Mexican Rice
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<Restaurant-style Mexican rice made right at home! The best side dish for tacos, burritos, enchiladas + so much more. So good!
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This Mexican rice has been our go-to side dish again and again in our house. It’s been tested, perfected, and made at least a hundred times since 2014 when this recipe was first posted. HUNDREDS, I tell you.
why i love this recipe
- One pot meal. A true one pot meal, the rice soaks up all the flavors of the tomato-infused broth with cumin and chili powder for that extra kick of flavor. Not to mention, one pot means less dishes, less clean up!
- Clean out the fridge meal. This is a great recipe to throw in any lingering veggies that need to be used up ASAP.
- Pairs well with many dishes. Mexican rice can be served alongside so many dishes, pairing well with chicken, seafood, carne asada, enchiladas, tacos and burritos to name a few.
- Freezer-friendly. This recipe is very freezer-friendly and can be kept for 3 months, making it great for meal prep.
You can serve as is or alongside some tacos or enchiladas. Personally, I love it as a main dish, digging my way in with my favorite tortilla chips.
tips and tricks for success
- Rinse the rice prior to using. Using a fine mesh strainer, rinse the rice under cold water to remove any excess starch.
- Toast the rice. Toasting the rice beforehand will add a nutty richness to the rice. Watch out for burnt grains.
- Make it vegetarian. Vegetable broth can be used for the chicken broth.
- Gently fluff. Fluff the rice using a fork to gently separate the grains without breaking them, never stirring. Stirring will lead to mushy rice.
Tools For This Recipe
Large cast iron skillet
Mexican Rice: Frequently Asked Questions
Tomato sauce, in the US, is tomato puree typically cooked down for a thick, smooth consistency with a relatively sweet flavor. Passata is simply uncooked tomato purée. You can use passata in place of tomato sauce, but it is not a completely equal substitute.
You can substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth.
You can omit the cilantro altogether or substitute parsley.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop or microwave, adding a splash of broth or water as needed.
Mexican Rice
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 ½ cups basmati rice
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth
- 1 cup corn kernels
- ½ cup diced carrots
- ½ cup frozen peas
- ¼ teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 Roma tomatoes, diced
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in rice until toasted, about 2 minutes.
- Stir in tomato sauce and vegetable broth, and bring to a simmer, about 2 minutes.
- Stir in corn, carrots, peas, chili powder and cumin; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer until rice is cooked through, about 13-16 minutes.
- Stir in tomatoes until heated through, about 1-2 minutes.
- Serve immediately, garnished with cilantro, if desired.
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Very tasty
But I agree, unless you get instant rice it takes mine like an hour to cook and alot more liquid.
Very good but takes much longer to cook until rice is tender. I added bell pepper and some cooked crumbled sausage for a complete meal. I also stirred in an envelope of Old El Paso Fajita dry seasoning. Some finely diced jalapeño would be yummy but my husband does not like things too spicy. I added more broth and finished it up in the oven at 275 covered 15 minutes, uncovered 15 minutes
Loved this. One question what do you mean by tomato sauce? I’m in Australia and tomato sauce for us is more like American ketchup. Is it crushed tomatoes? Well, that’s what I substituted and it worked well.
It’s spaghetti or pasta sauce without any spices added, just tomatoes and salt. In the US it comes in a small can. The smooth kind of tomato sauce with no tomato chucks.
Pesata or blend a tin plum tomatoes
Does a tin of plum tomatoes work the same. Where I live I have to get passata from a foreign shop so a bit pricey. Do you add anything to the plum tomatoes? Thanks
In coles you can find out called “pasata” in the isle with all the tinned tomato and pasta sauces
Just 1 question. How large an onion? Maybe a volume would be better.
Excellent recipe, very satisfying results.
Very tasty.
However apparently I bought rice that had to cook for 40 min, so it was still hard at 16 minutes. I had to add in many more cups of broth to accommodate this.
So be sure to check your rice package before making this.
Turned out beautifully but not enough chili powder, garlic nor comino for us. We’ll make modifications when we make it in the future so that it will more align with our Texas taste buds. Thank you for such a well done recipe that prints on ONE page!
I’m excited to find this site.
Overall a good recipe, but not enough liquid or seasonings for Texas style flavor and consistency. I also nix the vegetables- no need to add all the extras to a traditional dish.
So good! I added more broth and a tad less rice, used a little butter with the olive oil to cook the rice, also jalapeños, tajin seasoning and left over taco night beans and seasoned fake beef. Excellent!
Great recipe! I use it all the time as a base for burrito bowls and burritos. I however use long grain brown rice and canned diced tomatoes. It takes a lot longer (an hour or so) but a lot healthier. Such a good dish!
Love your Mexican rice recipe! I think it’s better than what my Tias made. I also recommended it to my daughter.
This is a very tasty recipe but even though I followed exactly the directions it doesn’t include nearly enough liquid 1 and 1/2 cups of the rice should take twice that much liquid and the recipe only calls for a cup and a half of Veggie broth and cup of tomato sauce. I just kept adding veggie broth until the rice was completely cooked
I am so happy I found this recipe, I will try and make it next time with all the ingredients…..I used just the tomato sauce, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder with some salt and chicken broth…added corn and it was amazing….got picky ones that are texture particular and they loved it….happy mom♥️♥️♥️
Tasty and easy recipe but needed to add more liquid at the end and cook longer.
I liked it and the recipe is easy to follow. I also added more water at the end to cook the rice. I had to substitute the tomato sauce for tomato paste mixed with water and the sauce was too thick. So, no big deal adding more water. I also substituted the spices for taco seasoning I had in my pantry. I used the rest of the package of taco seasoning to flavor up some left over baked chicken. And, then served the chicken on top of the rice.
This is a nice and easy weekday dinner recipe with leftover cooked chicken.
Turned out great! Super flavorful. I used 1 cup of rice instead and put it in the rice cooker. Thanks for the recipe!
Loved this! Like others, we needed to put a lot more liquid than the recipe said .. but it was really tasty!
Does it work with Jasmine rice ? Thx
I’m not a great cook, but I found this recipe to be easy to follow and full of flavor. Thank you for another great addition to our dinner rotation!
Yummy! Right amount of liquid for tender rice. A visiting baby really enjoyed – the parents were amazed and took the recipe home. Thank you for sharing.
This works like a charm! I’ve made it a couple of times and it’s worked and tasted great. I let it come up to a boil and pop it in a 350 oven for 20 minutes or so. I think I’ll try it minus the chili powder & cumin but with cajun spice for Jambalaya.