Spanish Rice is such an easy simple recipe, over the years It’s become one of my regular go-to side dishes.
This Spanish Rice is the best side for any Mexican meal. My kids love Spanish rice and will eat it with anything. You can pair it with chicken, steak, tacos, burritos or enchiladas. The sky’s the limit when it comes to this tasty flavorful rice.
I’ll let you in on a little secret…… for year’s I was horrible at cooking rice. You all, I just couldn’t get it together. Here I was cooking every type of meal you could imagine but I could NOT cook rice to save my life! Sad, I know. It’s rice! My rice was either to sticky, crunchy or burnt! It was just one of those things I never took the time to master. Even crazier, when I was growing up I had rice with every meal and when I say EVERY meal I mean every meal. My mother would make a side of rice to eat with our dinner on a regular so you would think that would have helped. Nope……..
So years later when I was pregnant with my second son. I owned a daycare. Yes….. that endeavor was a true test of my patients ( because I had none) lol. Even so, I had some wonderful daycare parents and one imparticular gave me a 10min hands-on crash course on how to cook Spanish rice. It was so simple and easy. From that day on I’ve never looked back. Now, I cook rice all the time. Spanish rice, rice pilaf, white rice, brown rice, dirty rice! Yes, I’m a pro rice cooker if that’s a thing? Thank you Marleen!
This Spanish Rice Recipe begins with heating about 1/4 cup oil over medium heat in a heavy bottomed pan. Add two cups of rice making sure the rice is coated evenly with oil. Next, add in your onions and garlic. You want to Stir the rice continuously until the rice becomes golden brown in color.
From white in color:
To golden brown in color:
Once your rice has reached this golden brown color it’s time to pour in your liquid and tomato sauce and spices. Once all ingredients are combined let the mixture come to a slight boil until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the rice. Cover your pot with a lid and turn the heat down to Low.
Cook the rice covered and on Low heat for 20-25mins. Remove from heat. Fluff with a fork and serve!
Quick tip: I also make this Spanish rice in an even simpler form all the directions are the same but instead of adding the individual spices listed, I add 1/4 cup of Knorr Tomato Bouillon along with 1 4oz can of tomato sauce. This addition still results in fluffy flavorful rice. Thanks for the tip Raycee!
