Quick Spanish Rice (Mexican Rice)

This homemade Spanish rice is a really delicious quick and easy side dish that anyone can make with a few simple ingredients. We make this easy Spanish rice a lot because it tastes so amazing and it is so easy to make. You can use salsa for the base Spanish flavors in this recipe or if you have more time, chop your own ingredients. Either way, it will be delicious. This simple Spanish rice( Mexican rice) can be used as a side dish, as a filling for brisket tacos, rice and bean burritos or served with seasoned black beans for a complete meal. You really need to give this recipe a try!

Why you will love this Quick Spanish rice

This simple Spanish rice is so full flavor and so quick to make. It makes the best side dish to so many meals. It is one of our favorite side dishes for pulled pork and Mexican Barbacoa.

Spanish rice (or Mexican rice) is a style of rice that is made with a few delicious ingredients (tomatoes, garlic and onion usually) that are added to the rice before it is cooked to add flavor and texture. This homemade Spanish rice takes just a few extra minutes longer to make than regular rice and it has so much flavor.

One thing I have learned living here in Texas is that one of the keys to making the best Spanish rice is to make sure you toast the rice first which really imparts a beautiful nutty flavor in the rice.

Almost all Spanish cultures toast their rice before adding the liquids. If you are not familiar with toasting rice, I will show you how easy it is to do below.

Ingredients needed

When making this quick Spanish rice, I really love chopping and dicing my tomatoes and garlic for the base flavor in the rice. You can also use salsa in place of these ingredients to make this recipe even faster.

Here is what you will need:

• Basmati rice. I prefer using basmati rice when making Spanish rice because it is the least starchy rice you can buy and that helps lighten up the Spanish rice a lot.
• Tomato. Finely chopped.
• Shallot or small onion. Finely chopped.
• Garlic. Finely chopped.
• Chicken stock. If you do not have chicken stock, you could use a bouillon cube dissolved in water.
• Kosher Salt.
• Olive oil.

You only need a few simple ingredients to make this easy Spanish rice. All of these ingredients can actually be prepped ahead of time and stored in the fridge in a covered container until you are ready to make the recipe.

How to make Spanish rice (Mexican rice) with Salsa

As I mentioned above, to make things even easier, you can use jarred salsa or canned Rotel tomatoes in place of the tomatoes, onions and garlic in this recipe. I will give you these ratios below in the recipe!

Using salsa, pico de gallo or canned seasoned tomatoes like Rotel tomatoes in this recipe is a real time saver in the kitchen and it makes delicious Spanish rice.

How to make Spanish rice (Mexican Rice)

1. Gather and prepare all of the ingredients. This should take only 5 minutes. Having all of the ingredients ready before you start the cooking process just makes cooking that much easier and less stressful.

2. Cook it all up: You are then going to toast the rice until it is lightly browned and then add in the tomatoes and aromatics to cook just a little. This is what gives the Spanish rice its flavor. Once you are done making the base of your Spanish rice, you just add in the stock and cover like you would when making regular rice.

3. Fluff it: Once the Spanish rice is cooked, make sure you fluff it up with a fork before serving. I like to let the rice sit in the pot covered after cooking for 5 minutes to ensure the rice gets nice and fluffy.

If you have time, I highly recommend this.

What to serve with Spanish Rice

This simple Spanish rice recipe makes the perfect addition to so many meals. Our family really enjoys eating it with a side of seasoned pinto beans (recipe coming soon) for a complete meal.

You can also serve this rice with:

• Burritos. This Spanish rice makes a great filling for burritos or a side dish for them.
• Tacos. Again, like the burritos, you can add this rice inside the taco as part of the filling or serve it on the side.
• Serve it with Authentic Texas Chili. This Texas chili is more like a chili con carne so it pairs really well with Spanish rice.
• This goes really well with pulled pork , Cuban ropa vieja, Mexican barbacoa and pulled pork sliders.
• Make a side of my favorite black beans recipe to pair with the rice for a really delicious Spanish meal.
• Texas style borracho beans which is also called drunken beans because it is made with beer. They are so good!
• Make a side of homemade pico de gallo to go over top of the Spanish rice.
• Make a delicious cilantro lime sauce to drizzle over the top.

Tips

This homemade Spanish rice recipe is already really easy to make but you may want to save even more time making it. Here are some ideas:

• You can substitute Rotel canned tomatoes (these are chopped tomatoes that are already seasoned) for the chopped tomato, onion and garlic portion of the recipe.
• Prep the tomatoes, garlic and onion ahead of time and store them in the fridge until you are ready to make the rice.
• Substitute salsa for the chopped ingredients.

More Quick Recipes

If you love this quick Spanish rice recipe, you may also like these:

For more easy Spanish meal ideas:

• Poblano Quesadillas with Poblano Cream
• Authentic Texas Chili
• Southwest Chicken Bowl
• Fajita Tacos
• Chorizo with Peppers and Onions
• Easy Homemade Pico de Gallo
• Oven Baked Nachos
• Fajitas from Leftovers
• Red Chimichurri
• Easy Chimichurri (classic green chimichurri)
• Poblano Sauce