Pollo en Jitomate con Arroz Rojo

Items you need
• 1 chicken cut into 8 pieces, if you can buy them already cut that´s better
• 2 medium onions
• 6 ripe roma tomatoes (the redder the tomatoes the nicer color your rice and tomato sauce will have)
• 5 cloves of garlic (Yes, 5 cloves!!)
• fresh mint leaves
• fresh cilantro
• 1 serrano chile (it gives the tomato sauce a little flavor without being too hot. But you can omit it if you don´t like spicy food)
• 1 cup of rice
• 1 chicken buillon (sp?) cube
• vegetable oil
• salt of course

This is one of my favorite dishes and this is what I am going to serve when my daughter graduates kindergarten next friday!

It seems like a lot of ingredients but this is stuff typical to mexican kitchens!!!

1. Put chicken in boiling water. Just enough water to cover the chicken. 1 whole chicken will feed 8 people. But even if you need less chicken the recipe doesn´t change.

2. Add 3 garlic cloves, 1 medium onion peeled and quartered, a pinch of salt, and the cilantro and mint once the water is boiling. Be sure to take out the brown stuff that comes out of the chicken. Believe me on the garlic cloves. It gives the chicken broth a GREAT taste.

3. While that´s cooking, in the blender mix 3 roma tomatoes, 1/2 medium onion, 1 garlic clove, 1 buillion cube and 3/4 cup water. Blend until smooth to make this tomato sauce.

4. Heat oil in a pot for the rice. Once hot, fry rice until golden. Then add what´s in the blender but stand back!!! Let that boil down for 5 minutes and add 2 more cups of water. Once that´s boiling reduce heat and cover. It´s done when rice is tender and liquid has boiled down.

5. Once chicken is thoroughly cooked, scoop chicken out and save broth. Heat a skillen with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and fry chicken.

6. While chicken is frying, in the blender, blend the same ingredients to make the tomato sauce as you did with the rice, but omitting the buillion cube and adding the chile if desired. Also instead of the water, add the chicken broth from where you cooked the chicken. The tomato sauce is 10 times better this way. And blend until smooth.

7. Once chicken is nice and brown, add the tomato sauce mixture. Let that boil down for 5 minutes then add more water and salt. Once it boils it´s ready!!

8. Serve a piece of chicken and rice, and pour the tomato sauce from the chicken on top of all of it!!! Enjoy!