Hispanic Heritage · República Dominicana

Santo Domingo

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La bandera dominicana

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La bandera dominicana brings rice, beans, and stewed meat onto one plate. In this Santo Domingo chapter, it becomes a way to explore how separate pots can share a common seasoning vocabulary and still offer distinct flavors.

La Gente

Begin with the component that needs the most time, then work toward the table. The meat’s sauce, the beans’ broth, and the plain rice are meant to meet as the meal is served. Add salad for freshness and crunch.

Sabor

The capital cooks in the Dominican key: oregano, garlic, and a spoonful of sazón, with tomato and sour orange doing the acid work and cilantro finishing everything green. There is very little heat. There is a great deal of stewing, and the sauce from the meat is meant to run into the rice.

Spice DNA · Herb high · Acid medium · Sweet low · Smoke none · Heat none

Seasonings to explore

Oregano, whole. Dominican cooking uses more oregano than anywhere else in the Caribbean. It goes in the beans, the chicken, the salad dressing.
Adobo with Pepper. On the chicken before it is browned.
Sazón with Coriander and Annatto. The color in the pollo guisado and a pinch in the beans.
Minced Garlic in Olive Oil. In every pot on the stove.
Black Pepper, ground. With the adobo.
Complete Seasoning. The all-purpose jar for the salad dressing and the rice water.

From your market: red beans, a piece of auyama or kabocha squash, chicken thighs, tomato paste, a sour orange or a lime, a green pepper, an onion, and a bunch of cilantro. Badia does not make the concón. That is between you and the pot.

Cocina

La bandera dominicana

White rice, habichuelas guisadas, pollo guisado. Three pots, one plate, every day of the week.

Serves 4

Habichuelas guisadas

2 cups cooked red beans, with 2 cups of their liquid (or two 15 oz cans with liquid)
2 tbsp olive oil
½ onion, minced
½ green bell pepper, minced
1 tbsp Badia Minced Garlic in Olive Oil, or 3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp Badia Oregano, whole
½ tsp Badia Sazón with Coriander and Annatto
1 cup auyama or kabocha squash, peeled and cubed
Salt to taste
2 tbsp cilantro, chopped

Pollo guisado

2 lb bone-in chicken thighs
Juice of 1 sour orange or 1 lime
1½ tsp Badia Adobo with Pepper
1 tsp Badia Oregano, whole
½ tsp Badia Black Pepper, ground
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp sugar
½ onion, sliced
½ green pepper, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp Badia Sazón with Coriander and Annatto
1 cup water
2 tbsp cilantro, chopped

Arroz blanco

2 cups long-grain rice
3 cups water
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt

Season the chicken first. Toss the thighs with the sour orange, adobo, oregano, and black pepper. Let it sit 30 minutes, or overnight.
Start the beans. Warm the oil over medium. Cook the onion and pepper until soft, then the garlic for a minute. Add tomato paste, oregano, and sazón and stir until the paste darkens. Add the beans, their liquid, and the squash. Simmer, uncovered, 25 to 30 minutes, until the squash has fallen apart and the sauce coats a spoon. Mash a few beans against the side of the pot to thicken it further. Salt. Cilantro at the end.
The rice. Bring the water, oil, and salt to a boil in a heavy pot. Add the rice, stir once, and boil uncovered until the water drops below the surface of the rice, about 8 minutes. Cover tightly and turn the heat to the lowest setting for 20 minutes. Do not stir. When it is done, fluff the top with a fork and leave the bottom alone. The concón comes off the pot with a spoon at the table.
Brown the chicken. Heat the oil in a wide pot over medium-high. Sprinkle in the sugar and let it melt and darken to the color of a penny, about 1 minute. Add the chicken skin side down and let it take on a deep color, 4 to 5 minutes per side. This is where the sauce gets its brown.
Stew it. Add the onion, pepper, garlic, tomato paste, and sazón and stir a minute. Add the water and scrape the bottom of the pot. Cover and simmer 25 minutes, until the chicken is tender and the sauce has thickened. Uncover for the last 5 minutes if it looks thin. Cilantro at the end.
Plate it. Rice on one side, beans over part of the rice, a piece of chicken with its sauce on the other side. A wedge of avocado if you have one. Ice water in a glass.

Pueblos de Santo Domingo

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