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Chorizo risotto with sweet plantains is a bold and flavorful creamy arborio rice recipe that the whole family will love!
Rice recipes are a great way to get creative in the kitchen. To me, rice is a blank canvas; for instance, we have Spanish rice, rice pudding, wet rice with shrimp, and more.
Interested in trying out the RiceSelect® Arborio Rice? Hover over the photo to click through to Walmart.com for purchasing.
Are you familiar with risotto? Have you ever made it before?
As a Latina, I've had my fair share of different grains and brands of rice, but the thought of making risotto scared me. I've always associated risotto with upscale Italian restaurants in Manhattan.
Little did I know that it's relatively simple to make risotto. The base of a great risotto recipe is using quality arborio rice. Thankfully, RiceSelect Arborio rice is available at most stores, including your local Walmart!
What is arborio rice?
Arborio rice is a medium grain rice that is known for being chewy in the center and developing a creamy outside -perfect for rice pudding and making easy risotto at home!
Cooking is a form of art, a great way to let loose and be creative. Recently I had a sausage, mushroom, and spinach risotto, and I knew instantly I wanted to make a risotto with chorizo, and to combat the spiciness, add in sweet chunks of platano maduros (sweet plantains).
Finding the perfect plantain, or even the best brand of chorizo can be a mission, but thankfully choosing what brand of arborio rice is not! I recently learned that RiceSelect Arborio rice is grown in the USA which also means you do not have to wash your rice! This is a great way to keep the starch in for an extra creamy chorizo risotto!
Seriously, RiceSelect is one of the best rice and grains brand available! Here is a link to see if your local Walmart carries RiceSelect Arborio Rice and while supplies last, here is an Ibotta coupon for $1 off of 1 RiceSelect product.
At my local Walmart, I found the RiceSelect all the way on the second to top shelf where the instant rice, quinoa, and gravy is. Look for the BPA-Free plastic jar. That's their signature look, and I love to reuse it to store brown sugar. I love that RiceSelect cares about it's packaging and thinks about it's consumers with it's non-GMO, free from flavors, preservatives, and artificial ingredients!
What is risotto?
Risotto is an Italian inspired rice dish that can contain vegetables and proteins, that is cooked slowly using hot broth until it is cooked through and creamy.
Is risotto healthy?
For those that are gluten intolerant, arborio rice is a great grain to use to mimic some of your favorite pasta dishes. Risotto is a wonderful dish that allows you to become creative, think shrimp scampi, or even a cheesy "gluten free" adult mac and cheese that can be dressed up with ground beef, chicken, etc.
Quick breakdown of making easy risotto:
- Cook your onions and chorizo in one pan, set it to the side.
- Boil your plantains in a pot until fork tender, and set to the side.
- Heat your rich broth with fresh cilantro and a few garlic cloves. (Keep a ladle or measuring cup nearby.)
- In a large pot, warm oil, and add RiceSelect arborio rice and toast until the translucent.
- Add white wine and let it cook down for about 2-3 minutes or until it's absorbed.
- Add ¼ cup or ladle full of broth to the pan. Give a quick stir.
- Once the arborio rice has absorbed the broth, add another ladle full.
- Repeat adding broth every time the rice absorbs it.
- Continue until rice has cooked through and is creamy (about 25-30 minutes).
- Stir in chopped plantains and chorizo.
- Serve.
How do you make risotto?
Risotto is a one pan dish that uses multiple pans to make! To make this chorizo risotto, start by warming oil in a pan, add in onions, cook down the onions until softened and then add in the chorizo.
Once the chorizo has started crumbling, add in the homemade sofrito, and Adobo seasoning or salt. Cook until the chorizo has browned through, and then set the pan on the side.
In another pan, (use a rather large pan or caldero) warm olive oil and add in the RiceSelect Arborio rice.
Toast the RiceSelect Arborio rice for a few minutes or until the rice looks translucent and gets a bit brown (not burnt).
Once the rice is toasted, add in your white wine. Let the wine cook for 2-3 minutes or until the rice has absorbed it all. Now, start ladling the beef broth into the pan. This part takes patience. Allow all of the broth to be absorbed before ladling another ¼-1/2 cup of broth into the pan. Continue this until all 7 cups of beef broth have been used or the rice has cooked through and is creamy.
Once the RiceSelect rice turns into risotto, give it a quick taste and season with salt, if desired. For an even creamier risotto, add in a ½ cup of heavy cream now. This also helps tame down the spiciness of the chorizo. Next, add in the cooked chorizo with the cooked plantains that has been finely chopped. Fold all of the ingredients together and serve!
Risotto is meant to be a fun and creative dish! If you're wondering if any ingredients can be swapped or omitted, the answer is yes!
For less heat, use ground Italian sausage instead of chorizo. For the inside of the chorizo risotto, I boiled plantains and added it in. You can completely leave the plantains out, but I highly suggest it! Use your favorite herbs and spices to make your risotto uniquely yours!
Let us know in the comments below what kind of risotto recipe is your favorite, as well as letting us know if you've ever made any recipes using RiceSelect! Feel free to tag us if you make this recipe using @LatinaMomMeals and check out RiceSelect's Facebook or Instagram page!
Chorizo Risotto with Plantains
Equipment
- stove
Ingredients
- 7 cups of beef broth
- ¼ cup of cilantro
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 cup of chopped onions
- 1 pound of ground chorizo
- 2 tablespoons of sofrito
- 2 teaspoons of adobo seasoning
- 2 cups of RiceSelect arborio rice
- ½ up of white wine
- ½ cup heavy cream
- salt to taste if desired
- 1 sweet plantain boiled and chopped
- cilantro to garnish
Instructions
- Gently simmer beef broth, ¼ cup of cilantro, and garlic cloves in a large pot on a back burner. Keep it warm.
- In a large pan, warm 1 and ½ tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat and add in onions. Cook for about 3 minutes, or until onions have softened.
- Add chorizo, sofrito, and adobo seasoning. Break down the chorizo and cook it through.
- Set chorizo mixture to the side.
- In another pan, warm remaining olive oil over medium high heatand pour in dry RiceSelect arborio rice and toast until translucent and slightly golden brown. Lower heat if necessary.
- Once rice is toasted, bring heat back to medium high if temperature was lowered. Pour wine over rice. Allow wine to cook down and become completely absorbed by rice (about five minutes).
- Once wine is absorbed, ladle in ¼-1/2 cup of warmed chicken broth (not the cilantro and garlic). Allow the beef broth to become absorbed into the rice, about 2-4 minutes.
- Repeat with remaining broth or until rice is cooked through and creamy.
- Taste for seasoning, add in salt if desired.
- Add in cream and let it slightly absorb before pouring in the chorizo mixture and chopped plantains.
- Garnish with chopped cilantro.
- Serve and enjoy. Buen provecho!
