Spanish Chorizo Rice

Chorizo rendered until the paprika oil pools red, then rice toasted in the same pan with garlic, capsicum and tomato before chicken stock goes in. The rice drinks the chorizo fat as it cooks. A one-pan Spanish weeknight dish, somewhere between paella and pilaf.

The Spanish chorizo (distinct from the Mexican fresh chorizo that is sold as raw sausage meat) is the cured, smoked, paprika-rich pork sausage that has lived in every Spanish home kitchen for centuries. Sliced into rounds and rendered hard at the start of a dish, the chorizo releases its smoked-paprika-flavoured fat into the cooking medium; the resulting orange-red oil flavours everything else that goes into the pan.

The rice-toast technique is the foundational paella-pilaf move. Short-grain or medium-grain rice added to the chorizo fat before any liquid joins, stirred for two to three minutes until the grains turn translucent at the edges. The toast separates each grain, prevents stickiness, and infuses the starch with the chorizo oil so the resulting cooked rice is seasoned from the inside out.

This dish sits between a true paella (which uses bomba rice, saffron, and a wide flat pan to develop the socarrat crust) and a true pilaf (which uses basmati rice and Persian techniques). The Spanish home version uses whatever short-grain rice is available, no saffron requirement, in a regular saucepan rather than a paella pan. Smoked paprika in the cook, sweet corn kernels cut from a fresh cob, chopped capsicum and tomato for body, chicken stock as the cooking liquid. Spring onion and parsley over the top to finish.