Authentic recipes

Arroz con Gandules Recipes

Puerto Rico’s national dish, yellow rice, pigeon peas, sofrito, and pegao.

Arroz con gandules is Puerto Rico’s national dish, yellow rice cooked with gandules (pigeon peas), homemade sofrito, achiote, and a touch of pork (bacon, smoked ham, or leftover pernil). It accompanies every proper boricua meal, and it’s measured by the pegao, that golden crispy layer at the bottom of the caldero that’s the reward for whoever had the patience not to stir it.

Don Luis has 14 arroz con gandules recipes, from grandma’s classic version to variants with coconut, with cilantro, with ribs, or vegetarian. Each one includes the trick for achieving the perfect pegao and the exact water ratio that makes the grain stay loose but flavorful.

All 15 of Don Luis’s arroz con gandules recipes

Why Don Luis

Part of a collection spanning 100+ years of family recipes across three generations, collected and tested over 30+ years in the kitchen. The pegao secret and sofrito proportion are dialed in by generations of family cooking and 30+ years of testing in Puerto Rican calderos.