Arroz con pollo de Rosalia (Question about rice)

November 17, 2006 7:47 AM

What's up with this rice cooking stuff?

Based on this thread Arroz con pollo de Rosalia I decided to try it and it was really delicious, but the rice was all mushy? The recipe says the dish should be wet but it also says to cook the rice using high heat until most of the liquid has evaporated (about 20 min) and then cook it in the owen for another 20 minutes and this doesn't seem right since rice normally cooks in 20 minutes. It also said to pre-soak the rice for an hour and I forgot that but wouldn't that have made the rice even more mushy? It called for short grain rice and I used medium grain, but would that make such a difference? Is this calling for some secret type of rice? I must admit to being in the dark about converted rice etc and all the varieties. I used "White Rice enriched medium grain"

posted by Ferrari328 to food & drink (5 comments total)

Converted rice has been pre-cooked, so it takes much less time to cook than unprocessed long-grain. Don't use Uncle Ben's or whatever out of the box. Yes, it can make that much difference. Also, the amount of liquid the recipe calls for is important.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 8:10 AM on November 17, 2006

MrGunn's correct.
Avoid instant, converted, quick, E-Z, or any other flavor of boxed, quick-cooking rice.
Find the Mexican foods section of your local grocery. Any bagged rice you find there will work perfectly. It will be the real deal.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:25 AM on November 17, 2006

There's more difference than you think between short-grain rice and longer grains. Short-grained rices, like Arborio, release much more starch and absorb much more liquid as they cook -- soaking the rice sort of "preloads" the grains with liquid so they don't go all mushy on you as they cook, and finishing them in a hot oven after the liquid has evaporated helps dry it out a bit, also to help the texture.
posted by briank at 8:42 AM on November 17, 2006

Soaking the rice (or rinsing four or five times) will also remove a layer of starch from the grains, making them more separate and less mushy after they've been cooked. At least, that's what I was reading in "Cooks Illustrated" last night.
posted by CMichaelCook at 9:58 AM on November 17, 2006

Thanks all,
Learned something again. Next time, I'll follow the instructions, REALLY!
posted by Ferrari328 at 6:27 AM on November 18, 2006