Arroz con Pollo Valenciana

Or: Chicken and yellow rice from the Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City

Objective: To make a huge batch of comfort food

Inspiration: January visit to the Columbia

Serves: Eight or a small Army

Chicken and yellow rice dished up

This is absolutely, positively, not going to fit into your toaster oven, but that’s okay because the leftovers can be warmed up in the toaster oven…up to a week.

For this delicious concoction, courtesy of the beautiful Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City (Tampa), you will need a very large pan. I like the cheap, many-quarted, granite-ware pot I got when Big Lots was MacFrugal’s, or I use a granite-ware turkey roasting pan from the local big-box store. (Granite-ware turkey pans aren’t just for holidays, after all.)

This recipe intimidated me at first; it contains saffron, an expensive, somewhat exotic spice, and it is Cuban, something with which I am really not familiar. My aunt in Florida is an expert cook when it comes to Cuban dishes, so I wasn’t sure if I should even attempt this feat considering my Tex-Mex perspective in light of her skills (think of a five-foot Paula Deen).

I finally committed – last month – to the saffron purchase and made the dish because my sister almost died over the Columbia’s Cuban chicken and yellow rice when we were there. I absolutely couldn’t get the picture of the steaming golden-yellow goodness with colorful green peas and asparagus served on a little silver charger out of my head.

Here’s the recipe link: http://www.columbiarestaurant.com/recipe.asp?FeaturedItemID=51

(If that doesn’t work, go to http://www.columbiarestaurant.com and look for the wine and featured recipes links.)

I made my second batch this week, and I will be eating well for the remainder of said week.

I use skin-on, bone-in, split chicken breats because I no longer have the patience to cut up a whole chicken. I also used red bell peppers the second time around because that’s what I had on hand, and I did the whole recipe from memory, which means I unwittingly modified it. (Deliciousness ensued, regardless.)

I’m sure modifications abound. My sister remembers chopped black olives in my mom’s version, and I remember it as a budget version made with Mahatma saffron rice. It turns out that the memory may be moot anyway because when I called my mom to ask if I should precook the rice, she said she didn’t really remember and then reminisced that my dad would eat crunchy rice anyway. (You may have to vary the cooking time to make sure the rice is cooked enough.)

Ah, it’s just like being a kid again.

Cheers,
R.D.

P.S. There are quite a few granite-ware pots and pans over at Amazon.com if you want a look see.