Spanish Rice

I hope everyone enjoyed day 1 of our two day Mexican food series! You can see the recipe for day 1 here. Today, as promised, we will be making Spanish rice. This stuff is easy to make and tastes awesome! Trust me, you will never buy those packages of rice again! This recipe is adapted from All Recipes.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. Olive oil
1/2 of an onion, diced (use the whole onion if you LOVE onions like me)
1 1/2 cups uncooked jasmine rice (**see tip below)
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup chunky salsa

TIP: You can really use white or brown or jasmine rice... I just ALWAYS use jasmine rice for everything because it tastes so much better. Seriously, if you have never tried it, you are missing out.

 

To start out, place your olive oil in a large pan (your rice will expand so make sure you have room for this!) and heat on medium. Add in your onions and saute until tender (they start to look slightly translucent). This should take about 5 minutes or so. Here is what mine looked like:

 

Before:

After:

 

Next, add your rice into the pan and saute it just like you did the onions. Do this until your rice starts to turn a slightly translucent whitish color and starts to brown some (the browning is very slight). Here is a picture of mine:

 

 

Next add in your chicken broth and your chunky salsa and stir together. Don't let the fact that there is a lot of liquid scare you, the rice will absorb it all. Here is what your rice should look like after you add the liquids:

 

 

Turn your burner down to low, cover your pan (this is the most important step!) and let your rice simmer for 20-25 minutes. If you notice, this rice has the same cooking time as the enchiladas we made yesterday... they go together like pb & j! Once your rice is done simmering, stir it and try to contain yourself from eating it all at once... or don't! ;) Here is what your final product looks like:

 

 

Here is the rice paired with yesterday's enchiladas, refried beans, & guacamole.

 

 

Happy Cooking

& Enjoy!