Puerto Rican-style chicken fricassee is my hands-down favorite childhood dish. Growing up in San Juan, I ate it a lot. My mother’s version was killer.

Now, when I ask her how she made it, she has no idea.

That’s because fricasé de pollo has infinite variations (extending beyond Puerto Rico and Latin America to include other regions and influences, including Cajun versions), and rarely comes out the same way twice. More …