Recipe
🥙 LUNCH
Arroz con Pollo Panameño
Panama's one-pot chicken and rice, tinted with achiote and studded with peas, carrots, and green olives; the family dish that feeds a crowd.
Panamanian · easy · serves 6
prep 25 min · cook 45 min
~604 cal · 45g protein · 61g carbs · 18g fat · 3g fiber · 3g sugars · 4g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Arroz con pollo is made all over Latin America, but the Panamanian version has its own signature: rice cooked with chicken in a tomato and sofrito base, coloured golden with or sazón, and generously flecked with sweet peas, carrots, and Manzanilla green olives. It is a dish for family tables and gatherings, the pot everyone reaches into.
Chicken is browned or poached and often shredded, then the rice is toasted in the seasoned oil and simmered in the drippings and broth with tomato, cumin, and oregano until every grain is stained and savoury. The olives and capers add the briny pop that marks it as Panamanian, and some cooks even finish it with a splash of dark beer.
Comforting and colourful, it is served warm, sometimes with a side of small sweet peas heaped on top, and it is exactly the kind of dish Panamanians carry with them and recreate wherever they go.
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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 lbs bone-in chicken pieces
2 cups long-grain rice, rinsed
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp ground ()
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 cup green peas
1 carrot, diced
1/3 cup pimiento-stuffed green olives
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
3 tbsp vegetable oil
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Season and brown the chicken in the oil in a large pot, then set aside (or poach and shred it, the common Panamanian way).
2
In the same pot, soften the onion, bell pepper, and garlic, then stir in the tomato paste, annatto, cumin, and oregano and cook until fragrant and deep orange.
3
Add the rice and stir to coat it in the seasoned oil, toasting for a couple of minutes.
✎ Chef’s note
Toasting the rice in the achiote oil before the liquid goes in is what stains every grain golden and keeps them separate.
4
Return the chicken, add the broth and carrot, and bring to a boil, then cover and simmer on low about 20 minutes until the rice is tender.
5
Stir in the peas and olives, rest covered 5 minutes, then fold in the cilantro and serve.
Panama City family tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Panama City. Culantro is not coriander. It is a long serrated leaf, stronger and more bitter than the soft herb it gets confused with, and it holds up through a long simmer where coriander would collapse. Name, the yam that goes in, dissolves as it cooks and is what thickens the broth.
🗺️
Panama. The tortilla here is not the Mexican kind. It is thick, made of ground corn, and fried rather than griddled, coming out puffed and crisp at the edges to be eaten at breakfast with cheese. On the Caribbean side, in Bocas del Toro and Colon, the cooking turns Afro-Caribbean, with coconut milk in the rice and in the fish.
🌍
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 Panama
Sancocho de GallinaA restorative hen soup with yam, yuca, and a mountain of culantro, Panama’s cure for everything from hangovers to heartbreak.
Tortilla Panameña con QuesoA thick, crisp-fried corn cake, not a thin tortilla at all, split hot and stuffed with melting white cheese, a staple Panamanian breakfast.
Ceviche PanameñoDiced corvina cured in lime with onion, celery, and habanero, the fish-market lunch sold in cups across Panama City.
Browse all Panama 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.
Make it a Panama meal
ChichemeDrink
Sopa BorrachaDessert
Ropa Vieja PanameñaDinner
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Frequently asked questions
What is Arroz con Pollo Panameño?
Panama's one-pot chicken and rice, tinted with achiote and studded with peas, carrots, and green olives; the family dish that feeds a crowd.
Where does Arroz con Pollo Panameño come from?
Arroz con Pollo Panameño is a Panamanian dish from Panama City, Panama.
Can Arroz con Pollo Panameño be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Arroz con Pollo Panameño 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 Panameño 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 Panameño take to make?
About 70 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 6.
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