APORREADO DE POLLO - SHREDDED CHICKEN

TGB has requested that I make a "South Beach Diet friendly" recipe. I think this is it. I will let you know what TGB thinks of this dish later. It was really yummy and my daughter couldn't wait until dinner time to try it. She had a plate of the chicken (with no onions or peppers) while she waited for the rice to cook.

All you need is: chicken, salt, tomato sauce, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, olive oil, white wine, ground cumin, ground oregano, and a bay leaf.

First you need to boil the chicken, so you might as well make some chicken broth while you are at it. I roughly chopped one celery stalk, one carrot, and smashed and peeled 2 cloves of garlic.

I heated about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a heavy pan.

I sprinkled some sea salt on the chicken and quickly seared it in the pot.

I poured 5 cups of water over the chicken and threw in the celery, carrot and garlic. I let it come up to a boil and then lowered the heat. I let the chicken simmer on low for about 1 1/2 hours. It will fall apart then.

When the chicken was almost done, I thinly sliced half an onion.

Then I sliced 1/2 a red bell pepper.

When the chicken is done, it should fall apart like this. Save the stock. I poured the stock into a bowl (and passed it through a fine sieve so that I wouldn't have any pieces of vegetables in the stock). You will have more stock than you need, which is a good thing. I will be making a tomato soup with the rest of my stock.

Heat up about 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet.

Throw in the onion, pepper, and about 1 tablespoon of minced garlic. I got lazy and used the garlic from the jar. You are now making a sofrito.

When the onion is becoming translucent add about a cup of tomato sauce. Let it cook for a few minutes so that the flavors can combine.

Add the following to your sofrito: the shredded chicken, a bay leaf, 1/8 teaspoon of ground oregano, 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin, a scant teaspoon of salt, 3/4 cup of your reserved chicken stock, 1/2 cup white cooking wine. Cover the skillet and let it cook over a low to medium low heat for about 15 minutes.

Enjoy it. I liked it with white rice. My daughter liked the aporreado over a plate of pasta.

APORREADO DE POLLO - SHREDDED CHICKEN

Ingredients

• 1 pound chicken breast, sprinkled with some salt
• 5 cups of water
• 1 stalk celery, chopped into quarters
• 1 carrot, chopped into quarters
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup cooking white wine
• 1 scant teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon ground oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 3/4 cup reserved chicken broth (made above)

Preparation

1. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a heavy bottom pot. Add the chicken and quickly sear.
2. Add 5 cups of water, the carrot, celery, and garlic cloves and bring to a boil. Immediately lower the heat and let the chicken simmer in a covered pot for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
3. Remove the chicken from the pot and shred the chicken breast with a fork.
4. Strain the broth through a sieve and reserve the chicken broth. Discard the carrot, celery and garlic.
5. In a skillet, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over high heat. Add the onion, red pepper, and minced garlic. You are making sofrito.
6. When the onions are getting translucent, add the tomato sauce and cook for a couple of minutes.
7. Add the following to the sofrito: the shredded chicken, bay leaf, ground cumin, ground oregano, salt (to taste), chicken broth, cooking white wine. Mix it all in, cover the skillet, and lower the heat to low to medium low. Let it cook for about 15 minutes so that the flavors can blend together.