Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Quick Mexican Style Rice

This is a great way to use up leftover rice! I tend to never eat the rice that is leftover in the fridge cause rice doesn't always warm up that well for the next day so I tend to try to turn it into a new dish.  We eat a lot of Mexican, Spanish, Red, whatever you want to call it rice.  I love it in bean burritos or as a side with quesadillas or any other Mexican style dishes which tend to be our go to for many meals.

Ingredients

Cooked white rice (apx 1.5 cups)
sm can V8 or tomato sauce or salsa (in a pinch)
onion
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
lime
tapito (or hot sauce of choice)
Mexican seasoning (I love premixes!)
Caldo de Pollo (Chicken Bouillon) optional



First I mince the garlic and chop the onion.  I love my (affiliate link) Ninja Express Chopper for this as I always cry when chopping onion and hate how it makes my hands smell but a knife and a little time will work just as well.  To remove the garlic from its skin I whack it with the flat of a large chef knife and it just pops out easily.  To easily remove the onion skin I cut the top and bottom off, then half the onion.  If using a chopper just cut the onion in to smallish pieces then toss the onion and the garlic in and give it a few pulses.  Otherwise dice finely.


Add a little oil to the pan and then add in the chopped onion and garlic mix, saute over medium low heat for 5-10 minutes until the onions start to become a little translucent.  Add about a 1/2 tsp of salt.

Take the left over rice and break it up into small pieces with your hands then add to the pan and stir to combine.   Sprinkle a thin layer of caldo de pollo (chicken bouillon) over the rice, and a layer of Mexican seasoning.  Since we eat a lot of Mexican food I mix up a pre-mix of seasoning that has salt, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, cumin, black pepper and cayenne pepper in it.  I do almost equal portions of everything except the cayenne.  Shake a layer of Tapatio (or hot sauce of choice over) we like things spicy so I tend to go heavy but flavor to your preference.  Then stir in your can of tomato.  I usually use tomato sauce but didn't have any so I used V8 today.  The V8 is a little thinner.

Cook covered over very low heat for 5-10 minutes stirring once to check that it isn't sticking in between.  (I wasn't able to find a large skillet with a lid that I liked so I always just toss a pizza pan on the top when I need to cook in a covered skillet)  Squeeze some lime over when it is finished cooking.  Since this rice is re-cooked its not as nice and fluffy as it would be if you made it fresh, but you don't really notice the texture in a burrito.

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