Puerto Rican Rice & Beans with Sofrito (Arroz con Gandules)
This family recipe for Puerto Rican-style rice and beans (famously known as Arroz con Gandules) is full of authentic flavors, and easy to make. Made on the stovetop in one pot, it’s ready within 30 minutes! Perfect for serving with chicken, pork, or as a stand-alone meal.
If you’re looking for more traditional Puerto Rican recipes, a cozy pot of arroz con gandules is a good place to start. This staple of our cuisine is extremely popular, for good reason! We serve this classic one pot dish with almost anything savory.
It’s loaded with island flavors similar to my mom’s Arroz con Pollo, but comes together in even less time!
If you’re looking to put together a really special Puerto Rican meal, serve this rice dish with meat stuffed Pasteles and finish the night with my mom’s classic Flan recipe for dessert.
Matrimonio (“the marriage”)
This dish is a staple in many Latin cultures around the world, often referred to as matrimonio (which means, the marriage) for how well they pair together.
Not only are these Puerto Rican rice and beans super affordable, with the right ingredients, they are a truly satisfying and flavor packed meal.
Another commonly used name for this version of rice and beans is Arroz con Gandules (rice with ganduels.)
Featured Review
A great recipe and highly loved in my house. I purchased the Goya Sazon (the Con Culantro y Achiote version) and it was perfect. Made my own Adobo blend to use. Will be making again! Thank you.
Tim D
How to make Arroz con Gandules
Dry beans?: if using dry gandules, cover with water and a sprinkle of salt the night before and soak. Add the liquid to the pot with the gandules.
Leftovers?: Freeze in an airtight container or freezer bag and microwave in 1 minute intervals until warm and fluffy when ready to serve.
What are Gandules?
Gandules (also known as Pigeon Peas) are round beans with a rich creamy flavor. They are a shade of bright green when fresh but come in a beige/brown/green color when canned.
You can find gandules used in many rice dishes and soups across the Caribbean. Buy gandules online or ask about them at your local grocery store.
Traditional Puerto Rican Spices
Today we’re using two popular Puerto Rican spice blends, sazon and adobo.
My recipes use a blend of Caribbean spices like cumin, paprika, ground anatto, oregano, garlic, onion, and coriander.
You can also buy sazon seasoning and adobo seasoning online and at many grocery stores.
More Puerto Rican Rice & Beans
Buen provecho,
Puerto Rican Rice & Beans with Sofrito (Arroz con Gandules)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 servings
- Category: Puerto Rican, Rice and Beans, Rice
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Puerto Rican
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This family recipe for Puerto Rican-style rice and beans (famously known as Arroz con Gandules) is full of authentic flavors, and easy to make. Made on the stovetop in one pot, it’s ready within 30 minutes! Perfect for serving with chicken, pork, or as a stand-alone meal.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp achiote oil or olive oil
- 4 tbsp sofrito*
- 30 oz (2 cans) gandules (with the liquid)
- 1/2 cup tomato purée
- 1/2 cup pimento olives, halved
- 1 tsp sazon seasoning*
- 3 tsp adobo seasoning*
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups white rice (medium grain), rinsed
- optional: cilantro to garnish
Instructions
- Sauté oil with sofrito. In a heavy bottomed pot heat the achiote oil over medium high heat. Toss in the sofrito and cook until fragrant.
- Add gandules, seasoning and broth. Add in gandules (and their liquid), tomato puree, olives, adobo seasoning, sazon seasoning, and water. Turn the heat to high and bring the liquid to a boil, stirring to combine.
- Add rice and cook. Once the liquid begins to boil, add rice, stirring and returning to a boil before covering and lowering heat to low. Cook for 20 minutes or until the rice is fully cooked.
- Let sit then serve. Let the rice sit on the stovetop (with the heat turned off) covered for at least 10 minutes before uncovering and fluffing. Serve the rice and beans with additional cilantro and a splash of hot sauce. Enjoy!
Notes
Substitutes:
- for the sofrito: 1 minced yellow onion, 1 diced bell pepper, ½ cup minced cilantro, and 4 cloves minced garlic
- for the sazon and adobo seasoning: 1 tsp each of pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, turmeric, oregano, and cumin
So good!
Can I use long grain rice? How will that alter the cook time?
I recommend using a 9 inch circular pan
Marriage of 3 cultures: Indigenous Taino, Spanish and African.
What a beautiful creation from these 3 cultures!
Thank you for sharing and posting.
That is cooked with love. I‘ve fallen out of practice of cooking rice with gandules. Your recipe will help me.
Looks so good! If I make your sazon and adobo seasoning substitute, is it considered a spice blend of both? So would I use 4 teaspoons total in this recipe? Thank you!
Thanks for your comment Elaine! Each spice blend lends it’s own unique flavors, so I recommend making both blends and using 1 tsp of sazon and 3 tsp of adobo.
When using an electric stove do you still use just 2 cups rice to 2 1/2 c broth? Mine came out a little mushy but still tasted great
Hi Lori, I haven’t tried this recipe on an electric stove but I recommend reducing the amount of broth by 1 or ½ cup and trying the recipe again. Best of luck!
A great recipe and highly loved in my house. I purchased the Goya Sazon (the Con Culantro y Achiote version) and it was perfect. Made my own Adobo blend to use. Will be making again! Thank you.
I have tried to make to dish several times using different recipes for my son-in-law who has Puerto Rican and Dominican Republic background. Have to say I was disappointed in how it turned out. I tried to duplicate his mother who makes it by eyeing things. Couldn’t do that either. I found this recipe little too tomatoey but that can be altered. other than that, the flavors blended nice. The flavors were also very robust. I noticed 1 big difference your recipe have is the use of short grain rice. The dish did not turn out dry nor undercooked given the length of time for cooking it. I was not disappointed in how the dish turned out.
This recipe is just amazing!! I can’t wait to make it again. Thank you so much for posting it
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for your comment and review Rich.
This was great. However, consider renaming to Puerto Rican Rice and Pigeon Peas (Gandules). Puerto Rican Rice and Beans (Habichuelas) is another dish.
Correcto! 😉 This is rice and (pigeon) peas, which I grew up picking from our family garden and shelling when I was a child. Hated it then and now think back so fondly of those times! Go figure, right?
Hello I’d like to make this recipe for upcoming Thanksgiving holiday for my family. Is it possible if you can email me or post up on here the measurements for each item I need to make this recipe? it looks absolutely delicious thank you!!
I love cooking my Puerto Rican Heritage cuisines everyday and especially on Holidays. I have inherited my Late Mom legacy of hosting the entire Holidays feast every year. I’m the one who hated the kitchen growing up, so guess who learn without realizing the influence Mom made. I’m especially thrills of your recipes who I use to add to my menu for the family. Hope to see more favorite recipes in which I grew up with.
I’m the 2nd generation passing recipes to my 6th generation lady in my family.
I cooked this on New Year’s Day to accompany our pernil (slow roasted pork shoulder). Wanted to make an authentic Puerto Rican side dish. The recipe came out great. I made my own achiote oil, sofrito and spice blend. Turning up the heat for the last 2-3 minutes of cooking develops a nice crust to the bottom of the rice. Thanks for all your info and advice in the recipe. Will definitely make it again!
Oh my gosh Salima! I made this recipe is amazing. I love it!
Thank you,
Maryann Varisco
I’m making fir pot luck so I need at least to feed 20 would I double this recipe?
I would recommend quadrupling the recipe. That said, I’ve never experimented with making such a large quantity, so I can’t guarantee that the texture of the rice would cook well.
This was an amazing dish and so easy to make. I am so thankful that you make this public so everyone can enjoy.
Would you cook this the same way using store bought sofrito, Sazon and adobo?
Yes!
Missing my grandma Toni & wishing I’d learned her recipe & technique for arros con gandules so I can make it for my child. Thank you so much for the detailed explanation!!! It’s not an exactly like grandma Toni’s but so healthy & delicious & gives me a perfect place to start the work or recreating the taste in my memory.
So happy to hear this recipe could be a starting point for recreating memories of your grandma Carolyn! This is exactly why I started Salima’s Kitchen so it really means a lot.
This was delicious! I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out perfect! My family loved it.
I’d like to double the recipe but the amounts don’t change for everything when I select 2x. Is it safe to just double everything?
Yes, this recipe is an easy one to double. Just make sure your pot is large enough!
My Puerto Rican sister-in-law taught me to make sofrito. She kept it in her refrigerator because she used it every day. I make a batch and put it in ice cube trays in the freezer. Then I just use a few cubes as needed when I’m cooking something that calls for sofrito. Her recipe is: 1 large yellow onion; 1 bell pepper; 1 head of garlic; 1 bunch of cilantro; and 1 (6 oz) can of tomato paste. Cut into large chunks then place all ingredients in food processor and process until chunky/smooth. Works very well.
I made this yesterday and while it was delicious in flavors, the rice came out on the mushy side. I don’t know if it’s because I used long grain rice versus medium grain. I did rinse the rice well before making this dish. Any thoughts why the rice was mushy?
Hey Monica, thanks for your review and comment! So glad you enjoyed the flavor and sorry to hear the texture wasn’t all the way there. I usually encounter this problem when I don’t give the rice enough time to rest before uncovering. It’s really important to let the rice sit after turning off the heat before removing the lid for at least 10 minutes (the longer, the better). If that doesn’t help, you could try using a quarter cup less water next time. I really hope this helps!
Thanks for your reply. I’ll try with a little less water.