Mexican Rice
This simple and flavorful Mexican rice comes together in no time, tastes fantastic, and pairs with countless Mexican dishes.
Seemingly simple, I’ve been on the search for a quick and easy Mexican rice dish to serve with fajitas, tacos, and other zesty Mexican-inspired dishes for a long time.
This is the one.
It comes together in no time which makes me thrilled since I can’t bring myself to spend hours on a side dish. And it tastes fantastic – subtle tomato and garlic flavor with the warm spices of cumin and the fresh bite of cilantro and lime.
Since stumbling upon this recipe, I’ve served it several times to rave reviews. Paired with cornbread and these fajitas or these fantastic chipotle chicken tacos, it makes a completely perfect meal.
Mexican rice – I’m so glad I found you.
I’ll be making you for forever.
Mexican Rice
Ingredients
- 1 cup long grain white rice
- 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon lime juice, from about 1 lime
- ½ cup freshly chopped cilantro
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- In a medium-sized pot, add rice and chicken broth. Bring to a boil over high heat. Stir. Cover the pot, lower the heat to low and simmer for 17-20 minutes.
- Remove from heat and keep the pot covered for 5 more minutes.
- While the rice is cooking, heat the olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cook the onions in the hot oil for 10 minutes, until translucent and starting to brown. Add the garlic to the skillet and cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Stir in the tomato paste and cumin and cook for another minute or two. Mix in hot, cooked rice, lime juice and cilantro. Mix until well combined. Season to taste with salt. Serve immediately.
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Recipe Source: adapted slightly from Homesick Texan
Can you cook it all at one and let the rice boil in the flavor?
It burns a lot easier if cooking it all together, but you can experiment, adjust and try it if you’d like that variation.
My family is oddly picky about seasoned rice but they loved this one and ate it all!
Forgot to say that I had to make it in the morning and refrigerate it before we could eat it. I heated it back up in the microwave and it turned out great!
My family loved this recipe! Super easy to make!
*to make the rice less sticky, rinse the rice until the water runs clear. It may take 2 or 3 rinses. Then soak the rice for 20 mins before cooking. Just drain when ready to cook with it.
Thank you! Mine was exceptionally sticky. Will try your method next time.
Looks good! Can you make ahead of time?
How far ahead are you wanting to make it?
This recipe was super easy to follow and create and it waa delicious!! You made me look good Mel! Thanks!
My family felt this was way too tart for Mexican rice. It was also very sticky. I followed the exact recipe but we were disappointed.
Do you think you could throw all of this in the insta pot?!?!?
Certainly worth a try!
Love how easy and flavorful this is!
Is there a rice cooker version of this?
I took a chance and made it in my rice cooker. When it finished there were a few black parts on the bottom, but nothing too bad. I’ll definitely make it this way again, it tasted great and I’m lazy!
This my first time making this, and it turned out wonderful! Because it is homemade and not restaurant i know what im eating. The dish is moist and delicious, im saving this to my Pinterest
I made this last night but was not happy with the consistency. Is it normally sort of clumpy? Not at all like what you get in the restaurant. I followed it too a T.
You looking for basic restaurant quality or homemade quality?
I would imagine these to be two different goals. I haven’t tried this myself yet, but I figure it all boils down to personal preference; and I look forward to tasting this side myself. It’s helpful to know your difference of opinion.
So good! So much flavor for a rice dish! But onions always seem to cook to fast for me…five minutes in and they were starting to burn which put me in a rush to get all the other ingredients in there while it was till salvageable. What am I doing wrong?
Turn down the heat if its cooking too fast for you.
Hi Mel I want to make your mexican rice dish but we don’t like cumin, any suggestions what other spice we could use?
You could probably just leave it out.
Cumin is a staple Mexican seasoning 🙁 Hard to imagine a Mexican dish without it.
This was delicious! We paired it with your chicken fajitas for a lovely midweek meal- it felt more like a treat than a midweek dinner. Thank you once again for rescuing dinner at our house! ❤
I use chicken broth in every rice I make either that or beef broth and I use a rice cooker. used to swear I would never use one but now that I have one I would not be without it. they make rice so much nicer then you can in a pan and the best part is that you add your ingredients and walk away . it will cook and then go down to warm it is fantastic.
Totally! I’m about to try it in my rice cooker. It makes it so much easier and cooks it perfectly!
I love this recipe! Easy to make and tasty! I would like to link this recipe with the Mexican Template menu on my web-app Getbread which is created to organize Potluck event. Let me know what do you think 🙂
Silly question, I’m just stressing about serving dinner tonight to visiting in laws and your mexican rice sounds great. Do you think I could pair it with a chicken dish that has bite size chicken sauteed with onions, peppers, chicken broth, seasoned salt, pepper, garlic and crushed red pepper? I know my chicken dish isn’t really a mexican dish but I thought this may be better than plain rice.
I think that would work great!
Hi Mel! I made this rice last night – followed directions exactly and it turned out very sticky and gummy. Flavor was good, so I’d like to try it again. Any ideas as to what went wrong? Thanks for your insight!
Hi Stephanie – you might try decreasing the liquid just a bit – that may help.
I would suggest rinsing your rice thoroughly to rid of excess starches. When rice hits the boiling water, the starch blooms and gets sticky. As the water is absorbed, and the rice grains get closer and closer together, they will begin to stick to one anther and form large clumps.
Delish! I made this tonight for taco night and it turned out perfect! I’m from Texas originally and this definitely reminds me of some of my favorite Tex-Mex! I could just eat this by it self and forego the tacos. I didn’t have a lime, but I read online that I could sub some form of vinegar, and so I just threw in a tablespoon of jarred jalapeno juice (that has vinegar, right?) 🙂 Thanks again!
Mel my family & I love your recipes! Could I substitute the cilantro for a can of corn ?
Jessica – I’ve never tried it but it’s definitely worth a try!