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The BEST, truly authentic Mexican rice is so easy to make, and a necessary side dish for all of your favorite Mexican recipes.
Having learned how to make this Mexican rice from locals in Puebla, Mexico, I can promise this recipe is the real deal! Don't miss my other popular Mexican recipes including Carne Asada Tacos, Esquites, and Chiles Relleño.
We never enjoy “Taco Tuesdays” without a side of this easy Mexican Rice that I learned to make while living in Puebla, Mexico during a college internship.
I was there with my husband, and we taught workshops to locals in the area that were interested in starting a small business. We met many amazing people while living there, including a chef who attended one of our workshops. I asked him if he'd teach me the right way to make a few authentic dishes, and he invited is into his home for a day.
We cooked up a storm, and I took detailed notes as we cooked this rice together, along with mole poblano, red and green salsas, and pozole.
Ingredients Needed:
- Long Grain White Rice: Washing the rice is crucial to remove the outer starch, allowing the rice to cook fluffy. If you'd like to use Brown Rice, increase liquid by ½ cup and cook for 40 minutes, following the same resting instructions.
- Oil: Canola or vegetable oil, for toasting the rice.
- Onion: a small piece, finely chopped.
- Garlic: one or two small cloves, minced.
- Tomato Sauce: I used this because it's fast and easy, but for a more authentic version, add 1-2 fresh tomatoes to a blender with the onion and garlic, and blend before adding to the rice.
- Tomato Bouillon: granules or cubes, found in the Mexican aisle or online. This adds color and flavor to the rice. If you can't find it, substitute chicken Bouillon.
- Water: Or use chicken broth, if you omit the Tomato Bouillon.
- Salt.
- Peas and Carrots: optional.
- Serrano peppers: It's optional to add 1-2 on top of the rice while it cooks, to add extra flavor (it wont make the rice “spicy”.
How to make Mexican Rice:
1. Wash and Toast the rice: Add rice to a fine mesh strainer and rinse it until the water runs clear. Sauté the rice in hot oil in a saucepan until golden brown.
2. Add remaining ingredients: Add tomato sauce, garlic, and diced onion to the pan. Stir in tomato bullion, salt, carrots, peas, and water.
3. Simmer: Bring it to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Pro Tips:
- Rinse the rice. Take an extra second to rinse your rice with water to remove the starch film on the surface that can cause the rice to clump together.
- Toast the rice. When you add the rice to the oil, toast it really well! This extra step takes a few minutes, but it adds really great flavor to the rice.
- The trick to get that great color and flavor: Tomato bullion cubes add great flavor, and they're what makes the rice turn that perfect orange color that you're looking for. It should be easy to find at your local grocery store. I buy mine at Walmart, in the Mexican food aisle. You could also buy them from Amazon. They look like this. If you can't find them, substitute chicken broth for the water in this recipe.
- Rest and Fluff. It's crucial to give the rice time to rest after cooking, before serving, and to only gently fluff it with a work (don't “stir” it). This will make the difference between wet, clumpy and mush rice, and fluffy rice.
- Instant Pot Mexican Rice: If you own an instant pot, I've adapted this recipe for Instant pot Mexican rice.
Serve Mexican Rice with:
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Authentic Mexican Rice
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups long grain white rice, *
- 1/4 cup oil, (vegetable or canola oil)
- 1 teaspoon garlic, , minced
- 1/4 medium onion, , finely diced
- 1/4 cup tomato sauce, , or 2 pureed tomatoes*
- 2 teaspoons tomato bouillon , granulated, or cubes*
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 carrot, , diced
- 1/2 cup peas, (frozen or fresh)
- 3 cups water
- 1-3 whole serrano peppers, , optional
Instructions
- Rinse the rice in a fine mesh strainer until the water runs clear. Set aside.
- In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add the oil. Once hot, add the rice and stir to combine. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the rice is lightly golden brown all over (about 10 minutes).
- Add tomato sauce, garlic, and diced onion to the pan. Stir. Add tomato bullion, salt, carrots, peas, and water (and serrano peppers, if using. They add a little flavor, but not spice.).
- Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat to low and cook for about 20 minutes or until the water is completely absorbed. Remove from heat and allow to rest for 5 minutes before fluffing with a fork.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
I originally shared this recipe September 2011. Last updated May 2021.
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Process photos by Nikole of The Travel Palate.
I just made this recipe and it is EXCELLENT! We are heading to a Taco Bar-themed party and I made this rice AND the Tres Leches dessert. I look forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts!
Best Mexican rice! Everyone loves this rice. My kids request it more than any other recipe. Make it. 😉
I just tried this today, and it is spot on identical to the rice I had a at a restaurant yesterday. I am so excited and will keep this recipe for sure.
I made this for my daughters work party! I never made Mexican Rice before but it was so delicious and very easy to make. Everyone loved it and I am new to the southwest US so I feel very proud that it was well received. I will keep this recipe forever.
Thank you
Ok, this the only Mexican rice I will ever make. Don’t even think about cooking it without the tomato or tomato/chicken bouillon. Love, love this recipe and I’ve made dozens of Mexican rice dishes before trying this. I did cut one Serrano in half lengthways and added it to pot. Yummmmm!
Agreed! This recipe is killer and I have tried many Mexican rice recipes over the years. It’s nice and flavorful without being “too much”. It tastes almost identical to several restaurants near me. I add just a little pinch of cumin to this recipe, but it’s absolute great on its own without it, too!
I served this delicious rice with my homemade tamales. It was an appropriate side dish. I didn’t have any luck finding tomato bouillon so I used chicken bouillon. I will keep this recipe to serve in the future.
We absolutely love this rice! It’s a hit every time!
I made this rice it’s the best recipe I’ve ever eaten, everyone in my family loved it! As far as the Serrano peppers you are wrong about them being spicy I looked it up and it says these peppers are 5x hotter than jalapeños and I know it’s true after touching my nose after chopping 3 of them to use it set me on fire I suffered until I got it to stop Burning. So absolutely make this rice it’s delicious and you won’t be disappointed but leave those peppers out..
Serrano chiles are spicy, hotter than jalapenos, but this recipe calls for them to be placed on top of the rice WHOLE (uncut) and discarded after cooking. This method does provide flavor without the heat. Recipe is accurate about that.
It lacked flavor. I used Roma tomato’s rather than sauce so maybe that was the issue. The rice was cooked perfectly but I had to add several spices to get that authentic flavor.
I’ve had a lot of rice in my life, and I know the tomatoes may be more authentic but the sauce gives way better flavor and I add more bouillon. Try that and that should make the difference!
I haven’t made this yet, but I just had to comment that I know you’re from my neck of the woods because of the H-E-B brand of tomato sauce in the “Ingredients” photo! 🙂 I’m looking forward to trying this recipe.
Can you make this in a crock pot?
This rice came out so crunchy and inedible that it was thrown away. The flavors were great (I substituted lard for oil) and authentic, but it doesn’t matter if the rice is crunchy and can’t be salvaged. In Colorado, 2 parts liquid, 1 part rice usually works great… not sure where this took a left turn….
I’m in CO as well, I’m a Native, I’ve lived here for a lifetime and with this method of cooking Spanish Rice you actually have to add even MORE LIQUID than the norm for here. I haven’t tried “this particular recipe” yet, although I’m going to in the next week or two, however, it doesn’t vary much from my current “HOME RUN RECIPE” which everyone who has tried it absolutely adores!!
However, with this type of preparation, the rice being browned in oil prior to adding broth, etc., you need to add additional liquid, the recipe I use and have 100% consistent perfect results with is 2 cups of long grain rice and 5 ~ 5 1/2 Cups of liquid, it just depends on your particular Altitude. You really need to let it sit for quite a while off of the burner after the initial 20 minutes or so to get rid of all of the liquid but the final result is PERFECTION! This has taken me close to a year to perfect (once I found a recipe that actually tasted like we wanted), so it has been a work in progress and it may take more or less water for you, but from your comment I would say that you need to do at least the 5 Cups of water and then give it a try, if it’s still crunchy, not done, add a bit more, turn the burner on low for a few minutes to warm it up and then let it sit again. You just have to figure out what the proper amount of liquid/rice/time is for your altitude because it definitely varies greatly! Best of luck to you!!
Delish!
This was the perfect rice. I just did not add Peas and chilies. We do not like those items. Huge hit… improvised a bit. But, basically went by your measurements. Bravo!!!
Close, but not the authentic Cocina Mexicana rice I was looking for. The rice needed 15-18 minutes on medium heat to get a nice golden brown. This extra time would also help to cook the rice. I know better than to just drop the bouillon cube into the pan, but I didn’t dissolve it first in the water, and that was a big mistake. The rice was cooked nicely after 20 minutes on low heat. I think it was just missing some earthy spices like cumin, cilantro seeds, chili powder, etc. Had plenty of salt from the 1/4tps and the bullion cube.
I agree about extra time for golden brown, did not want high heat/smoke. I was using Safrito and not sure of substitute because Safrito said “ generous Tbl spoon per serving. My Mexican friend that brought me Tamales could not respond