Galinhado – A Sort of Cookup Rice

First Published: 2nd of June, 2021 by Patrick Carpen

When I first came to Brazil, I absolutely adored Brazilian cuisine. Most restaurants offer the “self service” style where you take a little bit of everything – like rice, meats, greens, vegetables, etc. And trust me, there is such a wide variety that the meal is sure to be both nutritious and tasty – certainly nothing lacking.

But after about one year of living in the middle of Brazil, I started to miss my Guyanese food, and I started to search for them. However, most of the delicious snacks that I was used to in Guyana are unheard of in Brazil. I’m particularly not fond of Brazilian snacks. I miss eggball, channa, dhal puri, polourie, etc, and all those amazing delicacies the likes of which can be found at Shanta Roti Stop in Georgetown, Guyana. You couldn’t find those in Brazil – as of July, 2021 at least!

Foods like dhal, cookup rice, and pepperpot were also totally unheard of in Brazil. Together with some Brazilian friends, I tried to make some Guyanese food in Brazil and we were more or less successful.

No Cookup Rice?

Well cookup rice recipes are so wide and varied in Guyana that there are perhaps dozens, if not hundreds, of them across the country….adaptations and personalizations. I tried to find cookup rice in Brazil but I couldn’t for a while, and not being a great cook, I didn’t make it either.

I later learned that Brazil does have two dishes that approximates the Guyanese cookup: Bayao (if I spelt that right) and Galinhado.

Bayao (pronouned Bai-ow) is a very simple version of dried cookup rice – basically composed of rice, meat, and beans.

Galinhado on the other hand is a bit more tasty and contains more ingredients. The word “galinhado” comes from “galinha” which means chicken. So basically “galinhado” means rice enriched with chicken (and other ingredients). It’s something like the cookup rice concept, but expressed in a different way.

So without further ado, here we go…Galinhado recipe:

Ingredients:

Chicken – (Frango) 1 kg – chopped to sizes of your liking.

Onion (Cebola) – 1 Medium sized

Garlic (Alho) – 3 Fegs

Peas (Ervilha). This is sold in a tin.

Green corn (Milho Verde) Sold in Packets

Green seasoning (Cheiro Verde)

Saffron (Acafrao)

Sweet Pepper (Pimenta de Cheiro)

Oil (Oleo) 1 900 ml bottle. You can choose between Soya Bean Oil and Coconut Oil.

Meat Seasoning (Sazon)

Vingegar

Instructions

After washing and draining water from chicken, chip two fegs of garlic into tiny pieces and mix into chicken. Next add one sachet (5g) of Sazon and mix into chicken. Next add 1/2 tablespoon of salt into chicken and mix well. Add about 10 ml of Vinegar and continue mixing everything up in the bowl.

Now, put your pot on the fire and wait a few minutes until all residual water has been evaporated. Next pour 1 bottle (900 ml) of Soya Bean Oil into the pot and allow to heat up to the point of boiling.

When the oil starts to boil, add the chicken carefully piece-by-piece and allow to fry to a light brown color. This process should take about 21 minutes on high heat but could vary depending on your stove, weather conditions, etc.

While the chicken is frying, peel a medium sized onion and 1 feg of garlic and chip them into small pieces.

After about 21 minutes of frying the chicken, lower the fire, take off the pot, drain the oil out into another container. You can store this used oil in a safe place and reuse it later.

After draining oil from the fried chicken, add the chipped onion and garlic and stir well. Add 1/2 tablespoon of Saffron and mix well. Add 1/2 tablespoon of salt and mix well. Now pour a little bit of the recycled oil back into the chicken mixture and mix well.

Open the packet of green corn and drain the liquid before emptying all of it into the pot of fried chicken. Stir well. Do the same with the tin of peas. Add 550 grams (about 3 cups or 1.5 pints) of rice into pot and mix well. Chip one sweet pepper and stir into pot.

Now put a separate pot of 2 pints of water to heat. After the water heats up, add it to the mixture to cover the ingredients. Add 1 tablespoon of salt and stir well. Cover on high heat until the water starts boiling (about 5 minutes). When the water starts to boil, lower heat. Now allow to cook on low heat for about ten minutes. Add another 500 ml of water and stir. Now allow to boil on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Chip green seasoning into small pieces and stir into food for two minutes. Turn off stove.