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Asopao De Pollo Con Bollitas De Platano

A Puerto Rican chicken soup with rice, potatoes, peppers, and plantain balls.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Asopao De Pollo Con Bollitas De Platano

Timeabout twenty minutes for the rice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cover all exposed surfaces of the chicken pieces with canned Adobo powder.

  2. Allow the chicken to marinate for two hours.

  3. Place three cups of water and the chicken pieces in a deep pot and bring to a boil.

  4. Lower the heat to medium and cook for ten to fifteen minutes.

  5. Optionally, remove some of the broth.

  6. Optionally, remove some of the skins from the cooked chicken pieces.

  7. Remove everything from the pot, place two tablespoonfuls of olive oil and heat for about one minute.

Make the asopao

  1. Saute onion and diced cilantro for under a minute.

  2. Add garlic, tomato, and bay leaf, saute another minute.

  3. Add the chicken pieces with their broth.

  4. Bring to a boil.

  5. Add the rice.

  6. Cook over medium heat, covered, for around twenty minutes.

  7. If the pot is not deep enough, uncover it often, stir, and let some steam out to prevent boiling over.

  8. Add the diced potatoes and red peppers.

  9. Cook for another ten minutes.

Make and add the bollitas

  1. For bollitas de plátano, grate a green plantain into thin shreds.

  2. Place a small amount into the palm of your hand and form into a ball, adding a pinch of flour as necessary.

  3. Add the bollitas to the pot when cooking time is down to fifteen minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1207Calories
56 gProtein
20 gFat
199 gCarbs

Counts 15 of 17 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 15 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Chicken100g cooked165
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Turmeric1 tsp ground (3g)9
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Oregano1 tsp dried (1.8g)5
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Cilantro1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Plantainnot in our table0
Wheatnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Oregano + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Turmeric + ricetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,941 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Oregano + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together70 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein and flavor, and its broth becomes the base of the stew.
White rice
Absorbs the broth as it cooks, thickening the dish into a soft, creamy texture.
Potatoes
Add starch and body, becoming tender and helping thicken the stew.
Plantain
Grated and formed into balls, it binds with flour and firms up as it cooks.
Wheat flour
Helps the grated plantain hold together when shaped into balls.
Tomato
Adds acidity and savory depth to the sofrito-style base.

The step that matters

Lowering the heat and covering the pot while the rice cooks. Rice that cooks too hard can scorch on the bottom or boil over and stick, while gentle covered heat lets the grains absorb liquid evenly and become tender.

Swap the oregano

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, garlic, pepper, turmeric, potato, rice, onion):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Corianderfits better
  4. Oreganothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, garlic, pepper, turmeric, potato, rice, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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