Ecuadorian Chicken Fried Rice - Chaulafan de Pollo

I had to post about chaulafan de pollo that I made recently and which I found on Laylita's blog. Do check out her site, what an assortment of recipes and regional delicacies from South America!

This chicken fried rice is found commonly in Ecuador, and y'all know how I love me some of that innernationaw food. So, I was splitting my sides when I further read her post and discovered that this dish is commonly prepared in Chinese restaurants (known as chifas) in Ecuador!

But even Chinese food takes on regional differences, this fried rice was a generously spiced and flavored mix of vegetables, chicken, bacon and rice. The best part to boot was that I also got three cups of homemade chicken broth out of the recipe as well.

aji criollo (Ecuadorian hot sauce) using another of Laylita's recipes. The aji is a hot chilli, garlic and cilantro condiment. This completed the dish for me, but the jury is out on that. My mom, for example, loved the rice by itself and didn't want the aji on it as she felt it detracted from all the flavors already in the rice. Which is odd, because she is the type of person who douses her pasta with Tabasco.

There is quite a bit of work involved in getting this dish ready, but it is so worth it. I also made an

I really did not deviate at all from Laylita's original recipe so I am not re-posting it here. The only change I made was to use paprika because I could not get my hands on achiote, which is a South American spice that is called for in the recipe. I stared down the international aisle of my local grocery store, and despite enlisting the produce manager, the store manager, the lady from the bakery and a random guy in a blue shirt, none of us could find it. (Though I later found out that Amazon.com carries it, if anyone knows which brand is best, please drop me a line!)