Haydée's Arroz Con Pollo

Cooking the Chicken:
Wash the chicken and trim any excess fat and skin.  Place the chicken in a glass bowl, salt and pepper generously.  Squeeze the lemons and pour the juice over the chicken and mix well.  Cover and place the bowl in the refrigerator for two hours.

Dice and set aside in separate bowls: onion, peppers, garlic and parsley.

Place a large aluminum pan (not Teflon) on the stove and add approximately 1/2 cup of olive oil. Don't even think of using Teflon, it won't work here!

Over a high flame, heat the oil.  Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and dry all pieces with a paper towel.  Reserve the lemon juice.

Place the chicken pieces in the hot oil and brown well.  Do not crowd pieces in the pan, you may have to do this in more than one batch. As each piece browns, remove and set it aside.

When all of the pieces are browned and set aside, add the onions to the pan and brown.  The bottom of the pan will be slightly sticky with bits of chicken.  This is good, since it adds a lot of flavor. Once you have heated the onions for a few minutes add the pepper, 1/4 of the parsley, and all of the garlic. At this time add 1/2 cup more of the olive oil.
Note:  if the mixture seems dry, you can use more oli.

When the mixture has browned and the onions are transparent, add the white wine and stir, scraping the bottom of the pan.  This will deglaze the pan and incorporate all of the browned bits, maximizing the flavor.

Add 1/2 of the tomatoes, the reserved lemon jiuce from the chicken marinade and the rest of the parsley.  Cook for about 10 minutes. Turn the heat off and leave the pan on the stove.

All of this can be done up to two hours before serving.

Cooking the Rice:
This takes approximately 30 to 40 minutes.

Using the same pan, heat the chicken and onion mixture.

Rinse the rice under cold running water until the water runs clear.  Drain and add the rice to the hot chicken mixture with three cups of chicken stock and one cup of orange juice.

Mix well and taste.  Add salt, stirring and adding to taste (it should be a little saltier than usual).

With heat on high, bring the rice-chicken-onion mixture to a boil.  cover and reduce the heat to a very low simmer.

Check the rice after approximately 30 minutes and monitor to see that liquid has been absorbed and rice is tender.

Serving:
Transfer to a large rimmed serving platter and garnish with asparagus, peppers and peas.

Bon Apetite!