Potlucks, part one

Everyone's felt it - the thrill of terror when the powers-that-be decide that the next meeting/birthday/corporate party-type-thing will be a potluck. Suddenly, you have to actually bring food that other people will eat instead of just subsisting on the bologna sandwiches you usually bring for lunch. Now what?



What resources are available to you will determine what sort of food you can bring, of course. If you have a full kitchen available at the potluck location, then you can make things that are a bit more elaborate and should be served as soon as they're finished. If all you've got is a microwave, well, your options are limited.



Now, my standard for potlucks is arroz con pollo. It's simple to make, and I've been fortunate enough to be involved in potlucks in locations with actual kitchens (or, more importantly, stoves). In general, I avoid using a microwave to reheat something meant for general consumption - things rarely taste as good reheated as they do when first cooked. This dish works with two of my greatest strengths in the kitchen - Mexican food, and chicken. Finding something that you feel comfortable making is key when determining what to make for a potluck - it might not be the greatest time to try out a completely new, intricate recipe with ingredients you can't pronounce. Also, make sure it's something you'd be willing to eat yourself. There's no point in making something if even you wouldn't eat it.



The way I usually make arroz con pollo for a potluck is different from how I make it for dinner at home, obviously. In general, I try to do a fair amount of the work at home before going to the potluck - the less actual "cooking" done there, the better. I'll use the arroz con pollo as an example, but the techniques can be modified for many other kinds of dishes.



Arroz con pollo translates as "rice with chicken," which is basically all it is. To start, I cube some chicken breast meat (cutting off as much of the fat as I can), and saute it in a large skillet with some minced garlic in a bit of oil. Once the chicken is cooked through, I add uncooked rice - I prefer long grain white rice, but just about any kind of rice will work. Now, I freely admit that I am awful when it comes to figuring out how much rice to put into a dish. It depends on how many people you're cooking for, and whether or not you're expecting leftovers. The general rule of thumb for potlucks is to make enough to feed your party plus one. So, basically put in as much rice as you think you'll need. Brown the rice with the chicken - this will usually take about five minutes or so.



Now, here's where things diverge between cooking for a potluck and cooking for a dinner at home. For dinner at home, I would move straight on to finishing the dish and serving it, naturally. However, if you're trying to avoid having to reheat a dish at a potluck, this would be good place to stop the preparation at home. The rest of the dish can be finished up at the potluck if you have access to a stove or an electric skillet (and that is one of the high-end ones - you don't need to spend that much for good-quality cookware. But that's another post...).



Now would be a good time to mention another key for cooking for/at potlucks - don't expect to have ANYTHING that you'll need already there. If you know you'll need a fry pan of a certain size, bring it with you. Yes, it can be awkward to haul cookware with you, but it's either bring it with you or find a way to work with what you've got, and be prepared for the results.



At any rate, for the arroz con pollo, I would pack up the cooked chicken, garlic, and browned rice together, along with a small can of tomato sauce, a can opener (see above about having everything you need), chili powder, garlic salt, cumin, a large spoon for stirring and serving, and either my large skillet (when I have access to a stove) or my electric skillet (when all I have is an outlet to use). To finish the dish, put a bit of water in the skillet and add the chicken and rice mixture to it, giving it a few minutes to warm up. Once warm (the water will start to sizzle a bit), add the can of tomato sauce and enough water to cover the rice. Add the spices (chili powder will give it some heat, so if you're unsure of the spice tolerance of the people you're feeding, err on the side of bland and have some sort of hot sauce available for those who want it) and stir everything together. Bring everything to a simmer and cook until the rice is cooked through - the water will be absorbed when it's done. Keep stirring fairly frequently to make sure the rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the skillet, and about halfway through, taste a bit of the chicken to see if you need to add more spices. You can use canned tomatos instead of tomato sauce, and saute onions with the chicken and garlic if you want to add some more texture. It works really well on a tortilla with grated cheese on top.



This is just one dish that works well for potlucks. The important thing for this kind of potluck dish is to assemble as much as you can beforehand (cooking the chicken, browning the rice) so that you have minimal actual "cooking" to do at the potluck. At the same time, putting things together at the potluck itself makes it taste (and appear) more like a dish prepared specifically for this event, and less like leftovers reheated at the last minute.