Mexican Rice Restaurant Style
This recipe makes a dry, fluffy style, Mexican rice that
is served as a side dish at Mexican restaurants. This involves
rinsing the rice, frying on the stovetop and then baking in
the oven.
We love this recipe and always make it as a side dish with Mexican food.
2 cups long grain white rice (Comet, Uncle Ben’s, etc.), uncooked, rinsed for 2 minutes
1/3 cup canola oil
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
4 Tbsp dried onion flakes
2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp table salt or to taste (depending on how salty the chicken broth is)
2 or 3 Tbsp ketchup
1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chiles (Rotel, etc), with liquid
Preheat oven to 350-F. - Baking time 30 minutes total, stirring after 15 minutes.
Place uncooked rice in a strainer and rinse under running water until it runs clear. Rinse about 2-minutes. This is to remove as much starch as possible. This is important to create a dry, fluffy, non-sticky Mexican restaurant style rice.
Drain rice, making sure to shake out as much water as possible.
Heat canola oil on medium high heat in an enameled, cast iron, dutch oven (3-qt to 6-qt size) on the stove top. Drop a few rice grains in the oil, when hot. When they sizzle, add all remaining rice. Stir constantly and fry rice until it is light golden brown and slightly translucent, about 6 to 8 minutes.
In another saucepan, combine the chicken broth, onion flakes, garlic powder, ground cumin, dried parsley, salt, ketchup and canned tomatoes with chiles and its liquid. Cook over medium heat until boiling. Reduce to a simmer and keep warm until needed.
When the rice, in dutch oven, is light golden brown, stir in from the saucepan, the chicken broth / spice / tomato & chile mixture. Stir well and bring to a boil in the dutch oven.
When rice in dutch oven reaches a boil, place lid on dutch oven and place in a 350-degrees F preheated oven.
Bake 15-minutes then open dutch oven and stir well. Replace dutch oven lid and bake another 15 to 20-minutes until done.
Remove from oven and stir well. Cover and allow to rest about 5 minutes before serving.
Makes about 4-cups of rice.
That sounds really good, I’m going to have to try that method. I can’t seem to get the seasoning or texture right, but I can make some that tastes really good.
I love adding pigeon peas to my recipe, but when we moved, I haven’t been able to find them at the stores around here. I will have to try finding them online.