The other day I made chicken fajitas and of course the only side dish I could think to make with those is rice.  So sticking with my pledge to eliminate boxed, pre-packaged foods from our lives, I found a great recipe to make my own Mexican rice.

And boy am I glad to have found this rice recipe on Closet Cooking.  This Mexican rice has flavor galore.  A lot more flavor than the packet and boxed versions.  Even though it only calls for 1 cup of dry rice, you end up with a saucepan full of rice.  I think next time I will make half of the recipe for just the two of us.

*The original recipe calls for one green pepper and a jalapeno pepper, which I did not use.

Mexican Rice

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon oil
1 onion (chopped)
1 clove garlic (chopped)
1 cup long grain rice
1 & 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 cups diced tomatoes with liquid (I used fire roasted)
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1.  Heat the oil in a medium sized sauce pan or pot.  Add the onions and garlic, saute until tender, about 5-7 minutes.

2.  Add the rice, chicken stock, tomatoes, chili powder, cumin and salt and bring to a boil.

3.  Reduce the heat, cover and simmer until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes.