Beefy Spanish Rice

Last weekend of January. We got eighteen inches of snow Wednesday into Thursday. The schools closed. Practice was off. Lisa's shift got covered by another nurse who lived closer to the hospital. The whole family was home Thursday. The twins built a snow fort in the front yard with the neighbor kids. Sofia read for six hours. Diego watched college basketball with his friend Trevor, who walked over through the snow and made it sound like an expedition. Lisa took a long bath. I made a green chile chicken pot pie.

The pot pie is a recipe I worked out about five years ago when one of Lisa's friends was sick and I had taken meals over to her house for a week, and the friend's husband had asked specifically for "comfort food, not Mexican." I am, despite my evangelical commitment to chile, capable of making non-Mexican comfort food when called upon. The pot pie is a roux base with chicken stock and a little cream, sautéed onion and celery and carrot, shredded chicken, peas, and — yes, of course — chopped roasted green chile, because I cannot help it, and because adding green chile to a chicken pot pie does not make it Mexican, it just makes it better. The crust is a buttermilk biscuit topping I make from scratch. Bake at three-seventy-five for thirty minutes until the biscuits are golden and the filling is bubbling.

The pot pie was for the family on Thursday night. The family, plus Trevor, who could not get home through the snow and ended up staying for dinner. The six of us — me, Lisa, Diego, Sofia, the twins, Trevor — at the table. Trevor said, "Coach, this is the best meal I have ever had." I said, "Trevor, you are seventeen and you have not had many meals." He laughed. He had two helpings.

Friday Lisa and I had a movie night. The kids were doing their own things. We watched a movie I had wanted to see — a long, slow Italian film about a chef in the mountains — and Lisa fell asleep halfway through. I let her sleep. I finished the movie. I carried her up to bed at eleven, which is a thing I have done about three times in twenty years and which she still pretends to be embarrassed by.

Saturday I went to the office for a few hours. I am building the spring schedule. I am also running point on the recruiting cycle for the rising sophomores who are going to be the freshmen on next year's team. I came home at two. We had a low-key Saturday night. Pizza. Movie. Bed by ten.

Sunday I cooked all day. I made a pot of beans. I made a batch of red chile sauce. I made a pan of stacked enchiladas for the family. I made breakfast burritos for the next week's practice for the team — twenty-four burritos, wrapped in foil, into the freezer for Monday's film session. I made a pot of green chile mac for Lisa's sister Carrie, who had asked for it for a school event. The kitchen ran hot all day. The smells layered. The radio was on a Mexican AM station out of Albuquerque that I sometimes pick up clearly on a Sunday morning. The day was the kind of cooking day that I have been having maybe twice a month for thirty years, and that I will keep having for thirty more, if I live that long. The road bends. Feed your people. The game is won at the table.

Sunday cooking days have a rhythm to them — you keep adding pots to the stove, you let the smells layer, and at some point the kitchen just takes over the whole house. The Beefy Spanish Rice is exactly the kind of dish that belongs in that rotation: one pan, straightforward, deeply satisfying, the sort of thing that stretches to feed whoever shows up. After a week like that one — the snow, the full house, Trevor and his two helpings, the long Sunday of enchiladas and burritos and beans — this rice is the dish I come back to when I want something that just works, no argument, every time.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 lb ground beef (80/20)
1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice, uncooked
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
2 cups beef broth
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt, plus more to taste
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

Brown the beef. Heat olive oil in a large, deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add ground beef and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until browned and no longer pink, about 6–8 minutes. Drain excess fat, leaving about 1 tablespoon in the pan.
Sauté the aromatics. Add onion and bell pepper to the skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and the onion is translucent, about 4–5 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
Toast the rice. Stir in the uncooked rice and cook for 1–2 minutes, stirring frequently, until the grains are lightly toasted and coated with the pan drippings.
Add liquids and seasonings. Pour in the diced tomatoes (with their juices), tomato sauce, and beef broth. Add chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Stir well to combine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
Simmer covered. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover tightly, and simmer for 20–25 minutes until the rice is tender and has absorbed the liquid. Do not lift the lid during cooking.
Rest and serve. Remove from heat and let stand, still covered, for 5 minutes. Uncover, fluff with a fork, taste and adjust salt, and serve directly from the pan.

Nutrition (per serving)

Beefy Spanish Rice — The Kind of Dish That Belongs on a Sunday Like That