When faced with the challenge of finding new ways to cook chicken breast so it doesn’t dry out, consider stewed chicken. It’s an easy method of slow cooking for 3 hours, allowing the meat to break down while a succulent sauce thickens up. Upon completion, the chicken gets delicately pulled apart with a fork. Use this saucy chicken recipe for making pulled chicken sandwiches, chicken tacos, empanada filling, or simply eating it over simple white rice.
Freshly made Puerto Rican Sofrito recipe from the cookbook of Chef Daisy Martinez.
The base flavor, Puerto Rican sofrito, consists of a huge medley of pungent herbs, mildly-spicy peppers, and aromatics that are processed into what I refer to as a “plant-based bullion”. When it’s simmered down with tomato sauce and liquid smoke, the result is a smoky barbecue-like chicken swimming in a Caribbean Latin sauce.
Cilantro, culantro, Spanish onion, garlic, Ajicito peppers, long Italian peppers, red bell pepper, and a tomato all get broken down in a food processor.
The Puerto Rican sofrito I use is a Daisy Martinez recipe which is freshly made in bulk ahead of time, stored in the freezer, then chiseled off in chunks to be used in recipes as needed. You can also look for pre-made sofrito in “ethnic foods” aisles of mainstream grocery stores featuring Latin American products (such as Goya). Other brands can sometimes be found refrigerated near the cilantro and specialty products. I don’t use the store-bought brands, but it’s nice to see them there as options regardless.
Sofrito brands, Goya and Rico, commonly found in many international grocery stores or aisles labelled “ethnic foods” in mainstream supermarkets.
Smoky Sofrito Pulled Chicken Breast
Ingredients
- 3 large chicken breasts
- 1 spanish onion, halved
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 (8 oz) can plain tomato sauce (or freshly made)
- 1/2 cup sofrito
- 1/2 teaspoon liquid smoke
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt (or to taste)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- In a wide pot or dutch oven, sauté the sofrito in olive oil over medium-high heat until it starts to brown slightly.
- Place chicken breasts in the pot with onion halves and bay leaves. Fill with water so water level is an inch over the chicken.
- Stir tomato sauce, liquid smoke and salt
- Bring a brief boil, then reduce heat to a low.
- Maintain a low gentle boil until chicken becomes tender enough to fall apart easily. This takes approximately 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Remove the onion halves and bay leaves after the first 2 hours. Liquid will cook down a bit and thicken. During these 3 hours you can get creative with the amount of salt, liquid smoke or sofrito to your liking.
- Briefly transfer tender chicken to a counter to complete the pulled chicken breast. Use a fork to gently pull apart the chicken into shreds. Return chicken to liquid, stir in olive oil and keep warm.
