Instagram Raises Questions About Martha Stewart's Arroz Con Pollo

Arroz con pollo is a Spanish phrase that translates to "rice with chicken," and, as is the case with most traditional recipes, it has quite a few variants. Some arroz con pollo recipes call for peas. Some people make it with olives, and others, including Jacques Pepin's late wife Gloria, have added other ingredients such as bacon, jalapeños, and chickpeas. All of these recipes sound tasty to us, and we'd be inclined to say go ahead and make your arroz con pollo however you wish as long as you include both rice and chicken. But we'll add one caveat: Whatever you do, do not post your recipe on Instagram! Even photos may be iffy.

Instagrammers, it seems, tend to get pretty combative when it comes to defending their own preferred methods of making this dish. When Rachael Ray tried to share her arroz con pollo with her Instagram followers, many of them became quite incensed at her choice to make use of certain ingredients and omit others. Now even the venerable Martha Stewart is coming in for her share of criticism, as Instagrammers are finding fault with her take on arroz con pollo, as well.

Martha Stewart posted a series of photos of her arroz con pollo-making process on Instagram, captioning them with a list of the ingredients she uses to make the dish. They include chicken thighs and legs, oranges, onions, bell peppers, jasmine rice, chicken stock, and saffron, among others. Right away she ran into trouble as many commenters insisted that the dish couldn't be arroz con pollo without sofrito, whereas others decried the lack of cilantro or oregano. Several people also objected to her use of jasmine rice, saying that long-grain white rice was the only acceptable kind. Ironically, Stewart got called out by commenters claiming that her recipe wasn't made the authentic Cuban, Puerto Rican, or Mexican way, thus inadvertently making the point that there's no one true way to prepare the dish.

The question is, does Martha Stewart care what Instagram thinks of her recipe? Stewart is in her 80s, has survived a prison term, and has made (and lost) hundreds of millions of dollars in her time, so we'd guess she's not too bothered by social media nitpickers. Still, let this serve as a cautionary tale if you yourself are a bit more thin-skinned – perhaps it's best that you only post a recipe to Instagram if it's a very obscure dish or one you've made up yourself. That way, there'll be no one out there to say you're doing it wrong.