Mexican Rice Restaurant Style

Name: Mexican Rice Restaurant Style
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 3 cups, 4-6 serving(s)
Ingredients: 2 cups long grain white rice, rinsed; 1/3 cup canola oil; 3/4 cup yellow onion, diced; 2 teaspoons garlic, minced; 2 cups chicken broth; 1 tablespoon tomato paste; 2 tablespoons mild green chilies, canned; 1/2 teaspoon table salt; 1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes, with liquid; 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Submitted by Wheres_the_Beef

"This recipe makes a dry, fluffy, orange/yellow, restaurant style, Mexican rice. It's important to rinse the rice prior to cooking in order to achieve the dry, fluffy, restaurant style Mexican Rice."

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photo by Wheres_the_Beef

Ready In:: 45mins
Ingredients:: 10
Yields:: 3 cups
Serves:: 4-6

ingredients

2 cups long grain white rice, rinsed
¹⁄₃ cup canola oil
³⁄₄ cup yellow onion, diced
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
2 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons mild green chilies, canned
¹⁄₂ teaspoon table salt
1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes, with liquid
¹⁄₂ cup fresh cilantro, chopped

directions

Preheat oven to 350-F. - Bake 30 minutes total, stirring after 15 minutes.
Place rice in strainer and rinse under running water until it runs clear. About 2-minutes. This is important to create a dry, non-sticky restaurant style rice.
Drain rice, making sure to shake out as much water as possible.
Heat canola oil to medium high in a dutch oven (3qt to 6qt) on the stove top. Drop a few rice grains in the oil. When they sizzle, add all remaining rice. Stir constantly and fry rice until it is light golden and translucent, about 6-8 minutes.
Add onions and stir into rice. Cook while stirring about 2 more minutes. Add garlic and stir for another minute.
Stir in chicken broth, tomato paste, green chilies and diced tomatoes. Stir well and bring to a boil.
When rice reaches a boil, place lid on dutch oven and place in 350-F preheated oven. Bake 15-minutes then open oven and stir well. Replace dutch oven lid and bake another 15 to 20-minutes until done.
Remove from oven and stir in chopped cilantro. Cover and allow to rest about 5 minutes before serving to allow cilantro flavor to be absorbed by the rice.

Questions & Replies

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Reviews

This is the closest restaurant style rice I have found! My favorite so far!

drkpriestess
WOW!! This has the same consistency and taste as the restaurants do. I've been looking for it for years. It's wonderful, but I added an extra teaspoon of salt to help bring out the flavor. Thank you!

lakerchick8888
These things are all pretty subjective, but I would agree with those who made this recipe and found it to be the best. There are some pretty awful ones online, including one I found that was loaded with cheese! AAAGH! Like rothill's and drkpriestess's reviews, this is now my go-to recipe for exceptional Mexican rice, and I make it about every 4-6 weeks. My wife loves it as well. My only tweak is to use fresh green chiles, and I use four teaspoons of garlic (for my tastes), but that isn't necessary. It tastes just fine with canned chiles and 2 tsp of garlic. If it turns out to be too wet for your tastes, you might want to bake it a little longer than directed here. :) Thanks for your contribution, Wheres_the_beef.

gmburt59
Followed this recipe perfectly other than cutting down on the amount of olive oil. I rinsed my rice 4 or 5 minutes until it ran clear. I cooked it in my dutch oven as directed, but it turned out very mushy. The general flavor was just okay and the taste of tomatoes was much stronger than I've ever had in Mexican rice. For my taste it isn't worth tweeking, I'm tossing it out. I'm so happy that I tried it out the day before I was planning on bringing it to a Mexican potluck.

elizabeth.bishop
Good flavor but did not turn out dry and fluffy like the restaurant.

don544