Gulf Coast Style Oven Baked Rice

This oven baked rice recipe is an easy, foolproof, hands off method to produce rice that’s tender and fluffy in texture. Gulf Coast Style Rice is a more garlicky and traditional Mexican rice recipe than our Tex-Mex tomato-y version labeled “Mexican Rice”, or “Spanish Rice”.

Spoiler alert: Using chicken broth rather than water to cook the rice brings way more flavor.

Cooking rice on the stove top most certainly works … sometimes. It works if you get the heat level just right. If you have a sauce pan with that perfectly tight fitting lid, and if you have the time to watch it so it cooks perfectly. And without rice stuck to the bottom of the pan, without boiling over, and with no al la dente chewy grains.

Learning how to bake rice in the oven simplifies the entire rice-cooking process. It’s hands off, easy and gives you more time to tend to those tacos or enchiladas that you’re cooking for dinner.

I have found oven baked rice just as easy, just as fluffy, just as delicious as using a rice cooker. And if you’re like me, you don’t have much room for one more “kitchen gadget”, like a rice cooker.

Here’s why it works so well:

• Sauteeing or “toasting” the raw rice before cooking will allow the grains to cook up light and separate.
• Using chicken broth rather than water adds more fat and flavor.
• And the even and surrounding heat of the oven seems to treat each and every one of those little grains of rice with equal attention.

Once I tried oven baked rice, I’ve never looked back at that stove top. It’s a Rick Bayless recipe, from his cookbook Mexican Everyday, which he has labeled Gulf Coast Style White Rice.

This is a recipe for oven baked rice is one that I’ve used for years. Let’s take a look.

Ingredients Subs and Substitutions

• Oil: Want a richer oven baked rice, use butter, duck fat or even Crisco or Lard.
• Parsley: Switch out parsley with cilantro.
• Rice: If you don’t have a medium grain, you can substitute a long grain rice such as Jasmine or Basmati. If using long grain rice, increase broth to 2 cups. Don’t use a short grain rice such as a sushi rice product. The end result will be sticky or clumpy.

1. Step 1: Toast the Rice and Onions: I like to use my three-quart Dutch oven. Starting stove top and then transferred to the oven, it eliminates the use of a baking dish. Heat the pan over medium high heat until hot. When the pan is hot, add the oil. Once the oil is shimmering, add the rice and onion. Stir frequently until the grains of rice turn from translucent to milky white, about five minutes. Don’t let the rice brown. Add the garlic, stir and cook until fragrant. About one minute.

2. Step 2: Add chicken broth and stir.

3. Step 3: Bake and Serve: Cover with a tight fitting lid and bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand five minutes. Fluff and garnish with chopped parsley.

How To Add Vegetables to Cooked Rice

• Adding Vegetables To Baked Rice: Here’s what I like to do. When I start to make this recipe, I put one cup of frozen peas and carrots in a bowl. I use the the frozen peas and carrots that are packaged together and the carrots are small diced. The time they spend outside the freezer while you prepare and cook the rice will be ample to thaw them out enough to add to the rice once its cooked.
• Once you remove the rice from the oven, let the rice sit for five minutes. Remove lid and pour in the peas and carrots and fluff. Place the lid back on the pan and let it sit for another couple of minutes. The heat from the baked rice will warm the delicate peas and carrots.

Tips For Making Oven Baked Rice

• Follow the ratios in the recipe card below, not on the package.
• I like to use butter instead of oil, it adds a buttery flavor and the higher fat content will keep those individual grains of rice from sticking.
• If you don’t have a heavy pan with a heavy lid, like a Le Creuset Dutch Oven, cover the pan with foil and then the lid. This will help keep the steam inside the pan, which will benefit the texture of the rice.
• Always let rice rest for 2 – 3 minutes after you remove it from the oven. Then fluff it with a fork.