The Perfect Mexican Rice

Whenever I go to my family's house or on a family vacation or anywhere for that matter which requires me to bring something resembling food I generally will make or bring Mexican Rice, Guacamole or Spicy Black Beans. I consider myself the token "Mexican Girl" in my white family well because I married a wonderful Mexican man and his wonderful mother has taught me how to make some amazing Mexican dishes. In fact, I was contemplating changing my nationality to Mexican. I figure since I got the Hispanic genes in me (at least until our little girl is born) why not? :) However, I need to work on that whole speaking Spanish situation a little more. Don't get me wrong I am definitely proud to be an American (can anyone say that without singing the song?) its just that I definitely love the idea of hosting backyard fiesta's with La Banda music and pinata's. Margarita's anyone?

Anyhow, moving on.... So because of this I have decided to post how to make the Perfect Mexican Rice for all my family and friends who have apparently enjoyed the wonderful side dish. I honestly thought I already had and when Hector told my Grandma this past weekend that the recipe was on my blog I just nodded in agreement. However, when I signed-on to forward her the link it wasn't there! (gasp) So, to make sure my husband no longer gives false advertisement to members of my family I am correcting the missing recipe as we speak.

Here we go...

Ingredients:
1 8oz can of tomato sauce
1 cup of white rice (not jasmine, just plain white rice)
1 small tomato - diced into chunks
1/2 of a small onion - thinly sliced and separated into strips
2 cups of water
3 tbs of Knorr chicken powder
Vegetable Oil

Steps:
In a medium pot lightly coat the bottom with oil. Turn the heat onto medium and pour in 1 cup of the plain white rice. Let the rice fry in the oil, stirring constantly, until its a nice golden color.
Next had 1/2 of the 8oz can of tomato sauce. No need for perfection here. Just pour until you think half the can is left. Then stir completely until all of the white rice now has a nice reddish/orange color.
Then add the small tomato and onion strips. Stir until everything is sizzling and well mixed. Now add the 2 cups of water and the 3 tbs of Knorr Chicken Powder. Stir again and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling set the timer for 20 minutes and turn the heat to a low simmer and cover with a lid. The rice should come out perfect. Serve immediately.

If you did everything right it should come out looking like this... you probably will still see the onion strips and the tomato chunks depending upon how large you cut them, but that's okay. It will still taste GREAT :)

And this is what the Knorr Chicken Powder looks like for those who didn't know what I was talking about. Sometimes they sell it in cubes, but the powder works best.

Enjoy!!
 Recipe rights go to Noemi Cota - my fabulous Mother-in-law!!!!