Whether it’s Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or Christmas, the following dishes – most of them quite easy to prepare and using ingredients available in regular supermarkets (especially those that carry Goya products) — are a medley of the best of Puerto Rican food. This is not a complete list, of course, but mix and match them up and you will have a big table of big, bold food that will introduce everyone to new flavor combinations without scaring them off!
Have a terrific weekend everyone! Buen provecho…..
1. Tostones – Our version of french fries…made with plantains. This is the authentic method with some secret steps!
Serve these as an appetizer, topped with sour cream and caviar (Thanks Patricia Wilson!), a garlic mojo, or in mayo-ketchup, as follows
2. Mayo-Ketchup – a mix of mayonnaise and ketchup, given a spicy, smoky chipotle update in this recipe
Keep it simple and just mix mayonnaise and ketchup, or click on the image for a spicier version!
3. Arroz con pollo – Chicken and Rice. This is everyone’s sentimental favorite (and a good bet for the kids)
This dish puts the rico in Puerto Rico. Everyone thinks wistfully of their grandmother when they smell this coming
4. Pollo guisado – a simple chicken stew with beer AND wine. The alcohol burns off and leaves a kiddie favorite!
(pronounced poh-yo gheesadoh), this is a solution for a party or for every day dining. Freezes well so you can make it waaaay ahead!
5. Pastelón de amarillos – an apocalyptic layered casserole of sweet plantains and savory beef. A bit more involved, but well worth the effort if you want to surprise and impress.
6. Pastelón de yuca – seasoned ground beef topped with mashed yuca and baked
Pastelón de yuca is the Puerto Rican shepherd’s pie…
7. Perníl – Roast Pork – the granddaddy of all buffet tables
With a crackling skin and moist salty insides, this is the breaker of many a diet.
8. a. Arroz con habichuelas – traditional Puerto Rican rice and beans (with cheats if you can’t find the right ingredients
The real and the fake….only you have to know! It all tastes good…
8. b. Pedro’s Perfect White Rice (an even more perfect rice recipe)
9. Yuca en vinagreta/Ensalada de yuca – like a potato salad, except, denser, bolder, and well…better. Vegan!
The makings of yuca salad…you may never make potato salad again!
10. Tomato and Avocado Salad – a stalwart side that goes with most any dish!
This is a great accompaniment to spicier, more complex dishes – and vegans love it (Click image for recipe)
Hot, Cheap & Easy 
Can you please post a recipe for arroz con gandules?
This post is making this Bronx boy homesick. Thanks so much for sharing these wonderful foods with the world.
Perhaps if you share the recipes around enough, someone will prepare them for you — or help you prepare them!!!!
Reblogged this on Hot, Cheap & Easy and commented:
NOTE TO READERS: Now that we are in full holiday season, I am reviewing all my party recipes..and here are some great Puerto Rican entertaining ideas for your table! Includes the iconic PERNIL and ARROZ con POLLO. ¡WEPA!
Heavenly stuff! Several things I’m definitely going to try. And yes, revisit the delicious wonder that is tomato-avocado salad: a frequent and much loved side dish here at our place, too.
Terrific! I love simple salads like that!
Very nice Natalia. If the building was on fire and I had to rescue one of them, it would be the pork.
Would you check whether the pork was cooked through first? Hold it to the flames for some extra char?
Reblogged this on Jayne McAllister and commented:
Be a devil and try recipe #9, ensalada de yuca instead of potato salad at your party this weekend. I’ve made it a bunch of times. Not only is it vegan, so it’s high fiber, but it’s also delicious and makes you look really debonair and international if you serve it. Kind of like when I rolled up to a party once with a lemongrass-jicama slaw, before restaurants were serving jicama slaw. This is your chance to be the trendsetter!
Big thumbs up for the ensalada de yuca which I have made on more than one occasion. I even included it in a foodie article in this year’s St. Maarten Events. I’m surprised you haven’t been asked to market it, dear Natalia.
Thanks Jayne…will be making it this weekend for a birthday party!
I’d could eat a lot of those for dinner tonight 😉
me too!!!!