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Learn the secret to making restaurant-style Mexican Rice at home. It’s always perfect: tender, delicious, never sticky. Whether you are making dinner for the family or feeding 100, this recipe works every time and it tastes exactly the way you want it to!
Meggan’s notes
If you’re craving restaurant-style Mexican Rice at home, this is the perfect tutorial for you. As a classically-trained chef (and the wife of a life-long line cook who was born and raised in Mexico), I’ve made Mexican rice all the possible ways it can be made. I’ve settled on this method for perfect Mexican rice that is easy to make and easy to freeze.
The secret to perfect Mexican rice is to puree fresh tomatoes and onions. Then, follow a standard pilaf-style method where you toast dry rice in oil (this is exactly how they make it in Mexico). Finally, my personal secret is to bake the rice in the oven. You can make it on the stove, too, but I love how easy it is to pop a huge casserole dish full of rice in the oven until it’s fluffy, tender, and oh-so flavorful.
Make a large batch so you have plenty to freeze for future meals. Be sure to cool the rice quickly (I like to spread it out on a rimmed baking sheet), then pack into freeze-safe bags and freeze for a few months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator or defrost in your microwave. I follow this routine religiously so I can easily pull out a tasty, flavorful side dish any night of the week.
Table of Contents
Mexican Rice Recipe Ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
- Tomatoes and onions: So many readers love using their favorite salsa instead of the tomato/onion mixture. You can even use canned tomatoes, Rotel, or a couple cans of El Pato tomato sauce, a zesty tomato and chili purée found at Mexican grocery stores. As long as you have two cups of liquid, you’re good to go.
- Rice: Any long-grain white rice (including Basmati and Jasmine) work well here. To substitute brown rice, add 10 minutes to the baking time.
- Tomato paste: If you don’t want to open a small can of tomato paste, look for a tube at the grocery store. In Mexico cooks use one cube of Consomate brand tomato bouillon instead of tomato paste.
- Cilantro: Or substitute parsley. In truth, no one in Mexico ever does this (but let’s be honest: they would never make rice in the oven, either).
How to Make Easy Mexican Rice
This method starts the rice on the stove, but finishes it off in the oven. You need a heavy Dutch oven or stock pot with a lid that’s oven safe.
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor or blender, puree the tomatoes and onions until smooth. Measure 2 cups of puree, pouring off and discarding any excess.
- In a large Dutch oven or a 3-quart saucepan, heat oil until shimmering. Add the long-grain rice and sauté, stirring frequently, until light golden in color, about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Stir in garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato mixture, broth or water, tomato paste, and salt to taste (I like 1 ½ teaspoons). Simmer and bring to a boil.
- Cover (or transfer to a baking dish and cover) and bake until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed, about 30 minutes. Stir halfway through baking time.
- Fluff rice with a fork. Fold in cilantro or parsley (if using) and season to taste with salt. Serve with lime wedges.
Mexican Rice Recipe Variations
- Yield: This Mexican Rice recipe makes about 6 cups rice, enough for 12 (1/2-cup) servings.
- Jalapeños: If you want, stir in 1-2 minced jalapeños peppers with the fresh garlic. They don’t do this in Mexico, but it adds a great flavor.
- Peas and carrots: Sometimes in Mexico, they add ¼ cup frozen peas and carrots midway through cooking. You can use storebought veggies or homemade peas and carrots.
- Stove-top: You can also make Mexican rice on the stove (that’s what they do in Mexico). After the rice comes to a boil, reduce the heat to the lowest possible temperature on your stove, cover, and cook for another 15 minutes.
- Rice cooker: Follow the steps in the recipe below exactly as written through Step 4. Once you bring the rice to a boil, transfer it to your rice cooker (coated with nonstick spray). Close and seal the rice cooker and cook according to the manufacturer’s instructions. For white rice, it took 33 minutes in mine (nearly the same as the oven) and there was no stirring needed. For brown rice, it takes about 50 to 55 minutes. Find my best Rice Cooker picks here.
- Big batch rice: For enough Mexican Rice to feed 25 people, use an 8-quart stock pot, triple the ingredients, and add 10 minutes to the baking time (40 minutes total).
- Baked white rice: If you love cooking rice in the oven as much as I do, check out my Baked Rice recipe which is even easier than this one. I make batches just to keep in the freezer. It’s great for quick fried rice or side dishes any night of the week.
- Cinco de Mayo: Planning your own Fiesta? Add this to another Mexican Dish! Discover my full menu of Cinco de Mayo recipes including Chicken Fajitas, Carne Asada, Birria, Tacos al Pastor, Chicken Tinga, Strawberry Margaritas, or Copycat Chipotle Burrito Bowls.
How to Store Homemade Mexican Rice
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Can you freeze Mexican Rice?
Spread the cooked rice out on a rimmed baking sheet to have the rice cool it quickly. Then, scoop it into a freezer bag. Then, when you need a quick side dish, just pull a bag of rice out of the freezer, defrost, and reheat. It works like a dream!
How to Serve Mexican Rice
Serve Mexican rice on the side of all of your favorite Mexican foods like Carne Asada, Tacos al Pastor, Shrimp Fajitas, and Chicken Tinga. Or, pack it into soft flour tortillas with scrambled eggs, cheese, and hot sauce for an epic breakfast burrito. I also love to eat it by the bowl topped with sour cream. It’s also delicious in your next burrito bowl.
Frequently Asked Questions
To omit the oil completely, follow the recipe as written, making this change for Step 3: Instead of heating oil in a pot, toast the dry rice (un-rinsed) on high, stirring CONSTANTLY, until about half the rice is lightly browned. Keep your eye on it; you need to keep it moving so it doesn’t scorch. Continue the recipe as written, stirring in the garlic. The rice will bake up perfectly, separated and fluffy, as if you had used oil.
Follow the recipe as directed, swapping the chicken broth for water or vegetable broth.
I find that rice cookers help make the fluffiest rice and when we rounded up the best rice cookers, our top pick was my personal favorite: The Aroma Housewares Rice Cooker. It’s compact, super simple, and does exactly what it’s supposed to do without fail. My sisters, Erin and Meredith, each have the same one, and we all love it. Not to mention, it has over 58,000 reviews. That’s a whole lot of rice!
You can check out the rice cooker variation for Mexican Rice below. Also, Rice cookers can cook polenta beautifully without stirring it for a million hours. It’s not just a one-job appliance, so I hope you find many uses for one of my favorite cooking gadgets.
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Easy Mexican Rice
Ingredients
- 4 Roma tomatoes cored and quartered (see note 1)
- 1 onion peeled and quartered
- 1/3 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
- 2 cups long-grain white rice (see note 2)
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups chicken broth or water
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste or one cube Consomate tomato bouillon (see note 3)
- Salt
- minced fresh cilantro or parsley, for garnish (see note 4)
- Lime wedges for serving
Instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a food processor or blender, puree the tomatoes and onions until smooth. Measure 2 cups of puree, pouring off and discarding any excess.
- In a large Dutch oven or a 3-quart saucepan, heat oil until shimmering. Add the rice and sauté, stirring frequently, until light golden in color, about 10 to 15 minutes.
- Stir in garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomato mixture, broth or water, tomato paste, and salt to taste (I like 1 ½ teaspoons). Bring to a boil.
- Cover (or transfer to a baking dish and cover) and bake until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed, about 30 minutes. Stir halfway through baking time.
- Fluff rice with a fork. Fold in cilantro or parsley (if using) and season to taste with salt. Serve with lime wedges.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Tomatoes and onions: So many readers love using their favorite salsa instead of the tomato/onion mixture. You can even use canned tomatoes, Rotel, or a couple cans of El Pato tomato sauce, a zesty tomato and chili purée found at Mexican grocery stores. As long as you have two cups of liquid, you’re good to go.
- Rice: Any long-grain white rice (including Basmati and Jasmine) work well here. To substitute brown rice, add 10 minutes to the baking time.
- Tomato paste: If you don’t want to open a small can of tomato paste, look for a tube at the grocery store. In Mexico cooks use one cube of Consomate brand tomato bouillon instead of tomato paste.
- Cilantro: Or substitute parsley. In truth, no one in Mexico ever does this (but let’s be honest: they would never make rice in the oven, either).
- Yield: This Mexican Rice recipe makes about 6 c. rice, enough for 12 (1/2-c.) servings.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Thanks for the recipe. I want to cook the rice for 25 adults, but I’m confused about how to bake it in the oven. Do I put the stock pot in the oven?
Hi Tara, YES. You put the stock pot in the oven (with a cover on it). That’s exactly what I did. Turned out very well. I hope you enjoy it! If you have anymore questions just let me know. Thank you!
Rice turned out great. Thank you for the recipe. I used a can of tomatoes (didn’t have fresh on hand) and one chopped onion. I dont have food processor. Baking the rice made it so perfect! Thank you, Thank you!
If you like the flavor of the jalapeño pepper but don’t like the taste or have little ones, there is actually a pepper that is called fooled you pepper . You can get the seeds and the plants from jungseeds.com and plant them or sometimes you can find the plants at lowes.. ever since I found them in the catalog there hasn’t been a year that has gone by that I haven’t had them in my garden. .
Best rice ever hands down. This is so easy and it is delicious. Only recipe I ever use.
Meggan, your recipe is amazing!! Thank you so much for posting it. Molto grazie!
Thank you, Mario! I made this myself this morning in a rice cooker. I’m a huge fan too! Thank you again. 🙂
Sorry to hear that. I would say the rice matches peoples’ expectations of what they get at a restaurant, so that’s why it has positive reviews. It tastes like Mexican rice from a restaurant, bland or otherwise (or at least, every Mexican restaurant I’ve ever been to). I’d love to know how you doctored it up though! Thanks for your feedback and sorry you didn’t like it.
This was FANTASTIC! I didn’t have cookware with a lid that could go in the oven, so I used a stainless steel pot and covered it with foil. It seriously was perfectly fluffy.
So great to hear! And I’m glad it worked for you even with just foil. That’s really good to know and I’ll update the recipe to reflect that. Thank you so much Renee.
Hi Jennifer, I’m so sorry to hear that! Here are the things that I think could possibly go wrong. Let me know what you think. 1). Your rice is really old. It should still soften, but if it’s over a year old that might mean you need to bake it longer. 2). Your oven temperature is off. Do you have an oven thermometer to check that the temperature is accurate? If it’s off even by 25 degrees you might need to bake it longer. 3). You aren’t getting a tight enough seal on the dish in wish you are baking it. Are you using a dutch oven, a casserole dish, or a sauce pan? Is the lid fitting nice and snug? Let me know what you think! I adapted this recipe from America’s Test Kitchen… they’re stuff is FOOL PROOF! So sorry you’re having issues. Let me know. I was traveling yesterday but I’m back now, sorry for the delay in replying to your comment.
Making this for my family on Christmas eve for an authentic Mexican Christmas Eve dinner with the works, tamales, pozole, garnishes and this. BTW, This is one of the better recipes out there. Merry Christmas.. XOXOXO
Hey Dave, I recently learned (and you of course already know this) that a tamale-making party is called a Tamalda. Happy to hear you had one. Your feast sounds incredible. XOXOXO MERRY CHRISTMAS! I’ll email you before then though. 😉
I’ve made this about 5 different times now and it is THE BEST! My husband asks for it regularly. The tomato + onion slurry is so forgiving! The key for my stove and pot combo is I use a heavy dutch oven on the stove to bring the rice and liquids to a boil, and then put a lid on and bake it in the oven for at 350 for 18 minutes instead of cooking on the stove top. Meggan has the perfect ratio of liquid to rice, so you can really make any creative additions to the recipe – as long as you don’t mess with her ratio!
I’ve done the following in a pinch: subbed a can of whole peeled tomatoes for the fresh tomatoes, browned chicken thighs in oil before starting the rice, then nestled the thighs in the rice mixture while the rice cooked for a one pot meal, and added frozen mixed vegetables. Also, I LOVE the speed of blasting the tomato+onion in the food processor and skipping the chopping at the end of a long day! Thank you, you rock!!
Wow, so many fantastic ideas here Amanda! Thanks for your kind words. I’ve been meaning to try the canned tomato substitution, just for ease/pantry convenience. I figured it would work great. The chicken thighs in the oil sound SO GOOD, I’m totally making that next. Thank you so much for being so supportive. 🙂 You’re quite the cook! Take care!