Hoje eu vou fazer frango com arroz para o almoço.

Yes. Hoje means today, and putting it first is very natural because it sets the time right away.

• Hoje eu vou fazer frango com arroz para o almoço.
• Eu vou fazer frango com arroz hoje para o almoço.
• Eu vou fazer frango com arroz para o almoço hoje.

All of these are possible, but the first one sounds especially natural if you want to emphasize today.

You can absolutely say Hoje vou fazer frango com arroz para o almoço without eu.

Portuguese often allows the subject pronoun to be omitted because the verb form already gives information about the subject. However, in Brazilian Portuguese, people often include eu more than in European Portuguese, especially in speech, for clarity or emphasis.

So both are natural:

• Hoje eu vou fazer...
• Hoje vou fazer...

Vou fazer is the very common near future / planned future structure in Portuguese:

• vou = I go / I am going
• fazer = to do / to make

Together, vou fazer means I’m going to make/do.

This is much more common in everyday speech than the simple future:

• Vou fazer = common, conversational
• Farei = correct, but more formal or less common in everyday speech

So a Brazilian speaker would very naturally say:

• Hoje eu vou fazer...

rather than

• Hoje eu farei...

Literally, fazer often means to do or to make, but in food contexts it commonly means to make / prepare / cook.

So fazer frango com arroz means something like:

• make chicken with rice
• prepare chicken and rice
• cook chicken with rice

This is a very normal use of fazer in Portuguese.

In everyday Brazilian Portuguese:

• frango usually refers to chicken as food or a chicken in a culinary sense
• galinha usually means hen (the animal)

So when talking about a dish, frango is the natural word:

• Vou fazer frango. = I’m going to make chicken.

If you said galinha, it would sound more like you are referring to the animal itself, unless the context is very specific.

In Portuguese, food items often appear without an article when speaking generally about what you are making or eating.

So:

• fazer frango com arroz = make chicken with rice

This sounds natural because you are naming the dish or ingredients in a general way.

You could add articles in some contexts, but it changes the feel:

• Vou fazer o frango com o arroz can sound like you mean the chicken and the rice already known in the conversation

Without articles, it sounds more like naming the meal itself.

Com means with, and that is the usual way to express a dish served together with another food.

• frango com arroz = chicken with rice

If you said frango e arroz, it would mean chicken and rice, which is also possible, but com often sounds more like a combined meal or serving style.

So both can work, but frango com arroz is very natural for describing the food you are going to prepare.

Para o almoço means for lunch.

Breakdown:

• para = for
• o almoço = the lunch / lunch meal

So:

• para o almoço = for lunch

In Portuguese, meals often take the article:

• no almoço = at lunch
• para o almoço = for lunch
• depois do almoço = after lunch

Saying just almoço by itself is possible in some contexts, but para o almoço is the standard, natural phrasing here.

That is a very common difference between English and Portuguese.

Portuguese often uses the definite article with meals:

• o almoço = lunch
• o jantar = dinner
• o café da manhã = breakfast

Even though English usually says just lunch, Portuguese often prefers the article in many sentence patterns.

So para o almoço is perfectly normal, even though in English we would simply say for lunch.

Yes. In casual speech, para o is often reduced to pro.

So you may hear:

• Hoje eu vou fazer frango com arroz pro almoço.

This is extremely common in Brazil and sounds natural in conversation.

Similarly:

• para a → pra

For example:

• pra janta
• pro almoço

In careful writing, para o almoço is the full form.

Not with exactly the same meaning.

• para o almoço = for lunch
  This focuses on the purpose of the food: you are making it to eat at lunch.
• no almoço = at lunch / during lunch
  This focuses more on the time when something happens.

Compare:

• Vou fazer frango com arroz para o almoço. = I’m making chicken with rice for lunch.
• No almoço, vou fazer frango com arroz. = At lunch / For lunch time, I’m going to make chicken with rice.

They are related, but para o almoço is the most direct choice in your sentence.

It mainly refers to lunch as the meal, but like lunch in English, it can refer both to the meal itself and the lunch occasion.

Examples:

• O almoço está pronto. = Lunch is ready.
• Depois do almoço... = After lunch...

So in para o almoço, it means the lunch meal or lunchtime occasion.

Here it clearly means prepare/cook. But fazer is a broad verb in Portuguese and can mean many things depending on context:

• fazer comida = make food
• fazer o almoço = make lunch
• fazer um bolo = make a cake
• fazer exercício = exercise
• fazer uma pergunta = ask a question

So fazer is very versatile. In this sentence, the food context makes the meaning obvious.

Yes, but it is a little different.

• Vou fazer frango com arroz = I’m going to make/prepare chicken with rice.
• Vou cozinhar frango com arroz = I’m going to cook chicken with rice.

Fazer is broader and extremely common when talking about preparing a meal.
Cozinhar focuses more specifically on the cooking process.

In everyday speech, fazer often sounds more natural for complete meals.

In Brazilian Portuguese, hoje is usually pronounced roughly like:

• OH-zhee or OH-jee

A few points:

• the h is silent
• the j sounds like the s in measure or the zh sound
• the final e is often a light ee sound in many Brazilian accents

So it does not sound like English hodge or hoge.

A common Brazilian pronunciation is roughly:

• a-HOZ or ah-HOHS

A few important details:

• the initial r in Brazilian Portuguese is often pronounced like an English h sound
• the rr in arroz is strong
• the final z usually sounds like z in Brazilian Portuguese

So it does not sound like English a-rozz with a hard English r.

Yes, fairly flexible. Portuguese allows some movement, especially with time expressions like hoje.

Natural possibilities include:

• Hoje eu vou fazer frango com arroz para o almoço.
• Eu vou fazer frango com arroz para o almoço hoje.
• Para o almoço, hoje eu vou fazer frango com arroz.

The original version is very natural and clear. It starts with hoje, then gives the subject and action, then the food, then the purpose.

Even if the exact meaning is already known, it helps to understand the structure:

• Hoje = today
• eu = I
• vou fazer = am going to make
• frango com arroz = chicken with rice
• para o almoço = for lunch

So the sentence is built very straightforwardly:

Today + I + am going to make + chicken with rice + for lunch

That word order is very natural in Brazilian Portuguese and close enough to English to be easy to follow.