This flavorful Mexican Rice is easy to make at home on the stove top or in a rice cooker! It is the perfect side dish for all your favorite Mexican foods.
My husband is a total rice nut. Even chocolate is best with crisped rice in it and if you offer him a rice crispy treat he will be happier than if you offered him a good beer. We both love Mexican food, but nothing I made and called “Mexican Rice” really flew with him. Rice is not supposed to be hard but for whatever reason I just could not get this figured out!
Finally he started pointing out rice options he loved at Mexican restaurants and I started to get the picture. His perfect Mexican rice was buttery and savory but not complex or overdone. I played with a few versions and eventually came up with the secret ingredient: Knorr Tomato Bouillon. It is just the right mix of chicken and tomato flavor to make the perfect Mexican rice!
I loved that I could throw all the ingredients in a rice cooker in less than three minutes and have rice ready and waiting to serve with dinner.
I know that not everybody has a rice cooker so I also developed a simple stovetop recipe you can use instead. Both are listed at the bottom – print out which ever you like.
Used In This Post: Most larger grocery stores carry Knorr Tomato Bouillon in their Mexican food section. If you can’t find it, Amazon has your back.
If you plan to buy a rice maker you should be somebody who will use it a lot. If you are going to use a rice cooker a lot get a good one! I will ONLY buy Zojirushi brand rice cookers. The product is phenomenal. There are multiple options depending on how much rice you make and how often. I own the one pictured below. It features fuzzy logic technology which cooks rice like nobody’s business, even brown rice.
This amazing Guacamole also goes pretty darn well with any Mexican food!
Restaurant Style Mexican Rice In A Rice Cooker
Ingredients
- 1 cup short grain white rice
- 1 Tbsp. dehydrated onion
- 3 tsp. Knorr tomato bullion
- 2 Tbsp. butter
- 2 cups water
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to rice cooker, swirl to combine. Cook until rice cooker says it is done. (Time depends on the type of rice cooker you own.)
- Fluff with paddle to ensure even spice distribution before serving.
Notes
Restaurant Style Mexican Rice On The Stove
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup minced onion
- 2 Tbsp. butter
- 1 cup short grain white rice
- 3 1/4 cups hot water
- 3 tsp. Knorr tomato bullion
Instructions
- In a large nonstick frying pan, sauté onion in butter on medium-high for 2 minutes. Add the rice and cook for 1 more minute.
- Add water and bullion and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and put the lid on leaving about a 1/4" gap for steam to escape.
- Cook for 25-27 minutes until all the water is absorbed and the rice is tender. (Don't stir or lift the lid until 25 minutes.)
henckels knives
very good
Mirlandra
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
The Better Baker
Congrats on most clicks received for this great recipe at last week’s Weekend Potluck party!! So glad you share with us. I know this is the ‘BIG’ week ahead…thinking of you often and can’t wait to get the news of your new arrival. Take care.
sushila nayar
we cook the rice in a similar way but fry and add ginger garlic paste and mint and coriander leaf
it tastes equally amazing
the rice you cooked was really delicious
Mirlandra
That sounds like a fun version. We might have to try that!
Mirlandra
Thanks! We are very excited for all this week holds.
Jessica @ Together As Family
Saw this at the Weekend Potluck. It looks like THE perfect Mexican Rice and easy too! No chopping or crazy stuff like that 🙂 Funny thing is, I saw that Knorr tomato at the grocery store and bought it on a whim thinking that I am sure there’s something I can make with it!
Mirlandra
That is a great whim! It is amazing how often a bit of that tomato bouillon can give the perfect Mexican flavor to dishes. I love the simplicity of this rice dish.
Lona Strickland
I’ve been looking for a good Spanish rice recipe and yours might just be the one. Thanks for sharing!
Mirlandra
I hope you enjoy it!
Susan
I really loved this rice. It is wonderful that you can just throw it all in the rice cooker and it turns out perfect every time. My new favorite mexican rice.
Mirlandra
Awe, thanks for telling me! It is our favorite around here. It shows up more weeks than not 🙂
Evelyn
I would like to try this with brown rice. I am sure the amount of water will change as well as the cooking time. Have you tried it with brown rice yet? Suggestions?
Mirlandra
I have not but now I want to! If you have a rice maker I would start by using the measuring cup that came with it and the water line to measure water. Just add the seasonings and set it for brown rice and see how it comes out. Adjust as needed next time. On the stove it will take longer and need more water. When I develop a recipe like this I use a Pyrex measuring cup of water and just keep adding as needed and see how much water I have left after. Then I make the recipe again next time starting with that amount of water and see how it goes. The ratio for brown rice to water is 1 cup of rice to 1.5 cups of water. I would start there. Please do let me know how it turns out! I’m quite curious.
Gentle Joy Homemaker
The rice looks delicious…. we make it in a similar way….. and lots of other ways as my husband LOVES rice also. 🙂
Mirlandra
Mmmm – rice is SO good! I just did a recipe for pesto mushroom rice that I’m working on for one of the spring posts. Now I want to have diner at your house and try all the yummy ways you make it 🙂
Steve
Is there a particular reason you use dry onion in the slow cooker recipe? Couldn’t a person fry up a small amount of onion (such as in your stovetop version) and add it to the rice cooker and mix it in?
Mirlandra
I use it in my rice maker to be quick sometimes. I have a lot of readers who have small kids (like I do) and need some shortcuts. I also love taking fresh onion and frying a bit up in butter and tossing it in the rice cooker. Both options are yummy. It is mostly a matter of what you have time for!
zora collins
sounds like something i will try
Mirlandra
Enjoy!
Gentle Joy Homemaker
My husband also loves rice… and we all laugh whenever I serve it because he “always” comments that it is good rice…. and rice can be good or bad…. some people overcook it and that’s bad, etc. 🙂 Thankfully, I have learned how to make a good rice dish also and he never counts me as one of those people who do it wrong! 🙂 I have to agree that I like rice better now also.
Mirlandra
I used to dread rice! Then I married into a Korean family and learned quick how to make really good rice. Now we eat a lot more rice and there is not even a box of instant in the house. Your husband is totally right – there is good and bad rice!
Julie Sugiyama
Hi, thanks for the recipe!
Just to clarify, Zojirushi is Japanese, not Korean. It means “an elephant”, which is why there’s an elephant as their logo. 🙂
Mirlandra
You are correct – thanks for letting me know. I have made the correction. It is fun also to know the translation.
Kat
Which setting did you use on the Zojirushi? White rice? I always wonder what semibrown means… I have the same one! Thanks.
Mirlandra
I use the white rice setting. It really is a wonderful rice cooker! Semibrown rice is a weird term that is not very common unless you are a very serious rice cooker! It means that the rice has been partly polished which removes 30%-70% of the bran and germ layer. This means the rice will cook faster than brown rice that has not had anything removed. Think of it as the rice in-between brown and white.
Aja
Can you use long grain white rice or jasmine/basmati rice for this recipe?
Mirlandra
Hi Aja,
If you are using a rice maker then yes! If you are doing the stove top recipe it is going to be a bit different since the water / rice ratio might need adjusting. Keep in mind that long grain rice is probably your best fit here since jasmine and Basmati have such distinct flavors. Thanks for asking!
Dolly Machado
I really like this recipe and how simple it is to make. I have made the stove top version a few times now and have had to adjust the liquid ratio down to more like 2 3/4 cups because it was coming out to moist. I also add a little more bullion a dash of cumin to boost up the flavor. We are having neighbors over for Halloween and I wanted to know if i can double or triple the recipe? Or would it be best to to make it in separate batches?
Mirlandra
Hi Dolly – I’m so glad you are enjoying this! We make it most weeks! I’m not totally sure what to tell you about doubling it – I’ve not done a bigger batch on the stovetop, only in the rice cooker. In theory it should work but I feel like stovetop rice can be a bit tricky. If you feel comfortable keeping an eye on it and adding a little more water if needed I think you would be fine.