor-packed stew that you will want to pour all over rice.

You can serve the Pollo Guisado with plain white rice, cilantro-lime rice, rice and beans, or yellow rice.

I have also eaten the leftovers as a burger and it was delicious. You pretty much can’t go wrong.

This will easily become one of your favorites so save it now to try later: