Stewed Chicken "Dominican Style"

Sharing my dominican stewed chicken makes me so happy because this recipe is part of our tradition and culture. The pollo guisado dominicano, in spanish, is one of the main ingredients of "The Dominican Flag" of our cuisine, together with white rice and red beans. Why we call it so? Because we love this meal and is part of every dominican home. Who in our country haven't enjoyed this delicious food?

My mother cooks our dominican stewed chicken the traditional way by browning some sugar in oil, but I decided to make a sofrito instead. It's easier and I love the result. Try this recipe with my dominican stewed red beans and my white rice recipe. You'll be tasting our delicious dominican flag.

Ingredients:

6 chicken thighs cut into medium pieces (you can mix with drumsticks and chicken breasts)
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground complete seasoning (Badia is the one I use, but if you have another,
go ahead and use it, just make sure it doesn't have any salt)
Ground pepper to taste (just a bit)
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
2 big garlic cloves or 4 small ones, crushed or minced
1 cup minced white onions
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
5 stuffed olives cut into slices (optional)
3 cups water
2 tablespoons tomato sauce (I use Ragu flavored with meat 'cause it has veggies and tastes
really good)
2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil (remember that extra virgin olive oil is healthier)
1/2 cup tomato sauce

Directions:

Let's start cooking this dominican stewed chicken recipe by washing the chicken in a bowl with water and 1/2 cup white vinegar. Cut it into medium pieces and season with salt, oregano, complete seasoning and ground pepper. Mix everything well.

From the cup of green bell pepper take 1/4 cup and add it to the chicken. Then measure 1/3 cup and set it aside in a small bowl. Repeat these steps with the cups of red bell pepper and minced onions. Take the bowl with the 1/3 portions of vegetables to the refrigerator, we'll use them later. Now we use the remaining vegetables for the sofrito.

Let's keep marinating the chicken with half of the garlic, half of the stuffed olives and 1/4 cup cilantro. Add 1 cup water and 2 tablespoons tomato sauce. Mix well and marinate for 20 to 25 minutes.

Preheat a large nonstick saucepan on medium high heat. Pour 2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil. Saute the vegetables for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly with a nonstick cooking spoon to avoid scratching the saucepan. You can see my vegetables while cooking in the first picture to the right.

Add the 1/2 cup tomato sauce and mix (as I did in the second picture to the right). Cook for a minute, then add the chicken pieces one by one and set the liquid aside. Mix everything well and if it's dry, stir in 2 or 3 tablespoons of the marinade liquid you set aside.

Cook half covered, stirring frequently. Add the remaining 2 cups water to the marinade liquid and whenever the water in the saucepan consumes, pour in 1 or 2 large spoons of this liquid to the chicken and stir it carefully. I always check it often to avoid my chicken to dry too much and burn.

After aproximately 45 minutes and when the chicken is dry again, add the vegetables you kept in the refrigerator and the remaining marinade liquid. Stir and cook for 4 to 5 minutes more. I usually let my stewed chicken with some liquid, that way it isn't very thick at serving time.

You can accompany with my dominican stewed red beans and white rice. You'll see what a tasty combination is the "dominican flag" of our cuisine.

Salad Dreams You May Enjoy

I always use my imagination to get delicious salad ideas. You won't believe your eyes when you find out all the ingredients you have available to prepare your salad. I enjoy so much a healthy salad and I think you too.

I like to mix differents ingredients to taste their flavor together. I usually prepare my salad with cold ingredients that I combine with a warm ingredient to spice any flavor I want.

It is true that we have lots of salad dressings available at the supermarket, but sometimes it's faster, healthier and less expensive to make our own dressing. For example, my son loves ketchup, so sometimes I mix a spoon of sugar free or low sugar ketchup with a spoon of low fat mayonnaise, as result I'll have a tasty and quick salad dressing for my son's salad.

There are excellent salad ideas for you to enjoy. Here are some:

Hard boiled eggs, sliced or chopped
Green or black olives, whole or sliced
Any kind of low fat cheese, shredded, sliced or chopped
Green peas, beans or any cooked legume vegetable
Corn (I really like sweet corn kernels)
Sour cream or mayonnaise (low fat for a healthier salad)
Ham, turkey, salami or chicken; baked, smoked, sliced or how you preffer
Pasta
Tuna or salmon, smoked or baked
Carrots, beets, potatoes, etc.
Bacon (I love it!)
Tropical fruits like pineapple, mandarines, oranges, mangoes
Dried fruits

Vegetables are a must in our every day meals. I have to invent new and fun ways for my kids to eat their greens. Oscar loves salads and my Jose, well, he's starting the toddler years. Right now I'm teaching him to eat all my meals, so salads will be one of his favorites.