Applebee's Spanish Rice

Home reconstruction

Spanish rice, Mexican rice, arroz rojo — whatever it is called on the menu, it is defined by one step that almost every home version skips.

The dry rice is fried in oil until the grains turn opaque and start to colour, before any liquid goes in. Four minutes, stirring.

Skip it and you get soft, sticky tomato rice. Do it and you get separate grains with a faintly nutty flavour, which is what the dish is.

Two things happen when you toast rice

A starch barrier forms. Heat and oil partially seal the outside of each grain, so it absorbs liquid more slowly and evenly. That is what keeps the grains separate instead of letting them blow out and stick together.

Flavour develops. The rice browns, the same way anything else browns, and that toasted note is present in every good Spanish rice and absent in every bad one.

Wait for the colour. The grains go from translucent to chalky white and then start turning pale gold. That last stage is the one that matters.

Rinse first, then dry

Rinse to remove surface starch, then dry the rice properly on a towel or in the sieve for ten minutes.

Wet rice in hot oil steams. It will never toast, and you will stand there stirring while nothing happens.

Tomato purée, not tinned tomatoes

Tinned tomatoes bring a lot of water, which throws off the liquid ratio and gives a wetter, looser result.

Tomato purée gives the colour and the concentrated tomato flavour with almost no water, so the rice-to-liquid ratio stays where you set it.

Fry the purée for a minute before the stock goes in — it removes the raw tinny edge and deepens the colour.

Do not lift the lid

Rice cooks in trapped steam. Every look lets it out and drops the temperature, and the top layer comes out undercooked.

18 minutes covered, then 10 minutes off the heat, still covered. Then look.

What you need

• 400 g long-grain rice, rinsed and dried
• 3 tbsp neutral oil
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tbsp tomato purée
• 900 ml chicken stock
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• fresh coriander and lime wedges, to serve

Method

1. 1. Rinse the rice and dry it thoroughly.
2. 2. Heat the oil in a wide pan with a lid. **Rice in, and stir for 4–5 minutes until the grains turn opaque and start to colour gold.**
3. 3. Onion in, 3 minutes. Garlic, 1 minute.
4. 4. Tomato purée and all the dry spices, stirred for 1 minute.
5. 5. Stock in. Stir once, scraping the base, and bring to a boil.
6. 6. Cover, lowest heat, 18 minutes. Do not lift the lid.
7. 7. Off the heat, still covered, 10 minutes.
8. 8. Fluff with a fork. Coriander and lime to serve.

Stir once, and then not again

After the stock goes in, one stir to distribute everything, and then leave it alone.

Stirring rice as it cooks knocks the grains against each other and releases starch, which is the mechanism that makes risotto creamy and makes this dish gluey.

Fluff with a fork

A spoon compresses and breaks the grains. A fork lifts and separates them.

Storing

Four days in the fridge. Cool and refrigerate within an hour — cooked rice left at room temperature is a real food safety risk.

Three months frozen. Reheat once, until piping hot.