The Dominican rice dish possibly adapted from paella is locrio.
Locrio is a Dominican Republic rice dish made by cooking seasoned rice with a principal meat, fish, or seafood ingredient. Common versions include chicken, pork, Dominican salami, herring, sardines, shellfish, rabbit, and guineafowl. Its preparation resembles other one-pot rice traditions, including pilaf and paella.
The connection to paella is best stated cautiously: locrio is described as possibly a Dominican adaptation of paella, not as a proven direct copy with a single documented origin. Dominican cooks developed the dish within a broader Caribbean food culture, where Spanish culinary vocabulary and techniques mixed with African, Indigenous, and other European influences.
Locrio is sometimes confused with arroz con pollo or arroz junto. Those dishes can share ingredients and a one-pot method, but they are distinct names and traditions. Locrio’s defining pattern is seasoned rice cooked together with meat or seafood, allowing the grains to absorb the cooking juices.
The name also covers a family of preparations rather than one rigid recipe. Locrio de pollo is especially familiar, while pica-pica commonly refers to a spicy sardine version. That variety is why the dish can look quite different from one household or region to another.