This is a Puerto Rican-style Fricase de Pollo. It is flavorful tender chicken simmered in a delicious broth with the flavors of Puerto Rican food.
This Fricase de Pollo is made with chicken thighs, carrots, potato, and a touch of alcohol. The alcohol is what makes it a fricassee, if not it will just be a Puerto Rican pollo guisado.
This is one of those saucy recipes that is super good to have with just a piece of soft bread to dunk in the stew. Or go classic and serve this with a classic white rice recipe.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It is a simple one-pot recipe just like this delicious beef stew.
- It is a great recipe to make and freeze.
Recipe Ingredients
- Chicken thighs- For this recipe I used chicken thighs because that’s the part of the chicken that I prefer. But you can use any part you like.
- Vegetables- For the vegetables I used the classic carrots and potatoes. I also like to add corn.
- Base- The base is the puerto rican sofrito and tomato sauce. This is part of what gives the dish that unique flavor.
- Seasonings– The seasonings used were garlic & onion powder, salt, chicken bouillon,n and sazon to add color.
- Bay leaves- I always love to add bay leaves to basically every stew I make. If you don’t have bay leaves you can add a couple of cilantro twigs.
- Beer- When making a fricase I always like adding alcohol in the form of beer. This is just because I like the flavor it gives the food. But a lot of people that make frizase use wine instead.
- Garlic paste- As always, I use a fresh garlic paste to add flavor.
How to Make Fricase De Pollo
- Photo 1: The first step is to cut the vegetables. Peel the carrots and potatoes. Then what I like to do is cut about half of the carrots into very thin ¼ inch thick pieces and the rest to about ½ inch thick. I do the same with the potatoes. I do this so the small vegetable pieces disintegrate and thicken my broth.
- Photo 2: Then before cutting the chicken thighs make sure to remove the excess fat. We want to remove only the big chunks and we want to still keep the little pieces of fat. These will render and add flavor to the broth. Then cut each thigh into 3 pieces.
- Photo 3: In a big pan we add oil and set it to high heat. We wait for the pan to get hot and add the chicken. You always want to hear that sizzle of the meat hitting the hot pan. We sear for about 2 ½ minutes per side.
- Photo 4: Then we add the garlic paste, seasonings, sofrito, and tomato sauce. We want to cook for 5 minutes while stirring a couple of times. This is done so we can sweat the sofrito before adding the rest of the ingredients.
- Photo 5: Then we need to add all the vegetables, bay leaves, beer, and water. Then give this a good stir while scraping with your spoon the bottom of the pan. This is to release all the bits stuck from sauteing the chicken.
- Photo 6: Then we cover and cook for 30 minutes. Make sure to stir a couple of times to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom of your pan.
Recipe Tips
- This is a stew with lots of broth, but if you like a ticker broth all you have to do is cook this uncovered. This will help evaporate a lot of the liquid.
- If you want to avoid the fat in the broth, Just place a paper towel over it and then remove it. The fat will stick to the paper and you’ll be able to remove most of it.
Common Questions
Can I make chicken fricassee without alcohol?
You can make it but the taste won’t be the same. If you trying to avoid alcohol, you can add any alcohol free beer. This will help you keep the taste.
More Saucy Meals To Try
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Puerto Rican Fricase de Pollo
One of the best ways to make a big chicken stew is this Fricase de Pollo. Delicious over rice or just with a piece of bread on the side!
Ingredients
- 2 carrots
- ½ pound potatoes
- 2 pounds chicken thighs
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 2 tablespoons sofrito
- 2 tablespoons tomato sauce
- 2 teaspoons garlic paste
- 1 ½ teaspoon sazon
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- 7 ounces beer
- 3 cups water
- 3 bay leaves
Instructions
- Wash and peel the vegetables. Cut the carros into ¼ inch thin circles. Cut the potatoes some to a half inch thick and some into smaller pieces.
- Take the chicken and remove all the excess fat. Cut each thigh into 3 pieces.
- In a big pan over high heat add the oil. Sear the meat for 5 minutes and flip halfway through. Add the sofrito, tomato sauce, garlic, chicken bouillon, salt, sazon and the garlic and onion powder. Saute for 5 minutes and stir a couple of times.
- Add all the carrots, potato, beer, water and bay leaves. Lower the heat to medium high and cook covered for 30 minutes. Serve and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
- Vegetables- I added the typical vegetables used but you can add more if you like like corn.
- Stew thickening- The way I make this recipe is so that we have a good amount of broth left so we can pour over the meat and rice. But if you like the stew to be thicker just cook it uncovered so more liquid can evaporate. Or insted of cutting half of the vegetables small you can cut most of them small so they can help tp thicken the caldito.
Nutrition
Calories: 225kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 58mg | Sodium: 1179mg | Potassium: 341mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 2675IU | Vitamin C: 8mg | Calcium: 26mg | Iron: 1mg
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