Nothing rounds out a taco or enchilada night like a good helping of Mexican Rice. I like this recipe because it’s delicious and it reminds me of the rice served at my favorite Mexican restaurants. It’s also pretty easy to whip up. Any recipe where I can spend 2-3 minutes stirring things and dumping ingredients in a pot and then walk away and forget it is a winner in my book, and this is definitely one of those!
I’ve made Mexican Rice using more and less supposedly authentic recipes. One thing I’ve found is that there are a lot of different authentic Mexican rice recipes! So I think you should just make the one you like best. What I like about this is that you just toss in a quarter of an onion and a whole jalapeño chile. There’s no fancy dicing or mincing involved. Just rice, some liquid, tomato sauce, seasonings, and whole vegetables.

I have made this dish with more vegetables and less. One great variation is to stem a large tomato, cut it in half, and put both halves in the both with the onion and jalapeño. Sometimes ,if I intend to use this rice for rice bowls, I steam a bag of mixed vegetables and stir it into the rice when it’s done cooking. I recommend making it once according to the recipe then, once you have a feel for it, try experimenting.
My kids get a little finnicky about spicy food, so I normally just make this with regular tomato sauce and a jalapeño. The jalapeño adds heat and flavor, but not too much. When the kids aren’t my target audience, however, I like to spice this up a little. Sometimes I use a hotter chile. Sometimes I use a hotter tomato sauce like El Pato, which I find delicious.
I’m not sure it’s very authentic, but I love to finish my rice with some butter. This is a rich rice anyway and I’m sure some of you are thinking the recipe doesn’t need the extra fat and calories, but I think mixing in some butter at the end really puts this recipe over the top. The butter is listed as optional in the recipe, but I cannot recommend it enough as a finishing touch.
