Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Italian Rice Croquettes aka Rice Balls aka Arancini – Back by Popular Demand… Aunt Angela and Uncle Bill D’Arduini!

I just flew back from New York, and boy, are my jokes tired (as you’ll hear). So is everything else, and there’s no rest for the weary as I pack for a quick trip to see the team at Allrecipes.com in Seattle. So, time is short, and I’m posting this incredibly delicious Italian rice croquette recipe, sans extra wordy article.

There isn’t much to add anyway; what you see is what you get. This great appetizer was filmed at a recent family dinner at my Aunt Angela and Uncle Billy D’Arduini’s, and if they sound familiar, they should! They’ve been featured on the blog numerous times; in such smash hit recipes as, Cabbage Rolls, Chicken D’Arduini, and Homemade Pasta.

You can definitely do this recipe completely vegetarian, by skipping the giblets, or switch those out for almost any other cooked meat. Sausage, prosciutto, or ham are just a few of the many options.

When it comes to the rice, we used a standard long rain, and went with a 2 parts water to 1 part rice ratio. You want fully hydrated and completely cooked grain. Al dente rice is not going to work here. Slightly overcooked is not a problem.

Anyway, I'd like to thank Aunt Angela and Uncle Bill for sharing their recipe, and I hope you can give it a try soon. It would be a great addition to any party menu. Enjoy!


Ingredients:
*Sorry, I never found out how many this makes, but I’m guessing about 70-80
2 pounds cooked chicken giblets (gizzards and hearts)
2 cups rice cooked in 4 cups salted water
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp parsley, optional
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
2 large eggs
1/2 cup marinara sauce
salt and pepper to taste
plain breadcrumbs, as needed
vegetable oil for frying
lemon wedges

43 comments:

Dan said...

I had these at a Sicilian restaurant a couple months back and thought they were amazing! The waitress at the restaurant said you basically just deep-fry leftover risotto, which is what I've done myself since... but this version looks fabulous (and meaty!)! Can't wait to try it out.

You are my hero, John. You make me hungry even right after dinner.

inchrisin said...

I never keep large amounts of oil in my house. The stuff I use will be fresh out of the bottle. I'd assume, like french fries, that the 3rd, 4th... batch will come out better than the first because of the 'dirty' oil. Will this be an issue here, and do you have any tips for getting a little seasoning in the oil?

Chef John said...

Fresh oil is fine! If you need to flavor the oil, you didn't season the rice balls enough. ;)

Matt said...

I thought that you're not supposed to reuse the same oil more than a few times because hydrocarbons/ whatever break down and are unhealthy? How many times would you reuse oil, say for french fries?

Anonymous said...

Chef John what kind of rice would you recommend using?

Chef John said...

any works! we used long grain.

The Unchef said...

I'm guessing the "standard long rain" rice is the one found in the flooded paddies?
j/k...There will be lots of Foodwishes goodies on the Holiday table next week, thank you as always, and Merry Christmas to you and Michelle.

exce55ive said...

Football is played with a foot and a ball. American football is played with hands and an egg shaped object.
Nice rice balls tho...

Anonymous said...

finally turned my mom's attention on this blog.. wiiiin!
her english is very poor tho :D

Kelly Toon said...

Do you think this could work with chicken livers? I'm trying to find a way to get them into my diet, for health purposes. Maybe I could add some sauteed onions to the mix as well? I might try rolling them in crushed pork rinds instead of breadcrumbs, or skip the breadcrumbs altogether.

My best tip for rice is to rinse it once or twice before cooking, this keeps it from getting too gluey or mushy.

Matt D said...

Ok. I have a nice 10 pound leg of prosciutto di Parma, the best of the best, melts in your mouth. im guessing i can just cut it into pieces the size relative to what you used in giblets and hearts. 2 lbs worth? or cuz of the saltiness of the meat, should i go less?

Steve said...

Chef:

I think I saw Mario Batali do something like this ages ago, when Food Network was actually about food, except he made it with leftover risotto.

Anonymous said...

Really wish you'd leave out the expletives when doing your recipes on youtube...what is the deal with that? you have 72 dislikes on this one, ever consider that not everyone likes to hear hells and damns when they are cooking. Ridiculous.

Chef John said...

No, I've never consider it. I talk like I talk, and don't give a damn who the hell has a problem with it. Anyone that has a problem with "damn" and "hell" should really lighten up. I'd prefer people who are that uptight not watch my videos anyway.

Anonymous said...

Chef,

I think you are amazing! However, these are not Arancini. At best, they are Suppli.

Arancini di Riso in Southern Sicily (Agrigento, Aragona) are about the size of an orange, round, and filled with meat, peas, and mozzarella. The exterior breading is fried and look golden in color. They are a beautiful creation if done right. The rice used is risotto - it is very sticky and the round shape stays together with risotto.

In Northern Sicily (Palermo), Arancini are shaped conical - round at the bottom and then come up to a point like a pear.

These look amazing but they look more like Italian Suppli in shape, size, and color.

If you ever create a video on Arancini di Riso, I would be sure to watch. 20 Arancini by myself took approximately 6 hours of work - they are labor intensive but well worth it.

Keep up the excellent work!

Paul

Goldberg said...

I'm pretty sure the 72 dislikes were due to the comment on football (soccer), not because he used the word "damn."

If you look at the video insight there are a large number of people watching this from countries where football (soccer) is by far the most popular sport.

Personally, I think a well placed "damn" is quite hilarious.

John P said...

I tried these last night and have the following 4 things to report.

1 – Just tell your guest it’s chicken and leave the details vague.

2 – I had the same problem I always have when I pan fry things I’ve breaded myself, the breading comes of in the pan and my end product is more soggy than crispy (might be that the oil is too cool, not enough egg to bind the mixture, not frying long enough?? Anyone those could be the culprit but I’m not sure)

3 – The chewy texture of the gizzards was my favorite part of the this recipe, you could make this dish with any other chicken part but I think (and I could be wrong about this) the whole point of this dish is to use less sought-after ingredients to make a sought-after dish.

4 – Don’t forget to open a window, the oil tends to stink up my place and I always seem to remember afterwards.

Alec006 said...

Football boring?? plz first learn how to name a sport properly after that got to play handegg chef
http://www.eatliver.com/img/2009/3849.jpg
great cooking though!! :)

Anonymous said...

Delicious chef John. I'm gonna have that while I'm watching football, the most popular and exciting sport in the world, not that boring minor sport in America. LOL

Alex said...

Paul is right. These are wonderful Supli': Arancine (not Arancini... as my Sicilian friends thought me) are made with peas, meat and mozzarella heart... and they're conical :)
I mom prepares this dish using mushroom risotto (generally as a left over from a previous dinner). She makes risotto with pork sausage, onions and porcini mushrooms. The day after she shapes the rice like A.football, as you did, with a Swiss cheese heart and she fries them exactly like you did. They're very very good...you have to try it.

Unknown said...

OMG! We're getting great, free recipes with video from a pro wih a great sense of humor to boot. I'd let my 3yr old watch these videos. What the HELL? Lighten up DAMN it! :)

Molly said...

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I made these yesterday and they were to die for! I made a few changes though.
1. I used an Italian sausage instead of chicken gizzards
2. I didn't have a lot of parmesan so I used 1/2 cup parmesan and 1 1/2 cups fresh mozzerella
3. Instead of using parsley I used just a little bit of fresh basil
Either way though it was great. And you're totally right; the fresh lemon on there was awesome! Thanks again!

Mahwu said...

I have to thank you for the inspiration for dinner tonight! I used this recipe last night but substituted the Giblets for Ground beef, and the grated Parmesan for shredded. I also breaded it in panko instead of the plain bread crumbs. It was amazing, you've really inspired me to try more with recipes. Thank you so much, it was a huge hit.

UserNameLMH said...

hey chef, what other meats can i use. and do you have or plan on making a meat ball sub video?

Anonymous said...

Hi Chef, I have been watching your videos for a week and have already made stuffed grape leaves, peach cobbler, corned beef hash, and yogurt lemon chicken so thank you so much you are making me into a legend at my boyfriends apartment with his friends.

My question is do you cut the cartilage off of the gizzards at all or is it all in there? I think this will be my weekend works:)

Thanks!!!

Chef John said...

Yes the should be trimmed.

julie ann said...

I made this the other day Chef John. It was unbelievably delicious. Here http://adiceofspice.com/how-to-make-chicken-croquettes-or-rice-balls/ :) THanks for the recipe!!!!

Anonymous said...

Can I bake these instead of frying them? I'd spray them with cooking oil of course, but what kind of temps & times should I be looking at? Maybe I should back up; would baking even work here?

Chef John said...

sorry, never tried baking! Don't think it's advised.

Susanne said...

I did these today, but the vegetarian way because my mother is one of those crazy people who do not eat any meat. They were good, but the pan-frying was painful because of the hot oil plattering everywhere.

Anonymous said...

Hi Chef John,
Finely had the curage to actulay try my hand with this resepi. And it turned out fantastic. I have ben lurking watshing your vids on youtube for a while...almost food porn.lol
and that is saying alot coming from me that hav always had a estrange relation to food.. but you makeit look so good one can not help but want to tast it. Well sereved up the rice crocets with my ohn homade meetbals with fetta chease and marined dry tomaktos in served in deep dish hott tomato sause. They were superb next to the rice crocets. We only use brone rice but they were amazing. Do right with the lemon and tomato. I will sertenly do more happy cocking for now on. Keep up the good work.

Unknown said...

Hi Chef!...Did this recipe and it was fantastic!...Love your videos, they are very informative!...Thanks!

Unknown said...

Hi Chef John...Just tried this recipe and it was fantastic...Love your videos!!!...They are very informative!..Thanks so much!...Awesome!

Shafy said...

Your blog about Italian food is really awesome. Thanks for sharing this recipe with us. I will try this at weekend. I like italian food very much.

Ron said...

Oh yea, I made these for the first time today and they turned out fantasmic. I added a 1/4 pound of chicken livers and boiled everything in chicken stock. Then I cooked the rice in that same used stock. The rice came out mushy because I can never cook it properly for the life of me, so I had to use extra bread crumbs. Aside from my creativity and mishaps, I followed your recipe point by point.

This is so going into my personal cookbook. Thank you John!

Joey said...

Hello, Chef John. I don't have a pressure cooker and I know nothing about how they work. What would be an alternative method for cooking the giblets? I've never tried much in the way of offal before but I tried veal sweetbreads the other night at a restaurant (YUM) and I am keen to explore cooking with more "unpopular" cuts out of respect to the animal as well as my wallet. I want to make sure I get it right so I don't turn myself off giblets with bad technique! Thanks, as always :)

Chef John said...

just simmer until tender! maybe an hour or two.

Unknown said...

Hell, Damn, Shit, #$c% who the HELL gives a DAMN the video recipes ROCK, his humor is awesome, his following is more than any other video recipe site on the WWW, bottom line Chef John is amazing and the fact he incorporated his family’s talent and recipes is proof he comes for a background of people who take pride and truly have a love and passion for cooking!

Atomic Survivor said...

How would you say to make this vegetarian or vegan? I understand the concept of removing the gizzards and the cheese. But could I replace them with said, like a vegetable. And if so, what kind of vegetable would be suggested? And would a non grated dairy free cheese work for this?

Modeler and Bottler said...

Paragraph 4, first sentence has a typo. It says "long rain" :)

Unknown said...

Can you make these without bread crumbs?

Unknown said...

I'm FINALLY going to try these. I've seen the rice ball recipes with chicken livers but I don't like livers. I do love the gizzards and I usually cook them in my slow cooker all day until tender then fry them up. At my next family reunions, I'm making the rice balls with livers for my kids whom I'm sure we're switch at birth with my real children because they love chicken livers! I am sure my true children do not. But, then, I am going to make these for the rest of us normal folks. LOL thank you Chef John. Now show us what you can do with grits. I'm a great fan and I cruise the web often to buy new ways to use them. Your number one fan from North Carolina. Hope

Unknown said...

I love your videos, as does my young grandson (9 yr old). He spent the summer with me on the farm to be in 4-H. His projects were goats & cooking. He modified one of your cookie recipes and won 1st place at the county fair, and 3rd place at the Colorado state fair. His goats did well also. Oh ya, when I do something stupid in or out of my kitchen, damn or hell seems to pop out of my mouth. Grandma from Colorado.