Jun 10 2008
Arroz con chorizo y camarones or rice with chorizo and shrimp
Published by Laylita at 11:21 am under All, Breakfast and brunch, Central America, Europe, Main dishes, Mexico, Rice and pastas, South America
I made this arroz con chorizo y camarones or rice with chorizo and shrimp as a second course for a Sunday brunch; it’s a variation of the classic arroz con camarones or rice with shrimp. Nicolas has this theory that you can make any dish better by adding chorizo, I’m not sure that theory is always applicable, but at least in this case it worked, though in this dish the chorizo is the centerpiece ingredient, the rice and chorizo are cooked together while the shrimp are added during the last minutes. The chorizo is packed with spices like paprika, chili powder, pepper, oregano, among others, so I don’t add any additional spices to this dish; in addition, the combination of good quality chorizo, fresh vegetables, seafood stock, shrimp and parsley give a lot of flavor to this dish, but based on your personal preference you can add additional spices or seasonings if desired. There are different types of chorizo, but Spanish and Mexican chorizo are the easiest to find, I prefer to use the Spanish chorizo for this dish because it has more consistency than the Mexican chorizo - which works better for dishes where you want the chorizo to crumble. Previously I used a classic dry cured Spanish chorizo, most recently I tried a dry cured Spanish chorizo made in California (found at DeLaurenti at Pike Place Market) and I also added a fresh Spanish chorizo (from Uli’s at Pike Place Market), I love the vibrant red color of the dry cured chorizo and the flavor of the fresh chorizo. I have to clarify that this is not a paella, though it does have a lot of Spanish influence, there a lot of Latin dishes made with rice and combinations of seafood and meat that are very different from paella, but yet for some reason every time I make a rice based dish it is immediately categorized as a paella, there are quite a few differences, but the main ones are that the type of rice is different, long grain rice vs short paella style rice, and a lot of the South American rice dishes don’t use saffron, which is one of the defining ingredients for paella. I served this with fried ripe plantains, avocado slices, onion and tomato curtido or salad, hot sauce and some lemon slices.
Ingredients:
2 tbs olive oil
1 white onion, diced
2 red/yellow/orange bell peppers, diced
2 roma tomatoes, peeled and diced
6 garlic cloves, crushed
2 cups rice, uncooked
3 cups seafood stock – can also use chicken broth
1 1/2 lb chorizo, sliced
2 lb raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tbs finely chopped parsley
Salt to taste
Suggested sides: avocado slices, onion and tomato curtido, fried sweet plantains, hot sauce and lemon slices.
Preparation:
- Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large sauté pan; add the onions and peppers, cook for about 5 minutes.
- Stir in the crushed garlic, mix well.
- Add the diced tomatoes, mix well and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add the rice and stir for about 2 minutes.
- Add the chorizo slices and the seafood stock, stir well and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for about 15-20 minutes.
- Add the shrimp, cover the pan, and let cook until the shrimp are done, about 8 minutes.
- Stir the shrimp into the rice and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
- Serve warm.
Simplemente DELICIOSO! Great photos too! Un abrazo desde Panama…
Melissa
oh man, that looks fantastic!!! best part is i have all the ingredients! guess i know what we’re having for dinner!
This looks soooo delicious! I feel like I want to eat a whole plate of it right now!
That looks fucking amazing!!! I will have to make this soon! I never even fancied the thought of putting chorizo and shrimp together!! Great recipe!!
Wow. This looks amazing. You not only managed to use my favorite crustacean (camarones) but also my second favorite pork based item! Bacon being first followed closely by the chorizo.
I do have a question for you though. Right now; I am on a strict diet and this dish is a no-no for me, but I do have a cheat day coming up in about a week and a half. Even though it will be my cheat day, I don’t want to over do it with the food.
I currently eat a lot of this brown rice (Texamati Organic Brown Rice):
http://www.amazon.com/RiceSelect-Organic-Texmati-Brown-36-Ounce/dp/B000EGZ9AG
It is a brown Basamatti rice and I would love to be able to use it for the recipe and I was hoping if you could give me any advice on how to best incorporate it into this instead of the white rice.
Thank you for the great recipes!
-Jesus
Oh, I forgot to mention that the rice i use takes quite a bit of time to cook (40-45 minutes)
Jesus - Thanks for visiting, you can replace the white rice and use the brown rice instead, just increase the cooking time for the rice to what the package instructions say. Another option would be to cook the brown rice separately and then mix it in with the refrito, chorizo and shrimp, that ’s is how I make the basic arroz with camarones http://laylita.com/recipes/2008/01/29/arroz-con-camarones-or-shrimp-rice/ . Another healthy alternative would be to make it with quinoa - http://laylita.com/recipes/2008/03/21/seafood-quinoa/ . I hope this works.
Found you from Tastespotting & loving this recipe. Just made it & it’s absolutely delicious. Thank you.
Hi Mei - I’m glad you liked it!
I love using Chorizo. This looks and sounds wonderful. need to make a quick trip to pull this off for tonights dinner. thanks!
This looks really tasty!
easy way: prepare the rice at side, cook the rice in with half seafood stock and water, reserve
make the refrito with prawn and chorizo and in a wok style pan combine at high heat for a 2 minute, adding a little stock if too dry, this way the prawns will keep juicy.. and not overdone
laylita correct me if wrong.
do we need 2 of each pepper or we choose a bell pepper?
Just 2, any color.
Yum! I want to try this. Where can I find good food like this in Quito? I live here but cannot seem to find any… I have been disappointed eating out most of the time and our Ecuadorian friends wouldn’t be able to cook their way out of a box.
This is one of my favorite rice dishes, I’ve been making this for years it’s sorta like a paella just with less ingredients. Great pictures and instructions.