The Colombian Dish We're HOOKED On

This Colombian chicken recipe, better known as sudalo de pollo Colombiano, which funny enough means sweaty chicken, may be the best stew of all time. But I think we can pull out even more flavor using a tasty homemade spice blend and a few classical cooking techniques. Before we get to the chicken, we're gonna toast up some seeds. Sound good? Let's cook. In a medium-sized stainless steel pan, I'm gonna add in one tablespoon of cumin seeds, one tablespoon of coriander seeds, then two tablespoons of annatto seeds. Annatto seeds are the seeds of the achiote tree and are used as a natural food coloring and spice. They're slightly sweet and peppery with an earthy aftertaste, and they're also called achiote seeds. What we're gonna do is toast these up over low to medium heat for five to six minutes. We wanna help make them more aromatic and bring about more flavor. Essentially, I'm making a homemade sazon. Now, me personally, I like to know what the ingredients are and what I'm cooking, and a sazon that's prepackaged has a lot of stuff in there I'm not cool with. And believe it or not, it's super easy to make it homemade. Once the seeds start to really give off a lot of aromas, just take a laugh yourself. We are gonna be good to go. We're gonna transfer right into a spice grinder. You could, of course, use a mortar and pestle, but it's gonna be more work with those annatto seeds. Grind everything together until it is finely ground. It should resemble store-bought pre-ground dried spices. Perfect. Now, you can transfer this into a bowl for the other ingredients, or how about just give it a quick mix here? We're next gonna add in one tablespoon of garlic granules, one tablespoon of onion granules. You could use powder for each. Then one tablespoon of dry oregano, a half teaspoon of turmeric, then a half teaspoon of ground white pepper, and two tablespoons of coarse salt. I'm just gonna pulse the grinder a few times just to mix everything together. And of course, I'm gonna have a little taste. Absolutely delicious, and almost a perfect replica to sazon. And you will definitely have some of this spice blend left over, which is perfect to use in all of your Latin cooking recipes. And it's gonna go great in this recipe, but first, let's break out that chicken. I have already prefabricated two airline breasts and two thighs and drums that are intact with each other. You could, of course, separate these as well. And if you've never fabricated a whole chicken yourself, it's incredibly easy, and I will link to the video in the top corner where you see me break it down with ease. You can absolutely do this. Plus bonus, you'll have a leftover chicken carcass, which you can make with stock, and you'll have the flats and tips of wings, which you could also use in stock or in my famous buffalo wings. You should definitely try those because they're super good. Okay, back to the chicken. We are just gonna pat it dry on all sides with a paper towel. I wanna make sure these get a great sear, but first, we're gonna transfer them over to a bowl. I'm gonna coat them in about three to four tablespoons of a neutral-flavored oil. I'm using avocado. Then take 2 1⁄2 tablespoons of our homemade spice blend. We're gonna add it right to the top of the chicken, and using your hands, just mix everything together until it is completely combined. We are gonna cover with plastic wrap, and you can marinate it in the refrigerator for as little as 30 minutes or all the way up to 48 hours. Remember, the longer the marinade, the more flavorful the chicken will be. When you are ready to cook the chicken, we're just gonna pull it out of the refrigerator. I did simply overnight, or roughly 18 hours. This looks fantastic. I'm taking it over to the cooktop where I have a large seven-quart rondeau. This is perfect so that I can get a nice sear on it, and it's excellent for braising, which I'm going to do. We're gonna crank the heat up to medium and add in about three to four tablespoons of avocado oil, or any neutral flavor oil will do. After it heats for about 90 seconds to two minutes, we're gonna lay in our seasoned-up chicken, skin side down, right into the pan. And the reason I love these rondeaus is that they have a good amount of surface area, which is perfect for searing and not crowding the pan, or unfortunately, so many times, you end up steaming the chicken, missing out on all that delicious Maillard flavor. We are gonna cook these for a total of four to five minutes and try to crisp up that skin. In the meantime, let's be a good steward of our time and knock out some prep. I have one large yellow onion, which we are going to small dice. It will equal about 1 1⁄2 cups. Next, I'm going to thinly slice three green onions. Then I'm going to smash and finely mince up four whole garlic cloves. Let's go have a look at our chicken. Absolutely beautiful. Flip it over. That skin is nice and crispy. We're gonna cook it for an additional four to five minutes. But this is great because we can knock out a bit more prep. Beginning with one red bell pepper, we are just going to seed it and then small dice it. Next up, I have five Roma tomatoes. We just wanna remove the core and small dice it. These, along with grape tomatoes, are perfect to use all season long because they're decent in the winter. You should get about a cup and a half of diced tomatoes. But if you don't have any fresh tomatoes and you're in the off season, canned tomatoes are a great option. Let's bring the onions over to the cooktop. The chicken smells so good, you guys, and it really does look perfect. And while they are not completely cooked through, don't worry, we'll handle that in a few minutes. But first, let's set them to the side on a plate. Yep, chicken that's just too crispy and just too juicy. Perfect. And in that same Rondeau pot, we're adding in our onions on medium heat. We're going to do is quickly saute these for five minutes or until they get a little bit brown. And from there, we'll turn the heat down to low and cook them while occasionally stirring for 10 additional minutes. And while we're waiting for them to get done, a few quick other things to prep up, beginning with two total pounds of Yukon gold potatoes, which we are going to peel, slice in half, and then slice into thirds. You could, of course, cut these in any way you see fit. Next up, I have one large yucca. This is a fantastic root vegetable and huge in Colombian cuisine. We slice off the ends, then I'm gonna slice it into thirds. Now, to remove that hard outside shell, I slice my knife into it, maybe just an eighth of an inch or so. And then what I'm really doing is filleting off that outside peel. You're lifting the blade part up to expose the vegetable inside, just like this. Carve it all the way around until the peeling is completely off. So right in the center of the yucca, you will see a little dot. That's that root. We need to remove it. It's kind of stringy and chewy. We gotta get it out of there. So what we do is slice it in half, slice it in half again, lay it on its side, and then using your chef knife, just slice away that centerpiece. That's it. Do it on all of the yucca. Perfect. Place them in the same bowl with the potatoes. Let's go back and check out our onions. I mean, it just smells so, so good in here, you guys. It's definitely worth the extra 15 minutes to do this procedure. Don't believe me? Just try a little bit. What we're gonna do at this stage is add in our bell peppers. We're gonna turn the heat up to medium and saute them just for three to four minutes or to create a little bit of brown on them. Then what we're gonna do is add in the finely minced garlic and cook it just until fragrant, like I always say, which only takes in between 30 to 45 seconds. Then we're gonna add in two tablespoons of tomato paste. It's going to add some good color, some good umami flavors, and help add some body to our overall braising liquid. But first, we do wanna cook it for just about two minutes. We wanna pince it, which is going to turn it almost like a rust color. This will bring about more flavor. Next up, we're adding in our tomatoes. What we wanna do is stew these over medium heat for about five to six minutes to break them down. However, a little surprise here. Go back to that homemade sazon. We're gonna grab about one tablespoon of that and add it right to the tomatoes while they cook down. It will make the flavors more intense and the overall braising liquid much more delicious. When the tomatoes are pretty broken down and soft and look like this, what we're gonna do is add in four cups of good chicken stock. I've got an awesome homemade recipe if you wanna check that out. And while it isn't classic, I wanna give you another option so that you can do it to have a perfectly smooth sauce. Just simply blend up that braising liquid until it is smooth. Add it right back to that Rondo pan. And no matter which one you land on, you're still gonna wanna add in four to six sprigs of fresh thyme and one bay leaf. Then of course, we wanna adjust the seasonings with cracked black pepper and coarse salt. And for me, it just needs a little something extra. Add in the juice of one lime. You could also use lemon or a little bit of white distilled vinegar. So delicious, you will want to drink it. Speaking of, let's have a taste. That is so good. At this stage, we're gonna add in the yucca and the potatoes. We're next placing our seared chicken right on top of those potatoes. My goal here is to try to keep the skin browned up while release some of those starches into the braising liquid, thickening it up just a little bit. Let's add on the lid and cook it over low to medium heat for in between 25 and 30 minutes or until the chicken and potatoes are cooked and tender. Now, during this time, what I like to do is cook up some long grain rice. Now, I've done this a million times. You should definitely check out my gawumpki recipe. I go into detail how to get the fluffiest, perfectly cooked rice every single time. Let's head back over to the cooktop and check out our sulado de pollo. Take off the lid. Oh, not only does it look good, your house is going to smell incredible. That is my promise to you. We are almost ready to eat this, but first let's quickly plate it up. You can serve it right in the pot. I like to add in a little bit of fresh chopped cilantro and sliced green onions, or we did cook rice. Am I not wrong? And that is super traditional in this dish. And I'm gonna make it extra fancy by molding it right into a bowl. Yeah, for some reason when food looks good, it automatically tastes good. All right, kidding. Then we're gonna add some of the chicken right to the plate with the rice, add on some more of the potatoes, yucca, and of course that sauce. Now I'm gonna garnish with a little bit more cilantro and green onions. However, the most important part is here, family verdict. I could eat this every day. Oh yeah, this is a surefire winner, my friends. The flavors in this dish are probably unlike anything you've ever had. This is what comfort food looks like in Colombia. Do not miss it. And if you love this dish, you are gonna love my Peruvian lomo saltado. Got an amazing recipe video. See you on there. This is so good.