Arroz Con Pollo ~ Rice with Chicken ~ Estilo Puertoriqueno ~ Puerto Rican Style

This was my first attempt at making arroz con pollo.  As it was one of my mother's signature dishes and no matter where she would go people would request that she make this dish for them, I was a bit intimidated.  This is what lead to my fear of making this dish.  I think that since my mother's rendition of this dish was so phenominal, that the dish would prove to be too difficult, and that I would some how let her down because mine would not live up to her high standards.  Plus, would it taste as good as my mother's?  When I thought about my mother though, I remembered that she had to begin somewhere, and that by the time I came around she had had the benefit of cooking for over 20 years.  Therefore, when I finally cut myself some slack the dish began to flow for me.  Some of the techniques that I had watched my mother do quickly came back to me and that made it so much easier to create this dish.  I actually felt like her hands were guiding me through the dish and in the end the finished product while not 100% my mom's version, it was very delicious!  My husband, Michael and my daughter, Autumn absolutely loved it.  While there is room for improvement I am quite pleased with the fact that I finally attempted this family heirloom recipe.  We were blessed with some avocadoes that came straight from from my aunt's (Titi Fifa) farm
in Puerto Rico.  She had sent my father a care package of avocadoes and he shared two of them with us.  it was the perfect addition to our meal.  The avocadoes were creamy just like eating butter, yet they were quite sweet.  And they had that tropical island scent to them.  As I made the arroz con pollo I felt like I needed something to go over the rice adn so I whipped up a small pot of gandules guizado (stewed pigeon peas).  For the recipe see my post from Christmas 2008. 

Arroz Con Pollo
Sofrieto Ingredients:

1 tbsp achiote
1 head of garlic, minced
1 cup oil
1 onion, chopped
½ can tomato sauce
1 tsp. dried oregano
½ cup stew tomatoes
3 agiesas dulces (leave out if you can't find these)
3 cups long grain rice
cilantro
1 lb. chicken parts
green bell pepper, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
olives, 15 to 20
capers, 1 tablespoon

Directions:
Heat oil on medium heat. Cook the Sofrieto for 3 minutes. Add tomato sauce and stew tomatoes. Put in washed pieces of chicken. Add cilantro. Add olives and capers a little tomato sauce on top. Put on low heat and cover. Cook for 15 min. Uncover, turn meat, stir and cover. Cook for another 10 min.
Wash rice, add rice. Stir up with other ingredients. Put on achiote for colo. Stir fry rice on med heat. Add hot water to an inch above rice. Salt to taste. Cover and cook high heat to boil. In 5 min when the water disappears, turn rice and turn heat to low. Cook on low for another 15 min. Clean off top of pot.