Mexican Rice

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.

Mexican Rice

4 from 2 votes

Recipe by Carmen Course: Sides

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

Ingredients

• 1 cup White rice, long-grain

• 2 cups Chicken stock

• 1 8 oz can Tomato sauce

• 1/4 Onion, peeled

• 2 tablespoons Vegetable or canola oil

• 1 Jalapeño

• 2 tablespoons Butter (optional)

• 1 tablespoon Chicken bouillon powder (or tomato bouillon with chicken flavor powder)

• 1 teaspoon Garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon Salt

• 1/2 teaspoon Cumin

Directions

• Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-low to medium heat. Add rice to pot and cook in oil until it turns translucent, 1-2 minutes.
• Add chicken stock, tomato sauce, quarter onion (just peel, don’t chop), jalapeño (whole, stem and all), bouillon powder, garlic powder, salt, and cumin. Stir briefly, scraping bottom of pot. Do not stir again. Raise heat to high until liquid boils.
• Once liquid boils, reduce heat to lowest setting. Cover pot. Let sit 20-25 minutes or until rice is cooked. Remove quarter onion and jalapeño and stir 2 tablespoons butter (optional) into rice. Serve.

Notes

• White Basmati or Jasmine rice can be used as substitute for white long-grain rice. Use package directions for cooking time. Brown or wild rice are not recommended for this recipe.
• For a spicier version use a spicy tomato sauce like those with jalapeño or chiles.
• Jalapeño can be substituted with other hot chile, according to your preference whether milder like Anaheim chiles or Poblano chiles, or hotter like Serrano chiles.
• Any variety of onion may be used. Recommend yellow or white.
• Any sort of chicken bouillon or soup base can be used as substitute for bouillon granules in equivalent amount. If using bouillon cubes, recommend soaking in hot water until bouillon melts and incorporates into water.
• Water may be used as substitute for chicken stock or chicken broth. Consider adding more bouillon powder to make up for loss of flavor.

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.