If you're looking for Locrio recipes to inspire your next meal, you've come to the right place. This is the complete collection of locrios, from the fanciest to the simplest. There's certainly no lack of options here, and you'll surely find one that'll make everyone at the table happy.
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- Last reviewed . Published Nov 2, 2023What's locrio?
Locrio is a type of pilaf from the Dominican Republic. The word is exclusively Dominican, according to the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language.
Locrio combines rice with some protein, vegetables, and spices. The rice is colored using any of the ingredients we mention further down.
Puerto Rico also uses the same word for rice dishes, and has similar recipes, but I believe there may be more traditional locrio recipes in Dominican cuisine.
Locrio recipes
In our blog we have all the best-known locrio recipes, as well as lesser-known ones. And to prove how irrational the rules are, there is a wheat one, in which wheat replaces rice.
At the end of the list, you'll find some recipes that, although non-traditional, would be recognized by Dominican as locrios if served to them.
Locrio de pollo (Dominican rice and chicken)
Locrio de camarones (Dominican shrimp and rice pilaf)
Locrio de salami (rice and Dominican salami)
Locrio de pica-pica (Dominican rice with spicy sardines)
Locrio de arenque (rice with smoked herring)
Locrio de chuleta ahumada (rice with smoked pork chops)
Locrio de puerco (rice with pork cracklings)
Locrio de longaniza (rice and Dominican sausage)
Locrio de molleja (rice and chicken gizzards)
Locrio de queso de freír (rice with cheese)
Locrio de berenjena (rice with eggplant)
Locrio de trigo (bulgur pilaf)
Moro-locrio (rice with beans and pork)
Locrio de maíz (rice with corn)
Locrio de fideos (rice and noodles)
Arroz con camarones y longaniza (Dominican "paella")
Oven-cooked rice with chorizo
What to serve with locrio
Tostones (fried green plantains) or Fritos maduros (fried ripe plantains) are a classic addition to a locrio meal, as are a few slices of Dominican avocado. You can serve it with a simple Dominican salad, too.
Habichuelas guisadas is a matter of deep disagreement. Throughout the years, we've polled our readers, and the answer remains pretty unchanged: about half of Dominicans like habichuelas with locrio, and the other half doesn't.
I am curious where you fall in that divide. Let me know in the comments!
Locrio ingredients
As you can see above, locrio can be made from nearly every kind of meat or protein available in our traditional diet, though some ingredients will appear in almost all locrio recipes:
Rice
We use long-grain (Carolina) rice. Most Dominicans would rinse the rice beforehand, but I typically don't if it's good-quality rice, as rinsing it will eliminate nutrients in the already nutrient-poor grain. Rinsing the rice eliminates the free starch and produces "arroz graneado," the preferred consistency of grains that are cooked-through but firm and separate. I get the same result by adjusting the amount of water in my recipes and the time to simmer it in the instructions.
Vegetables
This will vary from recipe to recipe but mostly from home to home. How complex and vegetable-rich your locrio is will depend on the time you have to cook and the family budget. Some vegetables are ubiquitous, like mashed garlic cloves, diced ajíes (bell pepper or cubanelle pepper), olives (pitted green olives), and minced or sliced onion (used in some of the recipes, but not all).
Some other vegetables are a matter of taste and convenience, like green peas (petit pois), sweet corn, diced carrot, capers (alcaparritas), celery, and lime juice – which are used to make the chicken marinade.
Herbs
Cilantro (cilantrico in the DR), cilantro ancho (culantro en PR), oregano, and parsley (verdurita) are the most commonly used herbs.
Spices
Salt and black pepper appear in all our recipes, but some other spices can be added, like bija (achiote, annatto), which is used to color the rice in some recipes, though tomato paste or tomato sauce can also be used.