Recipes: Spanish rice

Spanish rice is one of our family favorites. It’s a recipe I have perfected over time that the whole family loves. I watched my friends mom make her version one time and gleaned some tips there too. Let me tell you, I am not a person who follows recipes, taking the time to measure and write oh my goodness. Things not pictured are oil, salt and pepper. I also use one of my cast iron pans, after trying several different types of pans this one has had the best results for me. We wash our rice before we cook it so do what works for you. We like Jasmine rice, you can use whatever rice you prefer.

Ingredients: Rice, garlic powder, onion powder or chopped, chicken bouillon, cumin and hot tomato sauce.

Add roughly 4Tbl of veggie oil to the pan that is at about medium high heat.

Three cups of washed rice is added and then we begin the toasting of the rice. It takes about 15-20 minutes.

You can see some of the rice has turned a golden brown, this is exactly what you want.

Use your nose!!! When cooking anything use all your senses. When the rice starts to smell like popping popcorn you’re getting there.

I add the whole 7 3/4 oz. can of tomato sauce, yes it’s hot, yes it spits angry tomato at you. The goal here is to have the tomato sauce stick to the grains of rice and all the extra liquid evaporates. This doesn’t take long, keep stirring.

I kept this picture big so you can see how much of the tomato sauce evaporated and all the rice is coated in the
sauce.

Since it is 3 cups of rice I used 6 cups of water. Gently pour in the water and lets add some seasonings. At this point my heat is still at a medium high.

To the best of my ability here is how much of each seasoning I add.

4 TBL powdered chicken broth ( I know, I know the salt. Do you want good rice?)

1/2 tsp cumin

3 tsp each garlic powder and onion powder or dried chopped

salt and pepper to taste

Here is the biggest piece of advice I have for a pan of delicious Spanish rice, TASTE it. Yes please taste the goodness. After I add all the spices I slowly stir it up and make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom and all the seasonings are mixed up well, I taste the liquid part only. This might sound a little weird but just go with me here. I always want my rice to taste a little too strong. Rice is a plain canvas that you are dressing up so you want it to be wearing all the sequins you can throw at it. If it is a little too bland add some more salt, add a little more powdered broth dealer’s choice, play with it a little.

Here is mine after perfect seasoning.
I wait to cover it until I see little bubbles, a light simmer. Then I cover with a piece of foil and turn the heat to low.

20 -25 minutes later BEAUTIFUL Spanish rice. Another tip, because I use a cast iron pan it carries the heat and I know it will keep cooking. I usually move it to a different part of the stove and leave it until the rest of dinner is ready.

We love to heat up the rice the next day and have a scrambled egg in it. Let me know if you try it. If you have any questions shoot me an email. Enjoy!!

Whats for dinner?

We had chili verde, that rice right up there and some sides.

Advertisement