Mexican Restaurant-Style Rice

A simple recipe with just a few ingredients just like the rice at our favorite Mexican restaurant and a perfect side dish to serve at home with your favorite Mexican recipes!

JUMP TO RECIPE

My family LOVES to eat at our local Mexican restaurant. They will choose going there (or getting take-out in these Covid days) over any other restaurant 9 out of 10 times. And the thing that every single one of us makes sure to order each time?

The rice.

I don’t even know what you should call it. It’s not Spanish Rice. And for some reason I feel odd calling it 'Mexican Rice'. Maybe because I think we only call it that because Mexican restaurants here in America all pretty-much make it.

I bet if you went to Mexico and ordered 'Mexican Rice' they’d be like… que? 

I’ve put a lot of thought and effort into coming up with this recipe. My family will eagerly tell you about all the failed attempts I made to get to this one best version. Baby Boy is such a Mexican rice connoisseur and down-right snob about it, he won’t even bother to taste it if it’s doesn’t “look right”. 

I knew I was on to something when I set the first batch of this on the table and they all made the right noises. There were a lot of mmmmmms and ooooooooos and I noticed they piled hefty servings onto their plates. 

Then Baby Boy took a bite and said THIS IS IT and I literally got up and danced a little jig! Seriously, this one perfect recipe is the result of at least 20 batches that didn’t hit the mark, so this was a big deal for me!

I don’t care for the random frozen vegetables you find in the rice at some restaurants. And Husband REALLY doesn’t like it so I never considered using them. Also, I can’t imagine frozen English peas and carrot cubes get used too much in authentic Mexican rice dishes. 

I personally like finely diced sautéed onions in this but the fam says it’s a no-go so I don’t cook it that way. Plus, then it really does start to lean toward Spanish rice. 

My Mexican Rice is a very simple dish with only a few ingredients, but I think two things really give it that little je ne sais quoi (sorry, I don’t know the Spanish equivalent to that phrase or I would try to be clever here): sautéing the rice and the use of olive oil.

Sautéing the rice really develops the flavor and brings out an almost nuttiness to it. I think (though I could be wrong because I have nothing to back this up with) by browning it a bit, the rice grains hold their shape better and have a better texture in the finished dish.

I’ve sautéed the rice in butter, canola oil and olive oil and the rice done with olive oil is hands-down the best. Now, that being said, I buy the mildest olive oil available because I love to cook with it a lot and don’t want to overpower the flavors of the dish with a super-strong olive oil. I’ll mention this in the recipe notes but if your olive oil is strongly flavored, consider using half olive oil and half butter or canola oil.

Speaking of olive oil… there is a little shop here in Lexington, SC called The Classy Cruet that specializes in it. I popped in there one day to kill some time while Baby Girl was finishing up at the shop next door and legit fell in love. With olive oil. Crazy, right??

There is so much I didn’t know about olive oil. Well, I mean, I knew enough to know the $5.99 bottle at TJ Maxx is usually crappy and that extra virgin has a low smoke point but that’s about it. I tended not to cook a lot of dishes with it (other than Italian) because most that I’d used over the years were very strong and not always complimentary to what I was cooking.

I asked if there was a very mild flavored olive oil (because they were so nice and I kinda felt like I should buy something after wandering around so long 😬). Thirty minutes and two shopping bags full later, I was armed with Arbequina Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a whole bunch of other stuff (highly recommend the garlic infused olive oil – major time saver when I don’t want to peel and chop fresh garlic and amazing to brush steaks with before grilling).

The Arbequina is one of their mild olive oils and the one that I use in this recipe (selection varies depending on olive harvest times – I hear the Picual is good too). I just popped over to The Classy Cruet website and see that they ship! Y’all should treat yourself to some good olive oil! These gals know their stuff and I must say, I am genuinely in love with this Arbequina. 

NOTES ABOUT MAKING MEXICAN RESTAURANT-STYLE RICE 

• When I have it, I use taco sauce instead of tomato sauce. I save the pouches that come in taco kits for this precise reason and sometimes I luck up and find a bottle of it at the grocery store. Each works perfectly fine and there isn’t a huge amount either way, but I do like the little something-something the rice gets from the taco sauce (I’m talking about the Old El Paso or Ortega stuff – nothing fancy or thick).
• I have not tried this with salsa or rotel so I can’t tell you if they would be good substitutes for the tomato sauce or taco sauce.
• Use a mild flavored olive oil (see above). If your olive oil is pretty strong (meaning when you cook with it you can really taste and smell it), consider using half olive oil and half butter or canola oil.
• You can substitute butter or another vegetable oil for the olive oil but I’ve found that olive oil really makes the rice taste like it does at our favorite Mexican restaurant.
• Be sure not to break the grains of rice when sautéing it – I usually use a rubber spatula to move the rice around the bottom of the pan.
• The best advice I can give you about cooking rice is to 1) use precise measurements, 2) leave it alone as much as possible and 3) only use a fork to stir it. You’ll need to stir it occasionally to ensure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan but don’t overwork the rice.

Recipe for Mexican Restaurant-Style Rice

Mexican Restaurant-Style Rice

Yield: 8 Servings

Author: Mandy Rivers | South Your Mouth

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 20 MinTotal time: 30 Min

A simple recipe with just a few ingredients just like the rice at our favorite Mexican restaurant and a perfect side dish to serve at home with your favorite Mexican recipes!

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 cups extra long-grain rice
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce or taco sauce (see notes)
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

1. Heat olive oil in a shallow 3-quart saucepan (or medium skillet with tight-fitting lid) over medium heat. Add rice then gently sauté for about 5 minutes or until rice is slightly browned and fragrant.
2. Add garlic then continue cooking for 2 minutes.
3. Add tomato sauce or taco sauce, chicken broth, salt and pepper then stir well. Bring to a gentle boil then cover with a tight-fitting lid, reduce heat to low or medium-low (wherever your dial gives you a gentle simmer) then cook for 20 minutes.
4. Stir rice occasionally with a fork to ensure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan but don’t overwork the rice. Don’t stir the rice or open the lid the last 5 minutes of cooking.
5. Remove from heat then let rice rest, covered, for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork then serve.

Notes

• When I have it, I use taco sauce instead of tomato sauce. I save the pouches that come in taco kits for this precise reason and sometimes I luck up and find a bottle of it at the grocery store. Each works perfectly fine and there isn’t a huge amount either way, but I do like the little something-something the rice gets from the taco sauce (I’m talking about the Old El Paso or Ortega stuff – nothing fancy or thick).
• I have not tried this with salsa or rotel so I can’t tell you if they would be good substitutes for the tomato sauce or taco sauce.
• Use a mild flavored olive oil. If your olive oil is pretty strong (meaning when you cook with it you can really taste and smell it), consider using half olive oil and half butter or canola oil.
• You can substitute butter or another vegetable oil for the olive oil but I’ve found that olive oil really makes the rice taste like it does at our favorite Mexican restaurant. 

Nutrition Facts

Calories

123.45

Fat

7.16 g

Sat. Fat

0.98 g

Carbs

12.78 g

Fiber

0.34 g

Net carbs

12.44 g

Protein

2.08 g

Sodium

763.42 mg

https://www.southyourmouth.com/2021/03/mexican-restaurant-style-rice.html

Images and text © South Your Mouth LLC 2021

mexican, restaurant, style, rice, take out, easy, simple, quick, olive oil, taco sauce, how to, best, tex-mex, san jose

side dishes, rice

mexican

Keep up with my latest shenanigans by following South Your Mouth!

FACEBOOK | PINTEREST | INSTAGRAM

EMAIL LIST | TWITTER