Savannah Red Rice with Shrimp
Celebrate African-American cuisine and learn how to make Southern Savannah Red Rice! Rice is baked with tomatoes, traditional "trinity" vegetables, "red" spices, baked to a fluffy consistency. This savory and spicy one pot dish is rich in flavor and history ringing true to black southern cuisine.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Celery small diced
- 1 cup Red Pepper roughly chopped
- 3 slices Bacon roughly chopped
- 1 small Shallot small diced
- 1 tablespoon Garlic Paste fresh garlic
- 14.5 oz Can Diced Tomatoes drain and use half of the can
- ¼ cup Tomato Sauce
- 1 tablespoon Tomato Paste
- 1 tbsp Cajun Seasoning
- 1 tablespoon Smoked Paprika
- 1 cup Rice
- 2-4 cups Chicken Broth as needed
- 2-3 Bay Leaves
- 3-4 sprigs Thyme
- 1 lb Shrimp medium sized, peel and deveined
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Sauté bacon until crispy and the fat has rendered. Then, remove the bacon and reserve the remaining fat in a bowl.
- Add 1 tablespoon of bacon fat back to the pan and sear shrimp on both sides for 30 seconds. It's important to note the shrimp will not fully cook and will continue to bake in the oven at a later step. Set shrimp aside until further use.
- Now add 1 tablespoon of bacon fat to the same pan and sauté red pepper, shallot and celery until translucent adding garlic halfway through and ¼ teaspoon of pepper.
- Once veggies are soft and translucent, add smoked paprika, cajun seasoning and tomato paste. Stir until fragrant.
- At this point, add rice and stir an additional minute.
- Pour in diced tomatoes and tomato paste and stir.
- Pour in 2 cups of chicken broth, add bay leaf and thyme, stir one additional time. Bring to a boil, turn off heat and cover and bake in the oven a total of 50 minutes (until rice is fork tender).
- It's important to allow the red rice to bake with no interruptions for at least 30 minutes, check for tenderness of rice (it will not be fully cooked) and add any additional liquid if needed (starting with ¼-1/2 cup at a time).
- After at least 50 minutes and rice is fork tender, remove from the oven and top with par cooked shrimp.
- Bake an additional 5-10 minutes topping with freshly chopped parsley.
- At this step, the liquid in the dish should have completely evaporated and rice should be fluffy and shrimp cooked through.