This Mexican Rice Recipe delivers huge flavor with minimal effort—just toss it all in a dish and bake!
Great as a side dish or stuffed into tacos, burritos, and your other favorites.
Why You’ll Love This Mexican Rice Recipe
- A Kitchen Staple: Sure to be a go-to in your kitchen, it’s the perfect pairing for your favorite Mexican dishes.
- Always Ready: We divide batches to keep in the fridge and freezer so it’s always ready to pop in any meal.
- Highly Versatile: Perfect as a side dish or mixed into burritos, tacos, and more.
- Easy & Quick: Designed for minimal hands-on time, it’s quick to prepare.
- Inspired Flavors: This baked recipe captures the flavors we enjoyed on our recent trip to Mexico, despite its non-traditional preparation.
Mexican Rice Recipe Ingredients
- Rice: Rinse the long-grain rice to remove extra starch for fluffier rice.
- Chicken Stock: Use low-sodium broth to control saltiness.
- Tomato Paste and Diced Tomatoes: Intensifies tomato flavor. For extra flavor use fire-roasted diced tomatoes.
- Mild Green Chiles: For more heat, you can use hot instead.
- Seasoning: You can scale up or scale down any spice based on personal preference. If your chicken stock is salty scale back the salt.
- Unsalted Butter: Cut it into tablespoon size pieces.
How To Make Mexican Rice
- Prep: Preheat your oven to 400°F and grease a 9×13-inch baking dish. Greasing the dish prevents the rice from sticking and makes cleanup easier.
- Mix Ingredients: In the dish, combine all the ingredients besides the butter. Mix well. Mixing all the ingredients together makes sure the rice absorbs all the flavors evenly.
- Add Butter: Place slices of butter on top of the mixture. Spreading the butter evenly helps to spread the rich flavor throughout the dish.
- Bake Covered: Covering with foil helps trap steam, making sure the rice cooks evenly and stays moist.
- Bake Uncovered: Baking uncovered for the last few minutes adds a nice, slightly crispy texture to the rice.
- Rest: Letting the rice rest helps it to finish cooking and absorb any remaining liquid, making it fluffier.
- Finish and Serve: Fluff the rice with a fork, add fresh cilantro and a squeeze of lime if desired, and adjust the seasoning if needed. Fluffing with a fork prevents the rice from becoming mushy and keeps the grains separate.
How To Serve This Mexican Rice
- With Protein: Combine with taco chicken, beans, or corn. Pop leftover chicken on top during resting period to warm through.
- With Favorites: Great with enchiladas, burritos, tacos, fajitas, or stuffed/unstuffed peppers
- Burrito: Mix rice, corn, beans, and chicken in tortillas; brown in skillet. Serve with guacamole, sour cream, salsa.
- Taco: Add rice, corn, beans, and chicken to tortillas; top with cheese, guacamole, sour cream.
- Bowl/Salad: Layer rice with protein, cheese, lettuce, and toppings. Add sour cream, guacamole, or avocado, and cilantro-lime sauce.
Storage
Storing Mexican Rice
- Fridge: Cool completely, store in an airtight container for 5 days. Reheat with a bit of water or stock.
- Freeze: Cool, portion into freezer bags (2 cups each), label, and freeze up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in fridge. Reheat in microwave with 1-2 tablespoons water or on stovetop until warm.
More Mexican-Inspired Favorites:
- Bean and Cheese Burritos
- Mexican Chickpeas
- Mexican Street Corn Chicken Salad
- Chicken Tinga Tacos
- Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas
Mexican Rice Recipe
This Mexican Rice Recipe is deeply savory with a hint of spice and a ton of flavor! Good news -- it couldn't be easier to make!This rice does have some heat, but you can make it milder by omitting the chilis and reducing the chili powder.This is our favorite baking dish for this recipe!
Equipment
- 9x13-inch baking dish (ceramic, not metal)
Ingredients
Rice
- 1-1/2 cups uncooked long-grain white rice (Note 1)
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 can (14 oz) diced (or crushed) tomatoes, undrained
- 3 tablespoons mild diced green chiles, well drained
- 2 teaspoons chili powder (Note 2)
- 1 teaspoon each: ground cumin, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- Salt & pepper (recommend: 1-1/4 tsp salt & 1/2 tsp pepper)
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, sliced into 6 pieces
Optional Additions
- Fresh cilantro, fresh lime
- Serve this rice a main course -- See Note 3
Instructions
- PREP: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Very generously spray a ceramic or glass (not metal) 9x13-inch pan. Cut butter into 6 thin slices and set aside.
- COMBINE: Right in the dish, combine all the ingredients listed under "Rice" except butter. Mix well. If desired add a few full sprigs of cilantro on top.
- BAKE: Add cut pieces of butter evenly on top of the dish. Seal tightly with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil & continue baking for 15 minutes.
- REST: Remove from the oven. After baking, immediately cover again and let it rest for 10 minutes without stirring. (I know, it looks like it didn't work out!) Remove foil. Remove sprigs of cilantro and discard.
- ENJOY: Optionally, add chopped cilantro and lime juice to taste; fluff rice with a fork. Adjust seasoning if needed.
Video
Recipe Notes
Note 1: Rice: Long-grain white OR basmati rice. Other varieties won't work the same.
Note 2: Chili powder: Be sure to use chili powder — not to be confused with chilli powder which is very hot.
Note 3: Make into a main course: We love adding a can of black beans and 1 cup of frozen corn. Use this mix, along with cheddar cheese, to fill tortillas, creating tacos, burritos, or quesadillas. Brown on the stovetop and serve with sour cream, salsa, and guacamole!
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 198kcal | Carbohydrates: 31.3g | Protein: 3.6g | Fat: 6.5g | Cholesterol: 16.5mg | Sodium: 617.3mg | Fiber: 1.3g | Sugar: 1.8g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I loved this rice recipe and its mouthwatering aroma.
Yay! So thrilled to hear this! Thanks Lucia! 🙂