Baking rice in the oven is an easy, hands off method to produce rice that’s tender and fluffy in texture. And if you find yourself running our of stove top space, this oven rice is a life saver. Your rice side dish for dinner just got a lot easier.
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. Perfectly without rice stuck to the bottom of the pan, without boiling over, and with no al la dente chewy grains.
This is a recipe for oven rice is one that I’ve used for years.
An easy recipe for oven baked rice, and I’ve never looked back at that stove top. It’s a Rick Bayless recipe, from his cookbook Mexican Everyday.
A recipe for cooking rice in the oven that’s hands off, easy and gives you more time to tend to those tacos or enchiladas that you’re cooking for dinner. Here’s why.
- 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 surrounding heat of the oven seems to treat each and every one of those little grains of rice with equal attention.
A more garlicky traditional Mexican rice recipe than our Tex-Mex tomato version that we’ve labeled “Mexican Rice”, or “Spanish Rice”. Let’s take a look at oven rice.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Chicken Broth
- Long Grain Rice, we like the flavor of Basmati or Jasmine rice.
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Garlic
- Sweet Onion
- Parsley
Ingredients Subs and Substitutions
- Oil: You can use vegetable or canola oil or even butter.
- Parsley: Switch out parsley with cilantro.
- Rice: If you don’t have a long grain rice, you an substitute a medium grain rice. Arborio is a medium grain rice. Don’t use a short grain rice such as a sushi rice product. The end result will be sticky or clumpy.
How To Cook Rice In The Oven
- Step 1: 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.
- Step 2: Add chicken broth and stir.
Step 3: 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.
FAQ’s and Tips
It’s easy. Just place the amount of rice that you wish to reheat in a microwave safe bowl. Break up any lumps with a fork. Sprinkle with a little water and reheat in
15-second increments until rice is heated through.
Absolutely yes. I like to place leftovers in a Ziploc freezer bag so I can press out the air and store in the freezer flat. It will keep in the freezer for a couple of months. Leftover rice makes great fried 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 rice will warm the peas and carrots.
Up to 4 days.
Recipe for Oven Baked Rice, Gulf Coast Style White Rice
I hope you give this recipe for rice baked in the oven a try. And if you do, please come back and give the recipe a star rating and leave a message about your experience with the recipe.
And if you have a favorite Mexican rice recipe, let me know, I’d love to give it a try.
More Mexican Food Side Dishes
- Toasted Mexican Green Rice Recipe
- Instant Pot Refried Beans
- Smashed Potatoes with Chimichurri
- Poblano Chive Mashed Potatoes
- Coyote Corn
And if you’re interested in even more side dish recipes, don’t miss my Side Dish Category. You’ll find lots of great recipes, including the most popular on my website for Broccoli Cheez Whiz Rice Casserole.
Oven Rice
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil Or Olive Oil
- 1 1/2 Cups Long grain rice Jasmine or Basmati
- 1 small white onion chopped, about 1 cup
- 2 cloves garlic peeled and fine chopped
- 1 3/4 cup Chicken both
- Salt to taste
- 3 Tablespoons Flat leaf parsley chopped, for garnish or cilantro
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and position a rack in the middle of the oven.
- Set a medium 3-quart ovenproof saucepan over medium heat on the stove top.
- Once 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 5 minutes. To keep the overall end appearance white, don't let the rice brown.
- Add the garlic and stir until fragrant. About 1 minute.
- Add the chicken broth and about 1 teaspoon salt. Stir a couple of times and let the mixture come to a full boil.
- Cover the pan and set in the middle of the oven.
- Bake 25 minutes. Remove from oven and stand 5 minutes.
- Fluff the rice with a fork and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Oven Rice … It’s Whats For A Side Dish
