Asopao is a staple of Puerto Rican cooking.   It’s basically a soupy broth with rice, gandules & pork.  This version serves 6, but there are proportion notes below in case you need to scale up.  This recipe veers away from traditional recipes by adding sausage, but that’s just how we roll.  🙂

This recipe is still a bit of a work in progress for me & I will make tweaks in the future.

Ingredients

• 1 large onion (diced)
• 1 large green pepper (diced)
• 5 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 2 tomatoes (diced)
• 1 small kabocha pumpkin (diced)
• 2 pork chops (seasoned w/salt & pepper)
• 2 chorizo sasuages (or andoullie)
• 1 cup of rice
• 2 cans of gandules
• 5 cups of chicken broth
• 1/2 can of peas
• Spice Mix: 2 tsp salt, 2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tblsp oregano
• Alt Spice Mix: 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp hot smoked paprika

Instructions

1. Slice sausages, fry until fully cooked & set aside (it may help for sausages to be slightly frozen when you slice them, so they don’t fall apart on you).
2. Brown pork chops & set aside.  They should not be fully cooked as they will be cooked further later.
3. Fry onions & peppers in olive oil on high heat until onions begin to turn transparent, then add garlic and stir for a couple of minutes.
4. Add tomatoes & pumpkin, reduce to medium high heat & leave covered for about 10 minutes (until both the tomatoes & pumpkins are reduced).
5. While you wait, chop pork chops into 1/2″ inch pieces.
6. Add Spice Mix (see ingredients), gandules & rice to base & stir for several minutes.
7. Transfer to bigger pot & add broth, peas and meat pieces.
8. Cook in medium high heat uncovered for 15 minutes.  Stir every so often.
9. Turn off heat & let sit for another 10 minutes (to let the rice finish cooking).  There will be a lot of broth still left over & dish should have a soupy consistency.
10. Toppings: you may top w/cilantro if you’re so inclined.

Proportion Notes

You may use the following rough proportions to scale up recipe:

• 6 people: 1 cup of rice, 2 cans of gandules, 5 cups of broth
• 15 people: 2 cups of rice, 4 cans of gandules, 10 cups of broth
• 25 people: 3 cups of rice, 6 cans of gandules, 15 cups of broth
• 35 people: 4 cups of rice, 8 cans of gandules, 23 cups of broth

Posted by: jack