Mexican rice

I'm not sure how authentic this is, but it's tasty. I made it for side dishes when I have Mexican-ish food for dinner. In a restaurant if I get an enchilada it might come with rice and refried beans, but I never do it at home because it's too much work for one serving of a side.   I started with this recipe , which also indicates that it freezes well. That solves my problem: I can make it ahead and reheat one serving in the sous vide or boil-in-bag. Perfect!

I made a half recipe, which is 6 servings of 1/2 cup each.

• 6 oz. tomato (1 medium)
• 1/2 yellow onion
• 1 jalapeño (maybe 2 if they're small)
• 1 cup long grain white rice
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 tbsp. tomato paste

Here's the rice I used, Canilla extra long grain enriched rice from Goya.

And the vegetables:

And some more ingredients. For the chicken broth I used More Than Gourmet Glace de Polet Gold roasted chicken stock concentrate.

I rinsed the rice until the water ran clear in a sieve. The rice package directions say not to rinse, but the recipe above was pretty adamant about rinsing, so I decided to rinse.

I also roughly chopped the vegetables.

I put the onions and garlic in the food processor first, and gave it a little chop. Then the jalapeños. And finally, the tomatoes with just a few pulses. This made 1 cup.

Since I'm making a half recipe I used an oven-safe 10" sauté pan with a lid. You'd need a bigger pan for a full recipe.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Spray the pan with spray oil to reduce sticking. Heat the pan to medium-low heat, add some oil, and add the rice. Add a little more oil as necessary. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring periodically, making sure the rice doesn't stick or burn.

Add the vegetable purée, tomato sauce, and chicken broth, stir, and bring to a low boil, stirring periodically.

Once boiling, turn off the heat. Stir, cover and put the pan into the oven. Cook for 15 minutes, stir, and cook 15 minutes more.

After coming out of the oven:

I transferred the rice to a sheet pan to cool, and also to soak the sauté pan since a little rice stuck to it the first time, though now I can make it without sticking.

Each serving is 1/2 cup, about 2.3 oz. They're individually vacuum sealed to low vacuum (15 seconds, 0.08 KPa) to prevent forming a solid block of rice. One batch makes 6 servings, vacuum sealed in half of a 8"x12" vacuum sealer bag.

I also divided a can of Amy's refried beans with green chiles, individually vacuum sealing 6 servings of a little less than 1/3 cup, about 2.5 oz. each, each in half of a 4"x8" vacuum sealer bag.

Update February 22, 2017: Updated the quantities and steps slightly.

2024-12-07

Made this again.