Arroz junto (rice together) is a Puerto Rican rice dish cooked with beans and meat in one pot.

Origin

Method

Rice, beans, and usually some kind of meat, are combined in the same pot.

Sofrito (), (), (), (), () or () is a basic preparation in Mediterranean cuisine, Mediterranean, Latin American cuisine, Latin American, Spanish cuisine, Spanish, Italian cuisine, Italian and Portuguese cuisine, Portuguese cooking. It typically ...

, meat, olives, capers and spices are cooked in annatto oil.

Annatto Annatto ( or ) is an orange-red condiment and food coloring derived from the seeds of the achiote tree (''Bixa orellana''), native to tropics, tropical parts of the Americas. It is often used to impart a yellow to red-orange color to foods, but ...

adds flavor and tints the rice a bright orange color. Once sofrito is cooked, rice and beans are added with liquid.

Variations

Some ''arroz junto'' dishes are given other names such as

arroz con gandules Arroz con gandules is a combination of rice, pigeon peas, and pork, cooked in the same pot with sofrito. This is Puerto Rico's national dish along with roasted pork. Preparation This dish is mainly served during the Christmas season or for s ...

, arroz con maiz y salchichas, arroz con garbanzo y bacalao (rice with chickpeas and

salted cod Dried and salted cod, sometimes referred to as salt cod or saltfish or salt dolly, is cod which has been preserved by drying after salting. Cod which has been dried without the addition of salt is stockfish. Salt cod was long a major export of ...

), and arroz bago (rice, chickpeas, and ground meat). Pinto, black or red beans are usually accompanied with smoked ham,

longaniza Longaniza (, or ) is a Spanish sausage ( embutido) similar to a chorizo and also closely associated with the Portuguese linguiça. Its defining characteristics are interpreted differently from region to region. It is popular in the cuisines ...

, or bacon.

Arroz con pollo ''Arroz con pollo'' ( Spanish for ''rice with chicken'') is a traditional dish of Latin America. It typically consists of chicken cooked with rice, onions, saffron, and a potential plethora of other grains or vegetables. In the Dominican Republi ...

is another popular dish that usually has added chorizo and

sweet pea The sweet pea, ''Lathyrus odoratus'', is a flowering plant in the genus '' Lathyrus'' in the family Fabaceae ( legumes), native to Sicily, southern Italy and the Aegean Islands. It is an annual climbing plant, growing to a height of , where ...

s. {{Rice dishes Puerto Rican cuisine Latin American rice dishes Legume dishes