• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

My Clean Kitchen

Recipes full of whole, fresh, and healthy ingredients

  • Home
  • The 7 Day Eat Clean Challenge
  • Recipes
    • 7 Day Eat Clean Challenge
    • Holiday Recipes
    • Entrees
    • Vegetarian
    • Side Dishes
    • Sweets
    • Breakfast
    • Clean Eating Lifestyle
  • Whole30
  • Contact Us
    • Meet the Authors
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclosure
  • Tools and Resources

Ropa Vieja con Pollo

January 21, 2014 by Sara 2 Comments

Ropa Vieja YUM! So good I love clean eating witih My Clean Kitchen!!

Growing up in Florida, I had so many friends who were Cuban. I ate A LOT of Cuban food made by loving Abuelas. Foods like, Arroz con pollo, platinos, black beans and rice, and Ropa Vieja. I am so in love with Cuban food and culture. When Mario Specialty Foods asked us to help them create some memorable Olive recipes, this one popped in my head! Ropa Vieja means old clothes in Spanish and is supposed to look messy and kind of like a pile of old clothes. It’s traditionally made with beef, which is absolutely delicious. But I decided to clean it up a little and make it with chicken breast. Also, I thought I could try to take some of the mystique out of Cuban cooking by making this a slow cooker recipe.  I put this in last night before I went to bed (late, but still) around 11:30 and when we woke up this  morning our house was filled with a delicious aroma of tomato, peppers and yumminess! I also made a quick black beans and rice (Made with brown rice but could also be done with quinoa. I’ll post that recipe soon, I promise.)

To start, I made a tomato sauce from scratch by throwing about 25 campari tomatoes in to a stock pot with a splash of olive oil and cooking them down until they were all broken apart. Then I used my food mill to get the seed and skins out. Then I let it simmer for a couple of hours until it thickened. I added a dash of salt and then put it in an airtight container to store until it was ready for the slow cooker. For the Ropa Vieja, I literally just added all the ingredients except the olives and cilantro to the slow cooker and set it to low for 10 hours. Then I removed the chicken, shredded it and then returned it to the slow cooker along with the olives and cilantro. Serve it with a lime wedge, because a squeeze of lime juice on top of this is SO yummy. It’s just not the same without it.

I’d like to thank Mario Specialty Food for the Olives for this dish. They were simply perfect!

Local Ingredient: Hydroponically Grown Tomatoes from a Local Farm. 

  • Fresh Tomatoes for Homemade Sauce

  • Food Mill to Remove Seeds and Skin

  • Ropa Vieja Ingredients

    See the beautiful jar of homemade sauce!
  • Ropa Vieja in the Slow Cooker

  • Shredding the Chicken

  • FlavorFUL Ropa Vieja!

    Enjoy!

Print
Ropa Vieja

Ingredients

2 Cubanelles or Cuban Sweet Peppers, seeded and sliced

1 Onion, diced

2 cups Tomato Sauce (homemade is best or plain jarred tomato puree sauce)

2 tablespoons Organic Tomato Paste

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

1 tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar

3 Garlic Cloves, minced

1 teaspoon Cumin

1 Bay Leaf

1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt or to taste

1/4 teaspoon Whole Black Peppercorns

3-4 Organic Skinless Chicken Breasts

1/2 cup Mario Pimento Stuffed Olives, coarsly chopped leaving a few whole for garnish

A handful of Cilantro

1 Lime, cut into wedges

Instructions

  1. Add the peppers, onion, tomato sauce, tomato paste, olive oil, vinegar, garlic, cumin, bay leaf, salt, and peppercorns to the slow cooker. Stir to combine.
  2. Place the chicken breasts on top. Flip once to coat with the tomato mixture.
  3. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.
  4. Remove the chicken and shred with two forks. Return chicken to slow cooker.
  5. Add the Mario olives and cilantro.
  6. Serve with a lime wedge.
3.1
http://www.mycleankitchen.com/ropa-vieja-con-pollo/
2014 (c) My Clean Kitchen


Ropa Vieja with Mario Olives YUM So good I love clean eating from My Clean Kitchen

 

Clean Eating Ropa Vieja - Amazing!!

 

Ropa VIeja con Pollo so simple and so delicious!

Filed Under: Entrees, Recipes, Slow Cooker

Previous Post: « Enter to Win a Mario Olive Gift Basket!
Next Post: S.P.A.C.E. My Spices »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Aga says

    January 27, 2014 at 10:04 am

    Hello,
    it looks lovely. What is the side dish you use on the pic? Rice with some red beans? Can you please put the recipe for it also?

    Thank you!!

    Reply
    • Sara says

      January 27, 2014 at 10:15 am

      HI Aga!
      That is a quick black beans and rice I made to go with it. It was super easy. I haven’t posted that recipe yet but I can give you the quick and dirty here! 🙂

      1 cup brown rice or quinoa
      1/4 onion, diced
      1/2 a cubanelle pepper, seeded and diced
      1 garlic clove, minced
      1 bay leaf
      2 cans organic black beans(drained and rinsed) or 16 oz freshly soaked black beans (drained and rinsed)
      1 teaspoon cumin
      2 tablespoons olive oil
      2 medium tomatoes, diced
      1 cup water
      1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
      Sea salt and black pepper to taste

      First put the peppers, onion, garlic, cumin in a pot with the water. Heat over medium high heat. About 6-7 minutes. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce to simmer for about 40 minutes or until the rice is tender.

      It’s that simple! I’ll post the recipe here sometime in the next few weeks. Enjoy!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook

Blogging Tools & Resources

Recipes

Recent Posts

  • Rosemary Roasted Chicken
  • Classic Cranberry Sauce
  • Ultimate Charcuterie Spread
  • Banana Blueberry Bread
  • Bone-In Pork Shoulder

Footer

Copyright © 2025 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress