Chicken
6–8 chicken thighs or legs and thighs or use a whole chicken, cut up
Sea salt and black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 tablespoons (or more) sofrito sauce (recipe follows)
2 dozen manzanilla olives
Sofrito Sauce
3 medium red, yellow, or orange (or a blend) peppers, seeds removed
2 large tomatoes
2 medium onions, peeled
1 head of garlic, peeled
1 bunch cilantro leaves
1/2 bunch parsley leaves
1/2 teaspoon Rain’s Choice ground Vanilla Bean Powder
Salt, pepper and smoked or sweet paprika to taste
Olive oil and lemon juice, enough just to bind ingredients together
Chicken
Season chicken with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Heat a saute pan over medium heat and add oil. Add chicken and brown on both sides.
Once chicken is browned, add in sofrito and turn chicken to coat all sides in the sauce. Reduce heat to a medium-low setting.
With the side of a knife, crush olives and put into pan with chicken.
Cook for about 15 minutes, turning chicken every few minutes until it is done. Add more sofrito at any time if you would like more sauce.
Serve with black beans and rice.
Sofrito Sauce
Peel garlic and chop ingredients into sizes that are small enough to fit into a food processor or blender. Place the chopped ingredients into a food processor or blender.
Blend together all ingredients well. If too thick, add olive oil, 1 tablespoon at a time. Add lemon juice to taste. This recipe makes about 1 quart of sauce. If you prefer, halve the recipe, which should be plenty for the above recipe for four.
For immediate use, store in a glass container. Plastic containers are not ideal because plastic will absorb the odor of garlic and onions. For future use, freeze sofrito in 1/4 to 1/2 cup portions for use at any time.
Find it online: https://vanillaqueen.com/cubanchicken/