Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Arroz con Pollo a la Cubana
Chicken browned and simmered into golden rice with a sofrito of onion, pepper, and garlic, tomato, dry wine, saffron, pimientos, and peas.
Cuban · easy · serves 6
prep 20 min · cook 50 min
~814 cal · 57g protein · 87g carbs · 22g fat · 3g fiber · 3g sugars · 5g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Arroz con pollo is the Sunday one-pot of the Spanish Caribbean, and the Cuban version is a flamboyant cousin of Spain's paella: chicken and medium-grain rice simmered together until the rice drinks up a broth stained gold with and . It was a famous dish of nineteenth-century Havana, served at the riverside restaurants near the Chorrera tower, and it remains a dish for a lazy late lunch with family.
It begins with a Cuban sofrito, the holy trinity of onion, green pepper, and garlic softened in oil, joined by tomato and a splash of vino seco, the dry cooking wine that runs through Cuban savoury cooking. Browned chicken goes back in with the rice, , and , and it gently, covered and undisturbed, until every grain is tender and the pot smells of the sea and the sun.
Finished with sweet red pimientos and a handful of green peas, and often a last splash of beer stirred in for the soupy Chorrera style, it comes to the table as one glorious golden platter. Comforting and festive at once, it is Cuban home cooking at its most generous.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 6
2.5 lbs bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup vino seco (dry cooking wine)
1/4 tsp threads (or for colour)
1 tsp each ground cumin and dried oregano
1 bay leaf
4 cups chicken
3 cups medium-grain rice, rinsed
1/2 cup jarred red pimientos, sliced
1/2 cup frozen peas
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Season the chicken with salt and brown it well in the oil in a wide pot, then set it aside.
2
Soften the onion, green pepper, and garlic in the same pot, then add the tomato sauce, vino seco, cumin, oregano, and bay leaf and simmer a few minutes.
3
Return the chicken, pour in the stock and saffron, and bring to a simmer so the chicken cooks partway and the broth turns golden.
4
Stir in the rinsed rice, bring back to a boil, then cover and cook on low, undisturbed, for about 20 minutes until the rice is tender and the liquid absorbed.
✎ Chef’s note
Resist lifting the lid while it steams; peeking lets the steam out and the rice cooks unevenly.
5
Fold in the pimientos and peas, cover off the heat for 5 minutes to warm through, and serve from the pot.
Cuban home cooking, Havana.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Havana. Havana has a Chinese quarter that the rest of the island does not. Contract labourers arrived from southern China from the middle of the nineteenth century, and the Barrio Chino and the restaurants around it left a mark on the capital's cooking you will not find out in the provinces.
🗺️
Cuba. Casabe, the flat round bread pressed from bitter cassava, predates the Spanish entirely and is still made the old way: the tuber grated, the poisonous juice squeezed out, the flour sifted and baked on a hot plate. UNESCO inscribed the practice in 2024 in a joint nomination with the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras and Venezuela.
🌍
North America. The most consequential technique on this continent is nixtamalisation, cooking maize with lime or wood ash. It loosens the skins, makes the dough that becomes tortillas and tamales, and frees up niacin the body cannot otherwise absorb, which is why maize spread around the world without the technique and took pellagra with it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Cuba
Ropa ViejaBeef braised and shredded into a rich tomato-pepper sofrito, Cuba’s national dish, named "old clothes."
Moros y CristianosBlack beans and white rice cooked together in one pot with a cumin-scented sofrito until every grain turns dusky and savory, the everyday soul of the Cuban table.
Tostada Cubana con Café con LecheButtered Cuban bread pressed flat and crisp, cut into batons for dunking into sweet, milky espresso, the quintessential Havana breakfast.
Browse all Cuba recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Arroz con Pollo a la Cubana?
Chicken browned and simmered into golden rice with a sofrito of onion, pepper, and garlic, tomato, dry wine, saffron, pimientos, and peas.
Where does Arroz con Pollo a la Cubana come from?
Arroz con Pollo a la Cubana is a Cuban dish from Havana, Cuba.
Can Arroz con Pollo a la Cubana be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Arroz con Pollo a la Cubana recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Arroz con Pollo a la Cubana safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Arroz con Pollo a la Cubana take to make?
About 70 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 50 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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