Many years ago, our neighbor, my daughter’s babysitter made this fabulous Arroz con Gondules aka Puerto Rican Rice. Stella was from Uraguay and her husband Frankie was from Puerto Rico. Stella made this fabulous rice all the time and luckily, she taught me to make it before they moved away. I’ve made some changes to the recipes over the years due to the availability of the ingredients, including referring to it as Spanish Rice instead of Arroz con Gondules. I love the Goya brand products, but they’re not very easy to find in many locations. Of course, if you live in an area with a larger Spanish population, finding Goya products are typically pretty easy to locate. Military commissaries have the best availability based on my experience, Walmart has a few of the products on the Hispanic food aisle. PriceCutter, a local grocery store in my area, has the best selection of the places where I’m able to shop.
If you’re able to shop locally for your Goya products, register for the Goya coupons to make this fabulous recipe cost you even less. If you use the Uncle Ben’s Converted (or Parboiled as they used to call it) or the Dollar General generic brand, your rice should turn out perfect, just like mine. It won’t be mushy or sticky, you’ll have the individual grains of rice that I absolutely love!
This is one of my favorites and I typically prepare a double batch when I make it. Sine there are only two of us here, we have plenty of leftovers. The leftovers are immediately put into plastic storage containers and then into the freezer. A very small splash of water, a couple of minutes in the microwave, and the Spanish Rice is just as fresh as it was the first time it was served. Some times, we serve it as a side dish and other times we serve it as a rice bowl with meat and cheese on top. No matter how you serve it, it’s YUMMY!
- 1 tbsp.Olive Oil (no oil needed if bacon is used)
- ¼ lb. country ham or bacon, cubed
- ½ yellow onion, chopped (about ½ cup)
- 2 packets Sazón GOYA with Coriander and Annatto
- 1½ cups Converted Rice (I prefer Uncle Ben's)
- 2 Tbsp Goya Recaito
- 1 can (15 oz.) GOYA Green Pigeon Peas OR
- 2 cups frozen peas and carrots
- 4 oz.Tomato Sauce, Enchilada Sauce, or Taco Sauce
- ¼ cup Manzanillas Olives Stuffed with Minced Pimientos, sliced
- Heat oil in a medium, heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Add ham to pan; cook until brown, about 5 minutes. Omit oil if bacon is used.
- Stir in onions; cook, stirring occasionally, scraping up brown bits from bottom, until onions are soft and translucent, about 10 minutes.
- Add rice to pan. Cook, stirring frequently, until coated in oil and toasted, about 1 minute.
- Add sazón. Cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Stir in pigeon peas (or frozen peas and carrots), recaito, tomato sauce (of choice above), and olives. Transfer to a casserole dish if cooking in a microwave.
- Add 1½ cups water; stir.
- Cook, uncovered, in the microwave, about 10 -20 minutes until water is absorbed into rice. Stir to evenly distribute rice and carrots throughout rice before stirring.
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