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Asopao probably varies conisderably from house to house as Latin-Caribbean cooking may be far less codified than French. Than again try and get a definitive version of cassoulet. My wife describes it to newcomers as "soupy rice." The way she serves it, as well as the way I've had it in restaurants in Puerto Rico is in a bowl. You must use a spoon for the soup, but in some preparations you may want a fork or a knife and fork to eat the meaty ingredients. It's far wetter than a paella, but far more rice than chicken soup with rice. Puerto Rican asopao is thick with rice. I don't recall seeing potato, but it wouldn't surprise me to find one with potato in it. The same goes for vegetables, although a garnish of (usually canned) aparagas, peas or roast pepper strips is commonly found on many dishes. Can't say it I recall it on any asopaos

As a distinction, I would say it's a Puerto Rican dish and not a Cuban one, although I've seen it in Cuban restaurants. Apparently it's also a Dominican recipe. I'm least familiar with Dominican cooking.

Cocina Criolla by Carmen Aboy Valldejuli was the standard reference cookbook for Puerto Rican cooking. We have an old Spanish language edition, but I believe there has been an English one.

In our house three asopaos have been standard. asopao de pollo - with chicken and chorizo, asopao de mariscos - with seafood (shrimp, squid and maybe mussels or clams) and chorizo (may also have chicken) and asopao de gandules - with pigeon peas and pork. Not sure if this one has chorizos or not and I'm not sure why the gandules (pigeon peas) get star billing over the pork. If my wife has made a significant improvement on the recipes, it's the use of stocks to replace any water in the cooking. Ours are always a full flavored broth. Canned chicken broth will work in a pinch. Stock made from shrimp heads and shells is good for the seafood asopao.

Time will tell if Wilfrid or I get to take notes first. There is no written recipe for asopao in the house. I'm not sure where the name of this dish come from. I suspect from the word for soup. The "ao" ending is I think, the proper and original spelling, but Puerto Ricans have a habit of eating the ends of words and quidado (caution/watchout) is pronounced as "quidao" just as "pescado" is "pescao" when spoken and I once saw a "tony" menu in Puerto Rico on which asopao appeared as "asopado." I don't think there's any literary support for that back formation. That exhausts my information on the subject for the moment, but I think I've replied in the Caribbean forum on restaurants down there. We haven't been there much since my wife's parents passed away. my bother-in-law is an architect down there, but he comes here all the time on buisness.