Oven-baked rice, known as 'arroz al horno' is a Spanish classic - it's pretty similar to a paella but baked in the oven instead of cooked on the stove. It's slightly more homely than it's paella cousin and a little more straightforward to make. This recipe is proper comfort food, it's rich, full of flavour and I know you'll love it.  Although you need to allow some time for everything to come together, there is hardly any heavy lifting involved - it's a perfect weekend dish to make when you're busy pottering about (or entertaining) at home.

Arroz al horno is traditionally paired with cheaper, fatty cuts like pork ribs or belly, sometimes it also features morcilla or different types of Spanish sausage - the rendered fat adds so much richness. You can also add potatoes, chorizo, chickpeas.....basically just go to town if you want to customise your own version.

Marinating the pork ribs in white wine for a couple of hours before will tenderise the meat and help to prevent it from drying out - the acid in white wine will gently break down the muscle fibre, giving it a more succulent texture.

Servings 6 | Cook Time: 180 mins | Prep Time: 10 mins | Marinating Time: 120 mins

Ingredients

1kg pork ribs
200ml white wine
2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoon Las Hermanas sweet smoked paprika
4 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
2 red bell peppers, finely sliced
3 large fresh tomatoes, quartered and then halved
6 garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped
300g Molina Roca Dinamita Spanish rice
700ml chicken stock
Sea salt and black pepper

Equipment:
Either a 15'' paella pan / a wide shallow casserole pan or the biggest frying pan you have that has a heat proof handle.

Instructions

1. Place the ribs in a non-metallic container, pour in the white wine and sprinkle over the smoked paprika and dried oregano. Mix to combine and leave to marinade for a couple of hours (leaving it overnight is also fine).

2. Heat your oven to 140°C, tip the ribs (together with all the wine marinade) into an ovenproof dish, add a pinch of salt and cover with foil - cook gently for 2 hours so the ribs are nice and tender.

3. 15 minutes before the ribs have finished their 2 hours in the oven, heat your paella pan on a medium flame, add 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and fry the onions and peppers for 10 minutes so they are really soft with a slight golden colour (be careful not to burn them). Then add in the garlic, fresh tomato and keep cooking for another 5 minutes.

4. Warm the chicken stock in a pan.

5. Take the ribs out of the oven and increase the oven temperature to 170°C.

6. Add the rice to the pan and mix to combine with the onions, peppers, tomato and garlic.

7. Remove the ribs from the roasting pan and nestle them into the rice but don't cover them with any of the rice. Add all the rib cooking juices and pour over the hot chicken stock.

8. Season with another pinch of salt and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes. You want the rice to be nice and tender, absorbing most of the chicken stock and the ribs to have browned.

9. Remove from the oven - if you can resist, let it sit for around 10 minutes then serve with a simple green salad or some steamed greens.

Cooking Tips

This dish is so simple, you really can't go wrong. The choice of cooking vessel is the only part that may not work - don't use a high sided casserole pot - you want a nice shallow layer of ingredients for everything to cook properly.

The quality of the stock you use is important, homemade stock will definitely be the best, but the Freja Bone Broth will also give you a great result. 

Serving Suggestions

This is a really rich dish so you want to serve something fresh and tangy to compliment and add contrast - a simple green salad is perfect dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. It's also nice to serve some alioli to add a creamy element.

Variations and Substitutions

If you can't find pork ribs, you can also use pork belly chops, just ask your butcher to slice up a skinless pork belly into chops with the rib bone intact. If you want to speed up the process you can omit the pork belly altogether and simply use sausages instead - no need to precook these, just nestle them in the rice, just before you put everything in the oven.

You can also add in beans, chorizo sausage, potato, black pudding, pancetta, chicken thighs, rabbit (if you can get hold of it).