Hearty and Delicious Spanish Rice with Bacon, Black Beans and Corn

This rice is a meal by itself. It's hearty and tasty! This is also my son's favorite meal. It's great for when you want to make food for a sick friend. You can make a big pot of this rice for your friend and she/he can feed him/herself and her/his family for days! It's great for potlucks and any other festivity. Also, it taste very good with avocados, plantains, or even a ripe banana on the side! Enjoy! Click here for the Sofrito recipe!

Cook Time

Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 25 min
Ready in: 50 min
Yields: Serves 10 people.
Leftovers may be frozen. :)

Ingredients

• 1/2 pack Bacon (can substitute sausage, roasted pork etc.) 
• 3 Heaping tablespoons Sofrito, check the Sofrito link above or below:)
• 1 Chicken bouillon
• 1 packet Sazon con Azafran (picture provided in this post below), can find this item in the ethnic section of your grocery store
• 2 tablespoons tomato sauce, can skip this ingredient if you don't have it on hand
• salt, to your taste
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 can black beans, drained
• 1 cup frozen organic corn
• 3 cups water
• 2 1/2 cups long grain rice

Steps

1. Cut the bacon (easier to do when it is semi-frozen) width-wise into .5 x. 5 inch pieces.
2. In a deep Pot (that has a good lid-tight seal) cook the bacon until it is very crispy, almost burned.
3. Add the Sofrito. If you want to know how to make Sofrito, click here!. If you don't have Sofrito made, take 1/4 green pepper, 1/4 onion, 4 garlic cloves and 1 cup of cilantro. Chop it all up very fine, and add this to the bacon. Cook at med temp until the veggies get pretty mushy.
4. Add the chicken bouillon, "Sazon" (see the picture above), tomato sauce, olive oil, water, corn, and beans.
5. Taste the mix in the pot to see if it needs more salt (there is already some salt in some of the other ingredients). Some people might be on a low sodium diet. I, personally, add salt until it almost taste too salty. (about 3/4 of a teaspoon of salt) Don't worry, it will taste great when its done. The rice will soak it up. Stir.
6. Keep stirring and bring to a boil, add the rice, and stir again. Cover and simmer on a low temp for about 25 minutes. The lid should create a tight seal, if not, put some tin foil to cover the top of the pot and then cover it with the lid.
7. After 25 minutes, taste to make sure the rice is cooked and soft. Turn the rice over to make sure it doesn't stick to the bottom.
8. Serve as a main dish or as a side dish. Enjoy! Click here for a great recipe for Carnitas!