Northern Peruvian rice cooked in a base of browned pork, chiles, cilantro, and chicha de jora, with vegetables scattered through separate grains. The pork juices soak into the pot and leave the kind of festive depth that makes a restrained serving surprisingly difficult.
Turn what you find into an experience you can actually bring to your kitchen.
Cut the pork into roughly 3 cm / 1¼-inch cubes. Finely chop the red onion, dice the carrot and red pepper, and remove the thickest veins from the yellow chili before chopping it. Blend the cilantro with about one tenth of the water, just until you have a loose green paste.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the pork and brown it for 7 to 8 minutes, moving it only as needed so several sides develop good color. By the end, the meat should have deeply browned edges and a flavorful layer should have formed on the bottom of the pot.
Add the red onion and cook for 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic, yellow chili, ají panca paste, cumin, black pepper, and three quarters of the salt; cook for another 4 minutes, until the chiles lose their raw aroma and the base looks concentrated. Add the blended cilantro and cook for 1 minute. Pour in the chicha de jora, scrape the bottom well, and boil for 2 minutes, until the alcoholic aroma noticeably subsides.
Add the remaining water, bring to a boil, and lower the heat. Cover and gently simmer the pork for 10 minutes. When uncovered, the meat should be nearly cooked through and the liquid should taste clearly of both the pork and the aderezo, because this will become the cooking broth for the rice.
Add the white rice, carrot, peas, corn, red pepper, and remaining salt. Stir only once to distribute everything, bring back to a boil, cover, and cook over low heat for 16 minutes without stirring again. By the end, the liquid should be absorbed and the grains on the surface should look cooked and separate.
Turn off the heat and leave the rice covered for 5 minutes. Uncover and gently fluff from the edges toward the center, lifting rather than pressing. If the pork is tender and every grain carries a little of the green-and-red aderezo, the pot will already be making it difficult to wait for everyone else to sit down. Done! 🍚
