› Browse Recipes › Arroz con Pollo for Business — Peruvian Chicken Rice with Huancaína Potatoes

by Victor Heredia

recipe hard Peruvian

Arroz con Pollo for Business — Peruvian Chicken Rice with Huancaína Potatoes

A standardized Peruvian arroz con pollo made for 5 business-scale portions. Chicken quarters are marinated in chicha de jora, citrus, and spices, then seared and cooked in a blended green sauce of cilantro, spinach, ají amarillo, and chicken stock. Served with a creamy ají amarillo huancaína sauce over boiled yellow potatoes and strips of fire-roasted red pepper.

90m Prep

50m Cook

3h 20m Total

5 Servings

arroz-con-pollo chicken-rice culantro ají-amarillo chicha-de-jora zapallo-loche huancaína norteño lambayeque negocio streetfood master-cook victor-heredia green-rice arroz-verde papa-la-huancaina

Ingredients

Aderezo (Base Sauce)

18 g Garlic, minced (add after removing seared chicken from pot)
250 g Onion (sliced thin but not too fine — will be blended)
150 g Ají amarillo, fresh (veins and seeds removed, roughly chopped; do not use paste — use fresh and blend)
84 g Zapallo loche (Lambayeque squash) (grated with skin on; only from Lambayeque region; omit if unavailable) optional

Chicken

846 g Chicken quarters (uniform size) (use uniform pieces for even cooking; 5 portions)

Chicken Marinade

8 g Salt (for chicken marinade)
100 ml Chicha de jora (Peruvian fermented corn beer; substitute with 2 limes + 2 oranges if unavailable)
10 ml Lime juice (approx. 1 small lime)
Orange juice (sour orange preferred; use a strainer to avoid seeds)
Ground cumin (freshly ground for best aroma)
Ground black pepper (freshly ground)
Dark beer (a touch to add smoky depth to the marinade) optional

Chicken Stock

Chicken bones (carcasses) (broken up and seared in a pot before adding water for stock)
Water (added to seared bones; simmer up to 1 hour)

Cooking

60 ml Vegetable oil (for searing chicken)

Garnish

1 unit Red bell pepper for garnish (fire-roasted, skin scraped, cut into strips; placed on top of finished dish) optional

Green Sauce

200 g Cilantro (culantro) (washed, excess stems removed; sautéed in the aderezo before blending)
150 g Spinach (sautéed in aderezo before blending; adds color intensity without strong flavor)

Huancaína Sauce

Oil (for huancaína sauce base)
30 g Onion for huancaína (confited with ají amarillo from cold oil)
100 g Ají amarillo for huancaína (confited with onion in oil from cold)
200 ml Evaporated milk (added after confited sofrito cools; blended)
4 units Soda crackers (blended into the sauce as thickener)
White cheese (queso blanco) (blended into the sauce for creaminess)

Huancaína Side

Yellow potatoes (papas amarillas) (boiled starting from boiling water; peeled and halved for serving)

Rice

750 g White rice, polished (washed; added to the green sauce once it comes to a boil)
20 g Salt (added with the rice — accounts for the vegetables and rice (chicken already salted in marinade))
Dark beer (added to the sauce before blending for smoky depth) optional

Vegetables

100 g Peas (alverjas / guisantes) (cooked in the chicken stock before adding to rice)
150 g Fresh corn kernels (choclo) (cooked in chicken stock then added with vegetables at the end)
100 g Carrot, diced (cooked in chicken stock; adds color)

Steps

1

Marinate the chicken: season 846 g chicken quarters with 8 g salt, 100 ml chicha de jora, juice of 1 small lime (~10 ml), juice of 1 orange, 1/4 tsp freshly ground cumin, 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper, and a splash of dark beer. Mix and marinate at least 1 hour — ideally overnight in the refrigerator.

Tip: If chicha de jora is unavailable, substitute with juice of 2 limes and 2 oranges.

~60 min
2

Make the chicken stock: heat a pot with a little oil over maximum heat. Add broken chicken carcasses and sear until deeply browned. Add water to cover and bring to a boil. Add onion scraps, garlic scraps, and carrot pieces. Simmer up to 1 hour. Strain and reserve.

Tip: Sear the bones deeply before adding water — this creates a darker, richer stock. Add carrot, peas, and corn to the simmering stock to cook them there, preserving flavor in the liquid.

~60 min
3

Seal the chicken: heat a large pot to maximum. Add 60 ml oil. Drain excess marinade from the chicken (so it sears, not steams). Sear skin-side down first until a good golden crust forms. Turn and sear the other side. Remove and reserve.

Tip: Remove excess moisture from the chicken before searing or it will steam and not form the desired crust.

~10 min
4

Make the aderezo: in the same pot over medium heat, add garlic (18 g) to the residual oil. Add onion (250 g) and sauté slowly to deglaze the chicken fond. Add ají amarillo (150 g, veins and seeds removed). Add grated zapallo loche (84 g) if available. Sauté 3 minutes.

~5 min
5

Add cilantro (200 g) and spinach (150 g) to the aderezo. Raise heat slightly and sauté 2–3 minutes so they wilt and lose their oxidizing enzymes. Add the chicken marinade, a splash of dark beer, and the chicken stock (amount depends on liquid needed). Turn off heat.

Tip: Sauté the greens before blending so the color stays vivid and the enzymes responsible for quick oxidation (browning) are deactivated.

~5 min
6

Blend the sauce in batches: add the contents of the pot to a blender and blend until smooth. Strain through a sieve for a clean sauce. Return to the pot. Bring to a boil and remove any foam.

Tip: Strain the blended sauce — it creates a noticeably more refined, professional result.

~5 min
7

Once the sauce comes to a boil, add 750 g washed polished white rice and 20 g salt. Stir. Place chicken pieces on top carefully. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes, then cover and cook on low heat for 15 more minutes.

Tip: At altitude, adjust the ratio of rice to liquid accordingly — in Lima (sea level) use equal weight of rice to liquid.

~25 min
8

While the rice cooks, make the huancaína sauce: start onion (30 g) and ají amarillo (100 g) in cold oil (2 oz) in a small pan and confite on low heat. Once cooled slightly, blend with 200 ml evaporated milk, 4 soda crackers, and a small piece of fresh white cheese until creamy.

Tip: Starting from cold oil for confiting means the ingredients cook gently and evenly without browning.

~15 min
9

Remove chicken from the pot once cooked. Add the reserved cooked vegetables (peas, corn, carrot) to the rice and fold in gently to avoid breaking the grains. Let stand 3 minutes uncovered to dry slightly.

Tip: Do not use a wide flat utensil with too much surface area — it breaks the rice grains. Use a spoon or paddle with minimal contact.

~5 min
10

Serve: plate the green rice generously, place 2 chicken pieces on top. Alongside, place boiled yellow potato halves with huancaína sauce poured over them. Garnish the plate with strips of fire-roasted red pepper for color. Serve immediately.

Tip: For restaurant/business scale: cook rice and sauce the day before. At service, reheat the sauce, add pre-cooked rice and separately cooked chicken, then add vegetables and serve.

~5 min

Nutrition (per serving)

520

Calories

32g

Protein

62g

Carbs

16g

Fat

Fiber

Cultural Context

Arroz con pollo is described by Victor Heredia as an economical evolution of the legendary arroz con pato Norteña — the beloved dish of Peru's northern Lambayeque region. The defining technique inherited from arroz con pato is using culantro and spinach blended together to create the signature vivid green color and flavor of the rice. Zapallo loche, a squash grown only in Lambayeque without pesticides, is another marker of the Norteño heritage. Serving it alongside papa a la huancaína has become a modern trend — customers now demand it. Victor notes this is a dish 'in Peru's DNA' that every family makes.