Chef Lupita
Almejas Tatemadas de Loreto
Loreto's pit-roasted clams, planted hinge-up in beach sand and tatemadas under a fast fire of dried romerillo brush, the resinous Baja desert shrub that gives this dish its smoke.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Arroz al Horno con Mariscos Sinaloense
Created by
Sinaloa's baked seafood rice from the Mazatlan home kitchens, built on a guajillo-shrimp stock and finished in the cazuela with octopus, shrimp, and callo de hacha. One pot, set down in the middle of the table.
Main Dishes
Mexican
Special Occasion
Dinner Party
Celebration
45 min
Active Time
1 hr 15 min cook•2 hr total
Yield6 to 8 servings
This is from Sinaloa. Specifically from the home kitchens of Mazatlan, where the boats come in by morning and the women who cook for big Sunday tables build their rice around whatever the docks gave up that day. Octopus, shrimp, callo de hacha. Sometimes manta ray, sometimes marlin. The seafood rotates. The technique does not.
Forget what you know about Spanish paella. This is not paella. There is no saffron, no socarrat ambition, no flat steel pan. Sinaloa's arroz al horno is built on a stock pulled from shrimp heads and a puree of toasted guajillo and ancho with charred tomato. It bakes in a clay cazuela, covered, until the rice swells and the seafood steams through in the last ten minutes. The grains separate. The color comes from the chile and the shrimp fat, not from food coloring or a powdered seasoning packet.
The callo de hacha is what marks this as Sinaloa. Pen shell scallops, harvested from the Sea of Cortez, sweeter and firmer than the sea scallops you find on the Atlantic side. If you cannot find them, use the largest, freshest sea scallops you can. It will be a compromise, not an upgrade, and you should know the difference.
My mother was from Jalisco and she did not make this rice. I learned it from a senora named Rosa who ran a marisqueria in the Mercado Pino Suarez in Mazatlan, who let me sit on a stool behind her cazuela for three afternoons in 2009 and watch her work. She told me: the rice is only as good as the stock, and the stock is only as good as the shrimp you started with. Si no conoces el mercado, no conoces la cocina.
Arroz al horno in its Sinaloan form descends from a confluence of Spanish baked rice traditions brought to the Pacific coast in the colonial period and the abundance of seafood from the Sea of Cortez and the Gulf of California, which together produce the majority of Mexico's commercial shrimp catch. The dish took its modern shape in the 20th century in the port cities of Mazatlan, Topolobampo, and Culiacan, where home cooks adapted the Spanish technique of finishing rice in a covered earthenware vessel to the local catch of camaron, pulpo, and the prized callo de hacha (Atrina maura). Unlike the Veracruzano arroz a la tumbada, which is soupier and finished on the stovetop, the Sinaloan version is dry-baked in a cazuela, a method that distinguishes Pacific coast seafood rice from its Gulf Coast cousin and reflects the regional preference for grain separation over saucy consistency.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
large head-on shrimp
Quantity
1 pound
peeled and deveined, shells and heads reserved
cleaned octopus tentacles
Quantity
1 pound
pre-cooked until tender, about 45 minutes in salted water with a halved white onion
callo de hacha (pen shell scallops)
Quantity
1/2 pound
sliced into thick coins, or substitute large sea scallops
dried chile guajillo
Quantity
4
stemmed and seeded
dried chile ancho
Quantity
1
stemmed and seeded
water (for the shrimp stock)
Quantity
6 cups
white onion
Quantity
1 medium
half left whole, half finely diced
garlic cloves
Quantity
5
2 left whole, 3 finely minced
bay leaves
Quantity
2
ripe Roma tomatoes
Quantity
2 large
charred on the comal
manteca de cerdo (pork lard)
Quantity
3 tablespoons
olive oil
Quantity
2 tablespoons
medium-grain white rice
Quantity
2 cups
Morelos or a Mexican brand if you can find it
small red bell pepper
Quantity
1
finely diced
frozen peas
Quantity
1/2 cup
thawed
dried Mexican oregano
Quantity
1 teaspoon
ground cumin
Quantity
1 teaspoon
kosher salt
Quantity
to taste
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
to taste
chopped fresh parsley
Quantity
1/4 cup
lime wedges (optional)
Quantity
for serving
pickled chile jalapeno en escabeche (optional)
Quantity
for serving
sliced avocado (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| large head-on shrimppeeled and deveined, shells and heads reserved | 1 pound |
| cleaned octopus tentaclespre-cooked until tender, about 45 minutes in salted water with a halved white onion | 1 pound |
| callo de hacha (pen shell scallops)sliced into thick coins, or substitute large sea scallops | 1/2 pound |
| dried chile guajillostemmed and seeded | 4 |
| dried chile anchostemmed and seeded | 1 |
| water (for the shrimp stock) | 6 cups |
| white onionhalf left whole, half finely diced | 1 medium |
| garlic cloves2 left whole, 3 finely minced | 5 |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| ripe Roma tomatoescharred on the comal | 2 large |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard) | 3 tablespoons |
| olive oil | 2 tablespoons |
| medium-grain white riceMorelos or a Mexican brand if you can find it | 2 cups |
| small red bell pepperfinely diced | 1 |
| frozen peasthawed | 1/2 cup |
| dried Mexican oregano | 1 teaspoon |
| ground cumin | 1 teaspoon |
| kosher salt | to taste |
| freshly ground black pepper | to taste |
| chopped fresh parsley | 1/4 cup |
| lime wedges (optional) | for serving |
| pickled chile jalapeno en escabeche (optional) | for serving |
| sliced avocado (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •12-inch clay cazuela or heavy oven-safe skillet with a tight-fitting lid
- •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting chiles and charring tomatoes
- •High-powered blender
- •Fine-mesh strainer
- •Wooden spoon for pressing the shrimp heads
Instructions
- 1
Build the shrimp-shell stock
Heat one tablespoon of the lard in a medium pot over medium-high. Add the reserved shrimp shells and heads. Press the heads with a wooden spoon to release the orange fat trapped inside them. That fat is the flavor of the sea and you do not throw it away. Cook for five minutes, until the shells turn deep coral and the kitchen smells like the Mazatlan docks. Add the water, the whole half onion, the two whole garlic cloves, and the bay leaves. Bring to a simmer and cook for 25 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing hard on the solids. You should have about 4 cups of deep amber stock. Discard the shells.
Head-on shrimp matters here. The heads carry the orange tomalley that gives the rice its color and depth. If your fishmonger only has headless shrimp, ask him to save you a pound of shells from somebody else's order. - 2
Toast and soak the chiles
Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the guajillo and ancho separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side. They should puff and turn fragrant. Do not let them blacken. Place them in a heatproof bowl and cover with one cup of the hot shrimp stock. Soak for 15 minutes until soft and pliable.
Burned chile is bitter chile. If one goes black, throw it out and toast another. No me vengas con atajos. - 3
Char the tomatoes and blend the base
On the same comal, char the Roma tomatoes whole. Turn them every couple of minutes until the skin is blistered and black in patches all around. Transfer the softened chiles, their soaking liquid, the charred tomatoes, the minced garlic, the oregano, and the cumin to a blender. Blend on high until completely smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing on the solids. You want a clean, deep red-orange puree with no skin or seeds. This is the base that gives the rice its color.
- 4
Sear the rice
Preheat the oven to 375F. In a 12-inch oven-safe cazuela or heavy ovenproof skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of lard with the olive oil over medium-high. Add the dry rice and toast it, stirring constantly, for 4 to 5 minutes. The grains should turn the color of pale gold and smell like popcorn. This is the step that makes the difference between mushy rice and rice with body. Skip it and the grains never separate properly.
- 5
Sweat the aromatics into the rice
Push the rice to the edges of the pan. In the empty center, add the diced white onion and the red bell pepper. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring, until the onion is translucent. Stir everything together. Pour the strained chile-tomato puree directly into the hot rice. It will sputter and the kitchen will smell of toasted chile. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring, until the puree darkens slightly and coats every grain.
- 6
Add the stock and the octopus
Pour in 3 cups of the warm shrimp stock. Add 1.5 teaspoons of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Taste the liquid. It should be assertive, more seasoned than you think. The rice will absorb it and dull anything timid. Bring to a brisk simmer. Scatter the cooked octopus tentacles across the surface, pressing them lightly into the rice. Do not stir.
- 7
Bake covered
Cover the cazuela tightly with a lid or with foil pressed against the rim. Transfer to the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 18 minutes. Do not open the oven. The rice needs the trapped heat to steam through evenly.
- 8
Add the shrimp, scallops, and peas
Pull the cazuela out. Quickly lift the lid and arrange the shrimp, the callo de hacha coins, and the peas across the surface. Press the seafood lightly into the rice so it cooks in the residual steam. Cover again and return to the oven for 10 to 12 more minutes. The shrimp should turn coral pink and curl gently. The scallops should turn opaque at the edges and stay just translucent at the center. Overcook them and they go rubber. Asi se hace y punto.
- 9
Rest and serve in the cazuela
Remove the cazuela from the oven and let it rest, covered, for 8 to 10 minutes. The rice finishes cooking off the heat and the grains separate. Uncover. Scatter the chopped parsley across the top. Serve directly from the cazuela at the table with lime wedges, sliced avocado, and pickled chiles on the side. This is a one-pot dish meant to be set down in the middle of the table. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
Chef Tips
- •Buy head-on shrimp or do not bother. The orange fat in the heads is the flavor of the dish. Without it, your stock is colored water and your rice will taste flat. Ask the fishmonger to save you the heads if your shrimp comes pre-peeled.
- •Callo de hacha is hard to find outside northwest Mexico and parts of California and Arizona with strong Sinaloan immigrant communities. If you cannot find it, use the largest, freshest dry-pack sea scallops you can buy. Diver scallops are best. Avoid wet-pack scallops, the ones soaked in preservative solution. They will not sear, they will not hold their texture, and they will leak liquid into your rice and ruin it.
- •Pre-cook the octopus before it goes near the rice. Octopus needs 45 minutes to an hour of gentle simmering with a halved onion to become tender. Adding raw octopus to the cazuela at the end will give you rubber bands floating in your rice. Do this step the day before if you want.
- •Medium-grain rice is the right choice. Long-grain rice will not absorb the stock the same way. Arborio is too starchy and will turn the dish into a risotto, which is not what you are making. Look for a Mexican brand of medium-grain or use Calrose.
Advance Preparation
- •The shrimp-shell stock can be made one day ahead and refrigerated. It will gel slightly from the natural collagen, which is a good sign.
- •The chile-tomato puree can be made one day ahead and refrigerated in a sealed container. The flavor deepens overnight.
- •The octopus can be cooked up to two days ahead and stored in its cooking liquid in the refrigerator. Drain before using.
- •The assembled and baked rice does not hold well. The seafood overcooks on reheating and the rice loses its texture. Bake it the day you serve it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 400g)
Calories
520 calories
Total Fat
12 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
9 g
Cholesterol
175 mg
Sodium
1000 mg
Total Carbohydrates
54 g
Dietary Fiber
3 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
43 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Noroeste Main Dishes
Browse the full collection
Chef Lupita
Arroz con Pollo Sinaloense
Sinaloa's one-pot Sunday meal: bone-in chicken seared in lard, rice toasted in the same fat, then simmered with blended tomato and achiote until every grain is stained the color of the Pacific coast at sunset.
Chef Lupita
Arroz Frito Mexicalense con Chorizo y Aguacate
Mexicali's signature plate: Cantonese fried rice technique married to Mexican chorizo, finished with fresh diced avocado and a wedge of lime. Border food, exactly as it is supposed to be.
Chef Lupita
Cabrilla a la Talla Sudcaliforniana
Baja California Sur's whole grouper, butterflied flat, painted with a guajillo and lime adobo bound with Mexican mayonnaise, and grilled over mesquite at a beach palapa on the Sea of Cortez.