Arroz al horno (baked meaty rice)

Contains pork – recipe is for non-Muslims/non-pork eaters.

This dish is even more popular in Valencia than paella. It is worth using a terracotta pot to cook the entire recipe, as it gets all the flavours from the beginning to end. But if you don’t have one, you can use a pan or an oven tray instead.

Prep:15 mins
Cook:40 mins
plus resting

Serves 4
Easy

Nutrition per serving

kcal 765
fat 35g
saturates 11g
carbs 75g
sugars 0g
fibre 7g
protein 33g
salt 3.61g

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium potato , cut into 1cm thick slices
1 garlic bulk , halved
200g slab pancetta (or use diced smoked pancetta) , trimmed and roughly chopped
2 chorizo sausages
4 chipolata sausages
600ml chicken or beef stock (or a mixture of both)
large pinch of saffron
1 large tomato
250g paella rice
400g can chickpeas
1 tsp smoked paprika

Method

Heat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Drizzle the oil into a large, deep ovenproof frying pan or wide casserole dish (ours was 35cm in diameter) over a medium-high heat and cook the potato slices, garlic bulb (cut-side down) and the chopped pancetta for 5 mins. Remove the garlic and then continue cooking the potato and pancetta for another 10 mins until very golden and crispy (no need to turn the potato slices over).
Add in the chorizo and chipolata sausages and cook for about 5 mins until browned.
Meanwhile, heat the stock in a large saucepan over a medium heat until steaming. Remove from the heat and stir in the saffron.
Grate the tomato into the sausage pan, discarding any leftover skin. Stir in the rice and cook for a couple of mins until starting to go crispy. Stir in the whole can of chickpeas (liquid and all) and paprika and then pour over the stock. Add the garlic back in, cut-side up. Bubble for 8-10 mins until the rice has soaked up about half of the liquid. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for another 10-12 mins until the rice has soaked up all of the liquid. Leave to rest for about 5 mins before serving.