Asopao de Pollo (Puerto Rican Chicken Stew)
Asopao de Pollo is a deliciously hearty Puerto Rican chicken stew made with sofrito, adobo seasoning, and rice. It’s the perfect meal for a cold winter night, or whenever you’re feeling under the weather.
If you like Puerto Rican recipes and stews like Sancocho, Carne Guisada, and Asopao de Gandules you are going to love this dish.
Asopao de Pollo is arguably the most popular Puerto Rican stew/soup and for good reason. It combines all of my favorite Puerto Rican cooking staples like sofrito, sazon seasoning and achiote oil.
With all of that flavor packed into one pot, this savory dish is guaranteed to become your new favorite spin on chicken soup with rice.
How to Make Asopao de Pollo
Featured Review
Thank you for your recipe. I’ve made it many times, and use it as the base for my personal asopao recipe. My Puerto Rican parents approved 🙂
Rafa
Substitutions
Some of the ingredients in Asopao de Pollo can be difficult to track down if you live in a smaller city like me.
Here are some accessible substitution ideas that will result in great flavor:
- achiote oil: my recipe for achiote oil is super easy to make in minute but if you don’t have annatto seeds you can also buy it pre-made.
- adobo seasoning: if you can’t find this spice blend make your own with equal parts garlic powder, oregano, paprika, & onion powder
- sazon seasoning: if you can’t find this spice blend make your own with equal parts annatto powder, oregano, garlic powder, cumin & coriander
- sofrito: if you don’t have time to make sofrito you can swap it for chopped yellow onion, minced cloves garlic, minced cilantro, and chopped bell pepper
Customize your Asopao
Asopaos (or stews, in English) are one of my favorite categories of dishes to make because of how easy they are to customize.
Here are some of my favorite ways to mix things up in this Puerto Rican Chicken Stew if I’m feeling like breaking away from tradition:
- Add corn – adding in a bit of frozen or canned corn, or even fresh corn can be a delicious addition.
- Spicy – add a jalapeño to your sofrito or just diced up with the carrots and celery to amp up the heat .
- Vegetarian – I haven’t tried this trick yet but with all the flavor layering, I’m sure this stew would be equally delicious with tofu swapped for the chicken. Let me know if you try it!
More Cozy Puerto Rican Recipes
Storing Leftovers
Stews and soups are such awesome meals to make for family because they usually come together in one pot and make excellent leftovers.
Asopao de Pollo in particular, is almost always better the next day once the flavors have time to develop.
Keep it in an airtight container in your fridge and it should stay fresh for up to 5 days. You can also freeze it and reaheat if you can’t finish it all in 5 days!
Buen Provecho!
Asopao de Pollo (Puerto Rican Chicken Stew)
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minute
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Soup, Main Dish, Entree
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Puerto Rican, Latin
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Asopao de Pollo is a deliciously hearty Puerto Rican chicken stew made with sofrito, adobo seasoning, and rice. It’s the perfect meal for a cold winter night, or whenever you’re feeling under the weather.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp achiote oil or olive oil
- 2 lbs chicken thighs, chopped into bite sized pieces
- 2 tsp adobo seasoning (see note for substitutions)
- 2 tsp sazon seasoning (see note for substitutions)
- 1/4 cup sofrito (see note for substitutions)
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 carrot, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 3 bay leafs
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1 cup water
- 1 1/2 cups medium grain white rice, rinsed
- 1 cup peas
- 1/2 cup pimento stuffed olives, drained and sliced in half
- salt & pepper to taste
- fresh cilantro to garnish
- a squeeze of lime to garnish
Instructions
- In a large pot heat the oil over medium heat before adding in the chicken and sprinkling with adobo & sazon seasoning. Cook the chicken for a few minutes, turning regularly to brown on each side.
- Add sofrito, bell pepper, carrot and celery to the pot and cook for a few more minutes or until the onions and garlic become fragrant.
- Toss in bay leafs, tomato sauce, stock, and water and bring to a boil.
- Once the liquid reaches a boil, add rice, lower to medium, cover and cook for 15 minutes or until rice is cooked through.
- Once it’s cooked, add peas and olives; stir and cook for another minute or two.
- Taste before adding salt and pepper. Garnish with extra cilantro and a squeeze of lime juice.
Notes
Substitutes:
- adobo seasoning: equal parts garlic powder, oregano, paprika, & onion powder
- sazon seasoning: equal parts annatto powder, oregano, garlic powder, cumin & coriander
- sofrito: 1 chopped yellow onion, 4 minced cloves garlic, 1 cup minced cilantro, and 1 chopped bell pepper
Very tasty dish. Add me to your mailing liar for more receipes.
I buyhousesfast33@yahoo.com.
Andrea
This was delicious. My husband raved about it. I’m making it again tonight.
I am so glad to hear you loved it Meg! Thank you so much for your comment and review.
Salima, I followed your recipe until In your instructions #2- no inclusion of garlic or onions were included in the enumerated recipe.
What are the correct amounts of garlic and onions are needed? Altho I added them to the measurements I thought would be fine.
Cecelia, as mentioned in the directions, the onions and garlic come from the sofrito. There is no need to add additional onion or garlic.
That was quite tasty. Something I’d definitely make again.
I’m planning on making this for a food tasting. I would definitely need to triple the recipe. My pots are not so large, but I do have a “canning” pot. I’m hoping this will suffice, but I want to take a short cut and add cooked rice at the end. Do you think that would be ok? Not having cooked in such a large pot or quantity, I don’t want there to be any issues. Thanks.
I haven’t tripled this recipe before, but it sounds like it will work!
This recipe came out great! Very close to my Grandma’s. We’re vegetarian so we used Gardein Chikn Strips. Amazing!
Great recipes!
Thank you for your recipe. I’ve made it many times, and use it as the base for my personal asopao recipe. My Puerto Rican parents approved 🙂
Hi Rafa, thanks for the review and comment! The fact that you and your Puerto Rican parents approve is the best compliment. Buen provecho!
How long can we freeze it for? Also, what’s the best way to reheat from frozen?
Hi Alexandria! You can freeze leftovers for up to 1 month. I would recommend reheating them in a pot on the stovetop over medium low heat.
Thank you for the recipe. This is very delicious and so far my 2nd time making it. My better half is Puerto Rican and I enjoy making different dishes that she is familiar with. She loved this asopao as did I.
The 1st time I made the asopao she walked in the house from work and said that it smelled just like her abuelas home 🙂
Hello 😀 I made this once before and the rice came out very mushy. I wonder if I didn’t rinse it enough. I am going to make it again tomorrow because I love this dish. My mother-in-law made this for me all the time and I miss it. Question is, should the rice be mushy or did I do something wrong? Thank you in advance and love your site and recipes.
Hi Frank, thanks for your comment and review! The rice will be somewhat soft, as it cooks in the broth, but it shouldn’t be totally mushy. It’s hard to know what went wrong without knowing how closely you followed the recipe, but you could try cooking the rice separately and adding to the broth when serving for a less mushy end result. Best of luck!
I tried your recipe tonight and it came out so good! How do I keep the rice from soaking up the broth? Do I add more when I warm it up? I want it to stay soupy lol
Hi Florence! If you’re planning to have leftovers and want to prevent the rice from soaking up the broth, I would cook the rice separately and add to the broth when reheating.
Is there a way to do this in the crock pot? Normally I don’t do a lot a crock pot or slow cooker stuff, we’ve been so crazy busy lately. If not I guess I could wing it. My husband did a tour in PR for hurricane Maria so I was fortunate enough to learn some great recipes. I know everyone’s pernil is different I’m going to try yours.
Yes Nikki, a crockpot will work!