Pollo Guisado

Across Latin America, cooks turn chicken, tomatoes, and spices into pollo guisado, a comforting stew that's endlessly adaptable. Especially in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, it's a weeknight favorite that's hearty enough to feed a family, simple enough to pull together with pantry staples, and flexible enough to welcome whatever vegetables or seasonings you have on hand. Some versions are briny with olives, others sweet with bell peppers. In this recipe, I lean savory, with inviting chunks of potatoes and carrots to accompany the meat. Whatever supporting ingredients you add, all versions share the same core: tender chicken simmered until it soaks up a deeply flavored tomato-based sauce.

I didn't grow up with this dish, but once I stumbled across it several years ago, it quickly became a regular in my kitchen. What I love most is how flexible it is. There's no single "right" way to make pollo guisado, so this version pulls from a few traditions to create something bright, herby, and a little spicy. It’s become a dish I cook for family gatherings or just for my fiancé and me on a weeknight.

Getting the chicken right at the very beginning makes all the difference in the flavor of the final dish, and that starts with seasoning the meat at least 30 minutes before it hits the pot. There are a couple of reasons to salt the chicken in advance. First, it flavors the meat all the way to the bone. Second, it dries the skin so it can brown instead of steaming. In many versions of pollo guisado, the skin is removed and discarded, but doing that means losing out on a lot of flavor. By crisping the skin before braising, you keep it from turning rubbery and, more importantly, you render out its fat, which becomes the base for frying the onions and tomatoes.

From there, the sauce is built on a blend of tomato paste, garlic, dried chiles, and warm spices like cloves, coriander, and cumin. A touch of bouillon powder enhances the chicken flavor in the broth, adding deep savoriness. To pack in even more chicken flavor, the carcass (the remaining backbone and any bones after breaking down the chicken) can be added to the pot along with the browned pieces, where it slowly simmers until the meat is tender and infused with the sauce. Once the chicken is done, the meat is removed from the pot and the potatoes and carrots finish cooking in the reduced broth until they're creamy and coated. The result is a stew with a glossy, velvety sauce that clings to every bite of meat and vegetable. All you need is a handful of cilantro and some crusty bread to mop up the pot.