• JMILDER on January 22, 2012

  Make sure this book comes up when users search under "Puerto Rico"--right now it only comes up if the search is "Puerto Rican". I almost didn't find it. Thanks!

• ycblazek on August 24, 2011

  Great recipes! Carmen Aboy Valldejuli was considered the Julia Child of Puerto Rico. I wanted to cook like my mother and I found this to be the best cookbook to imitate her cooking. It is written in both English and Spanish. I'm happy to also find a lot of the ingredients needed for the recipes in the US. You may need to go to an Ethnic store to find them.

• jen kalb on July 09, 2010

  Careful, detailed recipes that produce delicious classic dishes

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Puerto Rican beef stew (Carne guisada Puertorriqueña)

  • hirsheys on July 08, 2017

    This was delicious with the adaptations that my Puerto Rican friend taught me. I sprinkled the beef with adobo seasoning, added sazon goya (with saffron) so left out salt, couldn't find culantro, so used cilantro, left out carrots (don't like them), and replaced canned peas with frozen. I was very impressed with the results.

• Breaded chops (Chuletas empanadas)

  • BlytheSpirit on July 07, 2014

    I made this recipe with a few alterations in accordance with the fact that this book was written in the 1970's when pork was still tasty and not so lean as nowadays... I used a beautiful but ENORMOUS Berkshire pork chop which I pounded first with a meat mallet to tenderize. I used the rub as written in the recipe, omitted the salt from the egg wash, and breaded with dry bread crumbs. Instead of baking the chop for an hour at 350 as the recipe directed, I quickly sautéed it on both sides and transferred it to a cookie sheet lined with parchment and put it in a preheated 375 oven for ten minutes. I removed it and tented it with foil (to allow it to continue cooking and resting) for about 15 minutes. It was perfectly juicy and delicious!

• Chicken fricassée (Pollo en fricasé)

  • hirsheys on July 08, 2017

    This is a fantastic recipe. I made adaptations based on my friend Katie's advice (she's Puerto Rican and considers this book her family's cooking bible). We used boneless, skinless thighs and sprinkled them with adobo seasoning. Left out lard and salt pork, but used veggie oil. Added sazon seasoning with saffron, used cilantro rather than culantro. Left out prunes, peas, and the butter, then replaced 1 cup of the water with white wine. It was incredibly delicious.

• Chicken in sherry (Pollo al Jerez)

  • celeste_8ryupw on February 15, 2026

    Used sweet and dry sherry for this! I actually prefer the dry. This is just plain beautiful. Between the sherry, bay and olives a lovely unified flavor forms! Enjoy!

• Lasagne a la San Juan (Lasagna a la San Juan)

  • JKDLady on March 03, 2016

    This was just an outstanding dish. I was skeptical at first with the raisins, but they added something to the dish. I will definitely make this again. The only odd thing about the recipe was when making the "cream" the instructions said to use a wooden spoon. It began lumping, so I used a whisk.

• Caribbean rice with chicken (Arroz con pollo)

  • lbr4 on May 12, 2020

    This is a fantastic recipe for Arroz con Pollo! I made it twice in preparation for a Puerto Rican cooking class that I was doing. I had to make a few tweaks based on ingredient availability. The main one was substituting the salt pork and ham for Goya Ham Flavor Concentrate. I also did not have access to culantro, so I used cilantro well enough. I used bone-in, skin on chicken thighs and after browning the chicken I removed the skin before adding in with the rice. I do recommend going with a medium grain rice over long grain, the texture of the rice in this dish was so much better and it seemed to hold the flavors better overall. My only other note is that I am not sure if I am fan of pigeon peas or not, the jury is still out, but I recommend only using a half can instead of the full.

  • Stephenn31 on December 07, 2024

    Really good. I used a bit more salted pork instead of adding ham. It melted into the rice. I used a packet of sazon (culantro and achiote) at the stage it called for culantro and it added a flavour bump. Otherwise I halved the amount of chicken and rice (and water) but kept the original amount of everything else in the recipe to give it a bit more flavour which worked well.

• Coconut cordial (Cordial de coco)

  • celeste_8ryupw on February 15, 2026

    Made a bunch of these for Christmas gifts one year. People were veeeeeeeeeery happy. Us included.