One Pot Sausage and Rice

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One Pot Sausage and Rice

Easy Sausage and Rice Dinner

We're using a combination of base veg to build flavour, onion, garlic, carrot and celery. If you don't have celery, feel free to leave it out. Then we'll add in the chopped chorizo (or sausage of your choice) and cook it down a bit before adding our dry spices and the rice.

We'll use chicken stock for the liquid to add extra flavour but you can water instead or beef/veg stock. Once it sits for a bit and soaks up most of the stock, we'll add some green (for health!) and let it sit a little longer. That's it, a very easy dinner for one person. You can up the quantities if you're cooking for more people.

Ingredient Notes

Chorizo:

Try to find a good butcher that makes chorizo sausages in your area (I like them spicy). As the fat renders from the chorizo the aromatic spices permeate throughout and give the dish a foundation of flavour. That smoky, fatty flavour is balanced by the sweetness of the vegetables and the freshness of the spinach. You can use other sausages in this recipe, just try to get one with some aromatics with the protein (Italian sausages, beef & herbs, beef & chilli, lamb & rosemary etc).

Arborio rice:

Arborio rice works really well in this recipe as it soaks up all of the stock without losing it's structure and texture. If you don’t have any Arborio rice on hand you can swap the Arborio for sushi rice, though you will need to use less stock. Use about 1 ½ cups of stock and check if it’s cooked after 15 minutes, as sushi rice cooks faster and requires less liquid. If you want to use a different grain altogether, pearl barley could be a good option. Keep the same weight of grain but use 650ml stock and check after 35 minutes. Pearl barley requires more liquid and takes longer to cook.

Chicken stock:

I never use presalted stock, no matter what I'm cooking. If I don't have time to make my own stock, I always make sure to buy unsalted chicken stock. Pre-made chicken stock is seasoned to make the stock taste right at the dilution at which it was made. When we cook with chicken stock and it reduces in volume, the salt dilution concentrates. If you’re not careful it can make the dish taste incredibly salty, before you’ve even added salt yourself.

If you don’t have chicken stock, you can substitute the stock for water. The sausage and vegetables carry heaps of flavour in this recipe so you’re not missing out on too much. Another good alternative is to use a chicken stock cube diluted in 500ml instead of using real stock. Sure, you won’t get the same natural chicken flavour as you do with real stock, but it’s a good option to have.

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Ingredients

1 onion
1 carrot
1 stick celery
2 cloves garlic
2 chorizo sausages
2 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp smoked paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
120g (4.2 oz) Arborio rice
500ml (17 oz) chicken stock
60g (2.1 oz) baby spinach

Equipment

Chopping board
Chef's knife
Medium-sized saucier (or a skillet, saute pan or small pot) with a lid
Wooden spatula or spoon

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Directions

PREP YOUR INGREDIENTS

Peel and finely dice the onion and carrot, finely dice the celery then set aside.
Crush and roughly chop the garlic, then set aside.
Slice the chorizo into chunks, (3-4cm thick) then set aside.

COOK THE VEG AND CHORIZO

Add olive oil to a medium sized saucier. Preheat the saucier on high heat for 30 seconds.
Add the onion, carrot and celery, sweat for 2-3 minutes with ½ tsp of salt. Once the onions turn translucent, add the garlic and stir.
Add the sliced chorizo and stir into the vegetables. Cook for two minutes or until the fat begins to render out of the chorizo.
Add the smoked paprika, ¼ tsp of salt, 12 cracks of black pepper and the rice (no need to rinse the rice). Keep the saucier on the heat to lightly toast the rice for 1 minute, stir occasionally.
Add the chicken stock and stir, making sure to lift any pieces of rice stuck to the bottom of the saucier. Bring the stock to a simmer then turn the element down to low, place a lid on top and leave for 15 minutes.

FINISH AND SERVE

Remove the lid and check the rice is soft. If the rice is still firm, place the lid back on and leave on low heat for a further 5 minutes.
Remove the lid, turn the heat up high and add the spinach. Place the lid back on for 60 seconds. Remove the lid, stir the rice and cook for a further 60 seconds.
Taste the rice and adjust seasoning if required. Plate and enjoy.

Notes

Chef Tips

Render the chorizo before the rice goes in

You want to cook the chorizo or sausage for a couple of minutes to pull out the fat before you add the rice. This way the rice toasts in the fat, rather than the olive oil, which will give it a better flavour.

Leave the lid on

Once the stock is on and the heat is low, resist constantly checking it. Every time you lift the lid you let steam out and the steam is what's cooking the top layer of the rice.

Storage

Scale this recipe up if you have many mouths to feed. To store, leave the dish to rest at room temperature with the lid off for half an hour. Transfer into a container with a tight fitting lid and place in the fridge for up to three days or freeze for up to 3 months.

FAQs

Do I need to rinse the rice?

Unlike using long grain rice for steaming, where you rinse the rice to wash out the starch which prevents the grains from sticking to each other, we want to keep that starch on the rice. The excess starch on the outside of the grains rub against each other, seeping into the stock and emulsifying to create a creamy texture which is perfect for this recipe.

Can I use a rice other than Arborio?

Yes. Sushi rice works well, but it cooks faster and needs less liquid, so drop to about 375ml (1 ½ cups) of stock and check it at 15 minutes. Pearl barley is the other good swap: keep the same weight of grain, go up to 650ml of stock and check at 35 minutes.

What if I don’t have chicken stock?

Water is fine. The chorizo and vegetables carry plenty of flavour on their own, so you’re not missing much. A stock cube dissolved in 500ml of water also works, just taste before you add any salt of your own.

Can I make it vegetarian?

Yes. Swap the chorizo for a plant based chorizo, or for 200g of mushrooms browned hard in olive oil. Add an extra ½ tsp of smoked paprika to make up for the fat you’re losing, and use vegetable stock.