Pollo Criollo
Cuban-style chicken
Difficulty: hard
Total Time: < 60min
Makes: 4
Pollo Criollo was one of the first Cuban recipes we made when Cubana opened way back in 1998 – it’s a Street Food favourite as well as being popular in our restaurants
There were not a lot of Cuban recipes around then, but we got this one from an old cook book we found in a book market in Havana. Pollo Criollo – literally Creole chicken – was a favourite of the Spanish farmers who came to Cuba to grow tobacco and other crops
Pollo Criollo is a sort of chicken casserole with a big difference – it takes bit of time, but like most good casseroles, keeps well for up to two days in the fridge. We recommend using free-range chicken as we do at Cubana – free-range birds mature for longer, they taste much better and we prefer not to use factory/battery chicken for animal welfare reasons
Ingredients
2/3 chicken legs/thighs per person - this recipes is based on 12 pieces to make four good-sized portions
1 onion chopped into small strips
8 garlic cloves
1.25l fresh orange juice - good carton juice will do
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Olive oil for browning
4 tablespoons sherry
4 large sprigs flat-leafed parsley
2 large sprigs cilantro/coriander
Salt and ground black pepper to season
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Instructions
- Wash the chicken pieces, dry them and season with salty and pepper
- Crush the garlic and rub it into the chicken
- Place the seasoned chicken, crushed garlic and cut onion in a bowl, cover with the orange juice and place in the fridge for 12 hours
- To cook, remove the chicken and onion from the orange juice marinade and brown in a pan with the olive oil over a medium heat
- Drain off any excess oil and add back the orange juice marinade
- Heat to a simmer, then turn down the heat, cover the pan and cook over a low heat for 30-40 mins until the chicken begins to fall off the bone
- Take the lid off, add the chopped flat-leafed parsley and cilantro and continue cooking over a medium heat to reduce the marinade to a rich sauce
- When the dish looks nearly ready, add the sherry and briefly turn up the heat
- Pollo Crillo is usually served with Moros y Christianos - Cuban black bean rice - but it's great with simple brown or white long-grain rice. Fried plantain also goes very well - use very ripe plantain. Always make sure the chicken is fully cooked to the bone - the meat should be falling off the bone when the dish is ready. Keeps for up to two days in the fridge - always re-heat thoroughly