Name: Charleston Red Rice
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 300 g long-grain rice; 100 g bacon, diced; 200 g smoked sausage, sliced; 1 onion, chopped; 1 green pepper, about 150 g, chopped; 2 tbsp tomato purée; 200 g tinned chopped tomatoes; 400 ml hot chicken stock; ½ tsp cayenne pepper; ½ tsp salt

Charleston Red Rice

Long-grain rice baked with smoked sausage, bacon, tomato, onion and green pepper until the grains turn red and savoury.

1 hr total Serves 6 servings Easy

How to Cook Charleston Red Rice

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Fry the bacon in a heavy pan with a tight lid for 5 minutes until crisp. Add the sausage and fry for 3 minutes.
Add the onion and green pepper and cook for 5 minutes until soft. Stir in the rice and cook for 1 minute.
Stir in the tomato purée, tomatoes, stock, cayenne and salt. Bring to a boil, cover tightly and cook on low heat for 20 minutes.
Leave covered off the heat for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving.

Related guide: Choosing rice.

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Keep an Eye on These

Toast the rice in the fat so the grains stay separate.
Use a pan with a tight lid; steam does the cooking.
Taste before salting; the bacon, sausage and stock are all salty.

A Little Background

It looks like Spanish rice and cooks like a pilaf, and it belongs to the Lowcountry. Charleston red rice gets its colour and tang from tomato, and its depth from rendered bacon fat and smoked sausage, which flavour the grains as they swell.

The cooking is done in stages. Bacon is fried first, then the sausage, then onion and green pepper in the fat, then the rice, which is toasted briefly so each grain is coated. Tomato paste and tinned tomatoes follow, with hot stock and a pinch of cayenne.

Do not lift the lid while it cooks. The rice steams, and every peek lets out heat. A tight lid and a low flame are all it needs. Leave it covered off the heat for 10 minutes so the grains firm up, then fluff with a fork. It should be moist but separate, with a faint crust on the bottom.

What to Serve It With

Fried chicken · Collard greens · Green salad · Hot sauce

Leftovers

Keeps in the fridge for 3 days. Reheat with a splash of water.