Dan Pelosi makes Mom's Portuguese Rice

On Play Me a Recipe, your favorite cooks will walk you through their most treasured recipes, offering all the insider tips, stories, and tricks you won't get from a written recipe—and you'll be right alongside them, every step of the way. Feel free to pause, jump back, or navigate the steps via the podcast chapters.

If you're cooking along, here's the recipe we're making today. Go ahead and grab the ingredients below before starting the episode (Dan starts listing them at 0:39). 

Mom's Portuguese Rice
Serves 4 to 6

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3/4 pound linguiça, cut into 1/8-inch thick coins on a diagonal
• 1 red pepper, chopped small
• 1 large white onion, chopped small
• 1 heaping tablespoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 cup long grain white  rice
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 2 bay leaves
• A handful of chopped parsley

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. 

2. Add 1/4 cup olive oil to a medium-sized oven safe pot or dutch oven. Over low heat, let olive oil heat up for about 5 minutes. Add linguiça coins to the pot and spread them out evenly.  Cook linguiça until coins are brown and crispy on both sides, flipping the coins over half way through, about 5-7 minutes. Remove cooked linguiça from the pot and set aside on a plate.

3. Your pot will have a gorgeous orange oil left in from the fried linguiça. Add the chopped pepper, chopped onion, 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1 teaspoon ground black pepper to the pot. Cook over medium heat, stirring until browned, about 5-7 minutes. 

4. Add 1 heaping tablespoon smoked paprika and stir until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. 

5. Add the entire can of tomato paste and stir until everything is combined and the paste starts to caramelize, about 2-3 minutes. 

6. Add 2 1/2 cups chicken stock and deglaze pan, stirring until all the crispy bits come off the pot into the mix. 

7. Add 1 cup rice, 2 bay leaves and the linguiça (scrape any oil off the plate into the pan!) and stir until everything comes to a boil.

8. Place the cover on to your pot and place your pot into a 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes until rice is cooked through. If you check your rice needs more liquid as it cooks, add the extra ½ cup of chicken stock to pot, stir, and place back in to oven. 

9. When rice is fully cooked, remove pot from oven and keep it covered, off-heat, for 5-10 minutes. This will make the rice extra creamy.

10. Served topped with chopped parsley and enjoy! 

Bonus: If you wanted to add crispy chicken thighs to this dish, it really makes a great addition. Just start off with your chicken thighs skin down in your pot and cook them over medium until the skin releases from the pot, maybe 8-10 minutes. Flip over and cook about 5 minutes on the other side. Set thighs aside, and start your recipe at step 1, using the grease from the chicken instead of the ¼ cup of olive oil. Place the chicken thighs skin side up on top of rice before you place pot in oven and they will cook along with the rice! 

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