For side dishes, having a salad on the side is an easy way to balance out the flavors. Keep it simple with lettuce, tomato, onion, avocado and carrot, tossed and served up with your favorite dressing. 

Tostones are another option, and my favorite, that will add crunch to your meal as well as another layer of flavor. Tostones, or fried green bananas, are crunchy delights that when sprinkled with a little salt can serve as either an appetizer or an alternative to serving bread. If you're worried about all the different flavor combinations potentially clashing, don't! The sofrito combined with the tostones and the main course of your choice will all blend beautifully.

keep on skedaddling!

* Chorizo can be substituted with tocino (salt fatback crackling's) and jamón de cocinar (smoked cooking ham). If you are going to use the tocino be sure not to use to much salt to the rice because the tocino is salty.
** You can find canned pigeon peas in the international foods section of most supermarkets.

1 You'll need a dutch oven pot with lid. In the pot, fry the chorizo in oil. Add the tomato sauce, capers, sofrito and Sazon to the pot; stir together. Cook at medium heat for 4 minutes.
2 Add all other ingredients except the salt; pour the boiling water into the pot so that the rice is submerged one inch below the water line. Start with 1 teaspoon of salt and stir; keep adding and mixing well until you are satisfied with the taste. Don't cover the pot yet; let the rice absorb the water.
3 Once absorbed, stir gently from bottom to top; cover and turn the heat down to low. Stirring once halfway through the cooking time, cook for 25 to 30 minutes or until the rice is tender.