Pollo Guisado Recipe (Chicken Stew)
This pollo guisado recipe is a flavorful braised chicken stew popular in Caribbean and Latin American cuisines, with loads of chicken, so easy to make!
If you’re looking for a chicken stew recipe that is huge on flavor with lots of seasonings and hearty ingredients, look no further than Pollo Guisado, my friends. This is the chicken stew you’ve been searching for.
Chicken stew is an easy choice for simple weeknight cooking. This is true in American where we can season up some inexpensive cuts of chicken, toss it into a pot with vegetables and liquid, then braise it until it’s ready to enjoy.
It’s also true of many Caribbean and Latin American countries, where Pollo Guisado is the standard. You’ll find variations of this recipe from Dominican, Spanish, El Salvidor, Mexico and elsewhere. Ingredients vary from country to country and cook to cook.
This is more of a Puerto Rican Pollo Guisado, and the results are wonderful. You’ll get so much flavor with this dish. It is so easy to make.
Let’s talk about how we make pollo guisado, shall we?
Pollo Guisado Ingredients
- Chicken. Use a whole chicken for this recipe, cut up, about 2-1/2 pounds. You can use boneless, skinless chicken, but you’ll get much more flavor with bone-in chicken.
- Seasonings. Use 2 tablespoons adobo seasoning and 1 tablespoon sazon seasoning, very popular seasonings in Latin American cuisine. Also bay leaf for the simmering.
- Oil. 2 tablespoons olive oil for browning the chicken.
- Vegetables. Use 1 small onion, 1 small bell pepper, (or use hotter peppers to your taste), 3 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup olives and 3 medium potatoes.
- Sofrito. I use 1/4 cup sofrito, though you can use more or less to your personal tastes. Try this homemade sofrito recipe.
- Liquid. Use 8 ounces tomato sauce and 1 cup chicken broth
- Garnish. Spicy chili flakes, fresh chopped parsley
How to Make Pollo Guisado – the Recipe Method
Season and Brown the Chicken. Season the chicken pieces with adobo and sazon seasoning. Be sure to get all sides. Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook for 10 minutes to brown all sides, flipping half way through.
Vegetables and Liquid. Add the onion, bell pepper, garlic and sofrito. Stir and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add the olives, potatoes, bay leaves, tomato sauce and chicken broth.
Boil, then Simmer. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and fall-off-the-bone. It should register 165 degrees internal (minimum) when measured with a food thermometer.
Garnish and Serve. Garnish with red pepper flakes and fresh chopped parsley and serve.
Boom! Done! Pollo guisado is ready to serve! Looks delicious, doesn’t it? I’m ready to dig right into this amazing chicken stew. Such a great recipe.
Serving Suggestions for Pollo Guisado
Serve your pollo guisado in a bowl as a hearty chicken stew with some crusty bread to sop up the wonderful sauce. Or, serve it over rice.
Recipe Tips & Notes
- The Chicken. It is best to use bone-in chicken for the overall flavor. Chicken skin is optional. I usually keep it on. This recipe does work with boneless chicken, however, so feel free to use boneless chicken breast, thighs, or your favorite cuts.
- The Seasonings. I use both adobo seasoning and sazon seasoning, popular in Puerto Rican and Latin American cuisine. Feel free to use others, such as cumin or chili powders.
- The Vegetables. You can easily stretch this recipe with more potatoes, or use other ingredients you might have on hand, such as carrots, rutabaga, peas, corn, or root vegetables.
- Slow Cooker Pollo Guisado. You can easily use a slow cooker or crock pot to make your pollo guisado. Just be sure to brown the chicken in a pan first, then transfer everything to a slow cooker and cook on low for about 1.5 – 2 hours, or until the chicken is tender and cooked through. This is not a traditional method, but it works great.
That’s it, my friends. I hope you enjoy this pollo guisado recipe. Let me know if you make it. I’d love to hear how it turned out for you. You can make it as spicy as you’d like.
Cookbook Recommendations
I’ve been learning a lot about Puerto Rican cooking from several different cookbooks. Here are links to 2 Puerto Rican cookbooks I highly recommend. They are great. These are affiliate links, my friends!
- Puerto Rican Cuisine in America: Nuyorican and Bodega Recipes, by Oswald Rivera
- Puerto Rican True Flavors, by Wilo Benet
Try Some of My Other Popular Recipes
- Pernil (Puerto Rican Roast Pork)
- Carne Guisada (Beef Stew)
- Puerto Rican Arroz con Pollo
- Arroz con Gandules
- Puerto Rican Pique
- Cuban Sandwich Recipe (Cubano Sandwich)
- Coconut Curry Chicken
- Chicken Paprikash (Paprika Chicken)
- Peruvian Chicken (Pollo a la Brasa)
- Harissa Chicken
- Brunswick Stew
- Burgoo
- Booyah (Chunky Midwestern Stew)
Also check out my story on Pollo Guisado Chicken Stew.
Got any questions? Ask away! I’m happy to help. If you enjoy this recipe, I hope you’ll leave a comment with some STARS. Also, please share it on social media. Don’t forget to tag us at #ChiliPepperMadness. I’ll be sure to share! Thanks! — Mike H.
Pollo Guisado Recipe (Chicken Stew)
Ingredients
- 2-1/2 pound chicken cut up, skin on
- 2 tablespoons adobo seasoning
- 1 tablespoon sazon seasoning
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1 small bell pepper chopped (or use hotter peppers to your taste)
- 3 cloves garlic chopped
- 1/4 cup sofrito
- 1/2 cup olives
- 3 medium potatoes halved and quartered
- 2-3 bay leaves
- 8 ounces tomato sauce
- 1 cup chicken broth
- FOR GARNISH: Spicy chili flakes fresh chopped parsley
Instructions
- Season the chicken with adobo and sazon seasoning. Be sure to get all sides.
- Heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook for 10 minutes to brown all sides, flipping half way through.
- Add the onion, bell pepper, garlic and sofrito. Stir and cook for 3-4 minutes.
- Add the olives, potatoes, bay leaves, tomato sauce and chicken broth.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cover. Simmer for 30 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and fall-off-the-bone. It should register 165 degrees internal (minimum) when measured with a food thermometer.
- Garnish with red pepper flakes and fresh chopped parsley and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
18 comments
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Delicious!!! I didnt use bay leaf I was so excited to see this simmering… taste super delicious
Very nice! Thanks, Yami.
I’m making this tonight for the second time this month. One word…AMAZING.
This dish is so easy to make and so packed with flavor. I used chicken drums and thighs and threw some peas in at the end (hubbs doesn’t like olives). It is so simple but tastes like it’s been cooking for hours an hours!! SCORE!!
Yes! Love to hear it, Cara. Glad you are enjoying it. Big flavor right here!
What if it’s more than 2 1/2 pounds of chicken?
Wendy, you can fit more chicken in the pot. No problem! Let me know how it turns out for you.
Diana and Michael: Great recipe! Thanks for sharing Michael! I don’t care for a whole lot of chopping or cleaning up of the food processor, and had the same observation as Diane that most of the ingredients in sofrito, or all depending upon the version of sofrito, are already covered. Glad to read about the exchange between the two of you about sofrito. Always looking for ways to simplify a bit without sacrificing too much taste. Thanks!
Thanks, Elaine! I appreciate the comments. Thank you very much for sharing. I’m super happy you liked it!
This was delicious. I used boneless, skinless chicken thighs that I already had. This is a keeper, thank you.
Perfect with boneless chicken thighs! I love to hear it, KT. Glad you enjoyed it.
I give this five stars, even though it’s still on the stove right now. It’s in that last stage where you have to simmer 30 minutes.
I had to change a couple things up.
I used boneless thighs because my 20 year-old has recently revealed to me that the bones-on gross him out. (Which I never knew all the time I was serving him bones-on. I love bones-on, but he is 20 and so he knows everything.)
I also didn’t do the sofrito because I don’t want to make a quart of it and it seemed like everything in the recipe was sofrito ingredients anyway. For that step, I substituted 1/4 cup of cilantro and called it a day. I can tell by the way it’s cooking, it will be great. Bones-on would have been better, but…
Anyhoo, it seems to be turning out well. I’m really happy with it right now.
Sounds great, Diana! I hope you love it as much as I do!
Mike – once again you nailed a recipe that my PuertoRican abuelita (and mom too) used to make. Kudos to you!! It’s only missing one thing: sliced carrots. Try it one time; I think you’ll like that addition. 🙂 Once again, thanks so much for sharing these recipes from the Caribbean.
Thanks, Gloria! I am DEFINITELY going to use carrots next time! I love them! They would be so perfect here. Cheers to your abuelita, and mom!
Mmmm good flavor. We find the finest quality most spicy recipes from Chili Pepper Madness… thanks for the ideas
Thanks, Rick! I appreciate it!
I love meals with olive in it! Soooo much flavors here!!! Dear Mike, this is very very good (again).
Thanks, Jérémie! Yes! I really love this one. Tasty!