Rice with veal trotter (arroz y pata) recipe

Arroz y pata is a casserole rice with a meat rarely found in rice dishes: veal trotter, boiled first, for about an hour and a half. This recipe uses Alicante Turismo’s quantities, for four, and doesn’t mix them with any other version: what changes in the others goes separately, in its own section.

The trotter goes first

It all starts with the trotter boiled for an hour and a half or so. Then it is boned, chopped and set aside with its stock, and that stock is half the dish: it is what moistens the rice. It is best to start in good time and order the piece from the butcher in advance, because the recipe asks for about two kilos.

The sofrito and the doneness of the rice

In an earthenware pot, the chopped onion, black pudding, chorizo and garlic are fried, and the tomato is added. It is a short, hearty sofrito, with more sausage than vegetable. It is moistened with the trotter’s stock, the chopped meat and the chickpeas go in, it is seasoned with colouring and salt, and the rice is added.

The recipe brings it to the boil for fifteen to eighteen minutes. El Español describes it as a very aromatic, creamy rice. Alicante Turismo gives no litres of stock; the version recorded by El Español speaks of about a litre for those 400 g of rice, and it is a good reference to start from.

The ingredients that count

The veal trotter is what gives the dish its name. The chickpeas are 250 g; Alicante Turismo does not say whether dried or cooked. Since the recipe adds them with the rice, which only cooks for a few minutes, they have to be cooked already; if yours are dried, soak them the night before and cook them first. The sausages are two onion black puddings and 50 g of cooking chorizo, which supply the flavour of the pot together with a ripe tomato, an onion and four cloves of garlic. With that, oil, salt and food colouring.

One surprising figure is the oil, 250 ml for four: it is the one the source gives and it is the source’s figure. If you prefer, try less and add as you go, but that is the measure in the recipe.

Easy mistakes to avoid

In its paella recipe, El Español insists on three things. The trotter’s stock isn’t thrown away, because that is where the flavour is. The stock goes in hot. And the rice is spread evenly over the pot, without piling it up.

Alicante and Villena: not the same recipe

The name “arroz y pata” appears on the Villena tourism website, which describes it made in a paella pan with boiled veal trotter, chickpeas, red pepper and garlic, and without quantities. The recipe with figures is Alicante’s, with black pudding, chorizo and tomato. They share trotter and chickpeas and differ in the rest. That is why the recipe gives the quantities of one and names the other.

Another version of the Alicante recipe

In June 2026 El Español recorded the Alicante City Council tourism recipe with small changes: no onion or garlic, with sweet paprika and saffron instead of colouring, about a litre of stock, and five minutes’ rest before serving. If you prefer that version, the method is similar, in a paella; the paprika goes into the sofrito taking care it doesn’t burn.

It isn’t a baked rice

It has chickpeas and meat, like the baked rice, but it is made on the hob, with the trotter as the star, and comes out creamy. If you are after a casserole rice with pulses, the rice with beans and turnips is another route.

For many guests

To work out rice per guest there is the guide to how much rice per person. If there are lots of you, we cook for groups: paellas and show cooking.