Spanish Rice Recipe

Spanish rice is basically rice fried raw with the flavors of onions and garlic in accompaniment. This browned rice develops its own flavor, nutty, in all the senses of the word. Cooked in bouillon or just plain chicken stock with additives of meats and even vegetables, the dish has an all encompassing quality, the last word in toasty grains with meats.

For the most basic recipe of Spanish Rice you need:

¼ cup olive oil
1 ¾ cups of long-grain white rice
3 cups chicken stock
1 cup of diced tomatoes (cooked, preferably)
1 onion, chopped fine
1 garlic clove, minced
¼ tsp oregano
1 teaspoon salt

Wash and drain the rice, pat dry on a kitchen cloth.

In a large skillet, add the olive oil and heat to smoking. Then add the rice. Turn the heat to medium. Add the sliced onions and minced garlic. Fry well, till the onions and garlic are golden and softened. It is difficult but the rice should be fried to brown, almost to the point of burning. This will bring out the best flavor in it.

Meanwhile, put the chicken stock in anther saucepan and simmer on medium heat. To this stock add the tomato, oregano, and salt. Then add the fried rice, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat again and cook on low heat for about 15 minutes.

The rice will be cooked, and will have assimilated the flavors of chicken stock. To the stock one can add pieces of chicken, beef fillets, diced vegetables like carrots, celery, peas, beans, even olives. The taste and flavors only get better and stronger.
An interesting tip, a dash of lemon will enhance the flavor of the rice and also prevent it from getting sticky.

To get that real Spanish feel, and make the dish dance to the heady beat, add a cup of salsa to the chicken broth before anything else. The Spanish rice thus prepared will be pedigreed Spanish.

Another interesting variant is Spanish Rice with beef.

Beef Spanish Rice Recipe
For this you need:
2 tablespoons olive oil
600 grams ground lean beef
1 large yellow onion
½ green bell pepper
½ red bell pepper
1 jalapeño pepper
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup olives, green
2 cups tomato sauce
1/8 cup capers
2 cups water
2 cups white rice

Chop the bell peppers into cubes and finely slice the jalapenos.

Chop and pit the olives.

Lightly sauté the vegetables in a teaspoonful of olive oil and put aside.

Heat another teaspoonful of olive oil and add the rice, sauté till browned.

Brown and crumble ground beef and add salt to it.

In a pan pour the rest of the oil olive oil and cook the chopped sautéed vegetables along with the ground meat till the meat is done. Then add the tomato sauce, olives, capers onions, and salt. Cooking all the ingredients together will take about an hour. You have to make sure that the water doesn’t dry out, even if it means adding more water to it at regular intervals.

Then, in a large skillet, arrange a bed of rice then layer the meats and vegetables on it. Cover, hot and let the steam arrange the flavors inside.

This is more like the Arab pilaf and the Indian Biryani, but then, as long as the taste is tops, who’s complaining???