First Time Mom and Losing It

Thank you Carolina® Rice for sponsoring this post. All opinions are 100% by own.


Growing up, my maternal grandmother always lived with us. She was the cook of the family and would always have dinner ready for us at dinner time. She never cooked with a recipe and always cooked by memory and with her own little tricks like adding enough water to the rice pot to make a spoon stand up. Amazingly this method always made the perfect rice.


Since her birthday is close to Thanksgiving we always gave her a break from cooking and cooked whatever she wanted. Even though the norm is turkey and stuffing for Thanksgiving my grandma always wanted to eat Pollo Guisado. It's tender stewed chicken thighs in a sofrito tomato sauce and always served over fluffy white rice. If you can't do without Turkey on Thanksgiving you can always do it with turkey breast meat :)


As we are deep in preparation for Thanksgiving dinner we know that the main dish will be Pollo Guisado. I wanted to change up our Thanksgiving menu a little so while I was shopping for the Carolina® long grain rice we have always used I saw that they had a Jasmine variety. Jasmine rice is known for it's fragrant and aromatic scent that is released during the cooking process. We made a batch of the Pollo Guisado with Jasmine rice and gave my grandma a try for her approval. It was a hit so it will be on our Thanksgiving table in a couple of few weeks.


Pollo Guisado with a Jasmine Twist 

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into pieces
• 1 small potato, peeled and diced into 1" cubes
• 1 small carrot, peeled and sliced
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 2 tsp Adobo powder (found in most supermarkets in the Spanish foods aisle)
• 3 tblsp Goya Sofrito (found in the Spanish section of the freezer aisle)
• 2 cups of chicken broth
• Carolina® Jasmine Rice

1. Add all of the ingredients into a pot and mix well.
2. Simmer the Pollo Guisado on low heat until the chicken is completely cooked through and the carrots and potatoes are tender. While cooking, make sure to stir occasionally so that the bottom doesn't burn. Cook uncovered until the sauce is the thickness you like. 
3. Follow the package directions to cook the Carolina® Jasmine Rice. Serve the Pollo Guisado on top of the Jasmine rice and enjoy. 

Jambalaya is one of our staple recipes. It is always in our menu rotation and I have been making it so much that I made some tweaks to it to make it both healthier and easier to do. I know Jambalaya is usually made with sausage, chicken and shrimp but I just go the easy route and just use sausage. To make it healthier I use brown rice instead of white rice and turkey kielbasa instead of andouille sausage. I have also made it easier by throwing everything into my pressure cooker and setting and forgetting it.


The first thing I do is turn on the browning feature of my electric pressure cooker and then slice the kielbasa. I add a little bit of olive oil and then add the sausage to brown. While the sausage is browning I dice some celery, onion and green pepper. Then I take out the kielbasa and add the vegetables to soften. After that I added brown rice, spices and mixed it in and let the rice toast up for a couple seconds. Then I added the spices, chicken stock and a can of diced tomatoes. I added back the kielbasa, covered the pressure cooker and set it on high pressure for 25 minutes. After the minutes are up I let the pressure naturally escape for 20 minutes.





Healthier Pressure Cooker Jambalaya

• 1 package of turkey kielbasa, sliced
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 2 stalks of celery, diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 small green pepper, diced
• 2 cups brown rice
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp poultry seasoning
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 can diced tomatoes

1. Turn on the brown setting of an electric pressure cooker and add the olive oil. Add the kielbasa and cook stirring around until it is browned. Take out the kielbasa, add the vegetables and cook until softened. 
2. Add the rice and toast it for about a minute and stirring. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Carefully mix in the kielbasa, cover and set it to high pressure for 25 minutes. 
3. Let pressure naturally escape for 20 minutes. Fluff up the rice and enjoy!