Arroz De Espanol

This a tutorial on how to make my family's spanish rice recipe. This dish will make a nice side dish for any meal or even a whole meal depending on your mood. Unlike other similar recipes on this site, this tutorial will help you avoid dry rice and a rice soup - all while maintaining a moist taste.

This tutorial assumes the user has some experience with dicing vegetables & cooking in general.

This recipe will take about an hour to complete.

The following ingredients will feed about 3-5 people:

1 cup of rice

3-4 chicken tenderloins

2 cups of chicken broth

2 tbsp of garlic powder

1 tbsp of onion powder

1 can (14oz) of stewed tomatoes

1/2 cup of tomato sauce

1/2 of a large onion

2-3 tbsps of vegetable oil

The first step is to begin cooking & seasoning the chicken. If the chicken is frozen, thaw it first.

Fill a pot with enough water to submerge the chicken. Turn the heat to medium/medium-high.

Next, add your seasoning. Add 1-2tbsps of onion & garlic powder. Feel free to add more seasonings to the chicken if you desire.

Let the chicken boil for about 15-20 minutes. You may continue you onto the next steps as the chicken cooks.

While the chicken is cooking, you will next want to puree the stewed tomatoes into a liquid form. This can be done either by a blender (as shown in the pictures) or can by done by crushing the tomatoes either in your hand or by using a tool.

Dice half of a large onion as shown.

Once the chicken is done being cooked (about 15-20 minutes of boiling), cut it into small chunks.

This can be done using kitchen shears or a knife. The size and quantity of the chunks is up to personal preference. My family prefers 3-4 chicken tenderloins cut into pieces which can be swallowed with little to no chewing required.

Ready another pot to be used. Add 1-2tbsp of vegetable oil to the pan or enough to lightly coat the bottom. Add 1 cup of rice to the pot. Add your diced onions to pot. Turn the range on medium heat.

Now begin to mix the onions and the rice until they are thoroughly mixed. Let the rice cook & stir every so often to make sure the rice does not burn. Add more vegetable oil if needed.

When the rice nears completion, it should start to smell like popcorn. Once the rice is browned (last picture), move onto next step.

Add in everything else: blended stewed tomatoes, chicken chunks, about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce.

Now mix everything together and turn the range to high.

This portion of the instructions is more of a subjective taste (pun intended).

Take a taste of the soup in the pot and see if it is to your liking. Add some more garlic powder if it seems it's missing something. If that doesn't solve it, trying adding some salt (try not to make it taste salty). If you want it to be a bit more spicy, try adding some chili powder of paprika. Freestyle the spices till you like the taste.

There is no wrong way to season unless you don't add any seasoning at all.

Once this step is complete, bring the dish to a boil.

Now the penultimate step is to simmer this rice soup.

Once the pot is to a boil, turn the heat to low, put a lid on the pot, and wait.

How long?

It depends on what you want. If you want soup, you're done. If you want to be like the other tutorials on this site and have dry rice, wait 40+ minutes until your rice lacks any liquid and is devoid of any good taste. If you want to do it right, follow these steps.

Let the soup simmer for about 20-30 minutes.

When you pull the lid off, you should see a tomato paste on the top of the rice. Stick your utensil into the rice, and pull back some of the top layer. This will provide you a look inside of the rice soup. Your goal is to find the perfect amount of wetness for the rice. For my family, this balance is demonstrated in the third picture. Not much liquid, but enough to keep it moist.

Once this balance is found, mix the pot thoroughly. If it's still too wet, repeat the process; otherwise, move onto the next step.

Once your correct level of moistness is achieved, mix it thoroughly and taste to confirm your assumption is correct.

You are done. You have successfully made spanish rice. Congrats!