I don’t eat much rice, but when making a Tex-Mex or South of the Border meal, it is a necessity.
I usually use brown basmati rice if I am making a rice side dish. It cooks in about 30 minutes on the stovetop. I also use chicken or vegetable stock as my cooking liquid to infuse some flavor into the rice.
After you get the rice cooking, prepare the rest of the ingredients. This won’t take long to throw together once the rice is done.
Once the rice is done, or almost done, heat a large stainless steel saute pan on medium heat. Add the oil, bell pepper, and onions. Saute for about 2 minutes.
Reduce the heat to medium low and stir in the green chiles, jalapeno, cilantro, garlic, and oregano. Cook for about 2 minutes.
Now add the cooked rice, corn, lime juice and zest. Don’t worry if there is some cooking liquid left in the rice, add that too. It will just simmer down and add more flavor to the dish. Simmer for a couple minutes until the liquid is incorporated. Taste – be careful it’s hot – and add any salt or pepper you may desire. I usually do 3 or 4 turns of my pepper mill.
It’s ready to eat. I sprinkle on some crumble cotija cheese (it’s basically the Mexican style of feta cheese, technically Parmesan but it reminds me more of feta), some more fresh cilantro, and serve it with lime wedges.
Try this with Adobo Lime Chicken.
Enjoy!
Cilantro Lime Rice
Equipment
- 2 quart or larger sauce pan
- Large stainless steel saute pan
- Knife and cutting board
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup brown basmati rice
- 2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
- 1 each red bell pepper chopped
- 2 tbsp yellow onions fine chopped
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil or canola or peanut oil
- ½ can green chiles
- 1 each jalapeno seeds and ribs removed, minced, optional
- 1 tbsp cilantro fresh, chopped
- 1 tsp garlic fresh, minced
- ½ tsp oregano
- 1 each lime zest and juice
- ½ cup frozen corn thawed
- Crumbled cotija cheese chopped cilantro and lime wedges for topping
Instructions
- Put rice and stock in a sauce pan. Put on stove and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add a lid. Cook for about 30 minutes, until done. Remove from heat and set aside. If there is broth left in the pot, you will simmer it down later.
- While rice is cooking prep the veggies, cheese, lime and seasonings.
- Heat a large stainless steel saute pan on medium heat. Add the oil, bell pepper, and onions. Cook for about 2 minutes.
- Reduce heat to medium low and stir in the green chilies, jalapeno (if using), cilantro, garlic, and oregano and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the cooked rice, corn and lime juice and zest. Stir and cook for a minute or 2. Cook long enough to simmer out any stock that may have been left from cooking the rice. Taste and add any salt or pepper that you may desire. Do not add salt if you are topping with cotija or feta cheese.
- Top with crumbled cotija (or feta) cheese, fresh cilantro and fresh squeezed lime juice.
- Enjoy!