A homey Cuban chicken stew where bone-in pieces are braised in a tomato-and-wine sauce brightened with olives, capers, raisins and potatoes until the meat slips off the bone.
Fricasé de pollo descends from the French fricassée brought to the Caribbean by colonists, but Cuban cooks reinvented it with a Spanish-rooted sofrito, dry wine, and the sweet-salty interplay of raisins and olives. It became a Sunday-table staple in Cuban households, prized for stretching one chicken into a generous family meal.
The chicken is fork-tender and saturated with a tangy tomato sauce that turns mellow from the wine. Briny olives and capers pop against sweet bursts of raisin, while soft potatoes soak up every drop.
Browning the floured chicken develops a fond that deepens the sauce, while the acidic sour-orange (or lime) marinade and slow braise break down connective tissue for fall-off-the-bone meat. Olives, capers and raisins layer salt and sweet for the classic agridulce balance.
Variations
with potatoes only, with carrots added, spicier with aji, made with rabbit or pork instead of chicken
On the Palate
Where Fricasé de Pollo sits in the Cuban flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
8 steps · 25 min
- 130 min
Marinate chicken pieces in lime juice, garlic and cumin for half an hour.
- 210 min
Brown the chicken in olive oil, then set aside.
Watch outSear the floured chicken to a real golden crust before it moves — that browned fond is what deepens the whole sauce.
- 38 min
Build a sofrito of onion, green pepper and garlic in the same pot.
Watch outCook the sofrito slow until the onion turns soft and sweet-smelling — let it brown and it stops being a mellow base and starts tasting fried.
- 43 min
Stir in tomato sauce, dry white wine and a splash of the marinade.
- 535 min
Return the chicken, add bay leaf, and simmer covered until tender.
- 615 min
Add diced potatoes and cook until they soften into the sauce.
- 75 min
Fold in green olives, capers and raisins near the end.
Watch outFold the olives, capers and raisins in only at the end — go in too early and they cook out to mush, losing the sweet-salt snap.
- 85 min
Rest briefly, then serve over white rice.
