Arroz Blanco, or Mexican White Rice, is an easy-to-make side dish that is perfect for any and all Mexican food. Watch the VIDEO or follow along the step-by-step photos to recreate this yummy recipe.
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Arroz Blanco reminds me so much of Tía. I lived with her and her family in Tabasco, Mexico over 20 years ago. A decade here, a decade there. Pretty soon you’re talking about a long time. Man, I feel old just saying that. LOL. My Tía is unique because she cooks so differently than most of our family. Everything must be fresh and very healthy. Nothing is ever fried. Sugar to a minimum. And LOTS of veggies.
Don’t confuse this with Arroz Mexicano. There are no tomatoes in this recipe.
Arroz Blanco, or Mexican White Rice, involves very few ingredients. Plus, it’s ready in no time. Love that! Think of this as “fast slow food.” 🙂
Table of Contents
More Side Dishes You Might Like
It starts by adding onions and garlic to your trusty blender (You know. The one that loves to make salsas). By the way, note that this recipe is completely vegan or vegetarian. Your non-meat-loving friends and family will be delighted with this side dish. Then again, your carnivores will also love it.
We are only using ½ cup of water. Enough to blend everything. If you add more than ½ cup, you will have to adjust the amount of liquid you add to the pot of Arroz Blanco.
I’m using vegetable bouillon. You can easily change this up and use chicken bouillon instead (but you will have committed a vegan or vegetarian sin). Or, if you’re not a bouillon fan, use salt instead. Blend and set this concoction aside until it’s ready to be used.
Heat oil in a medium-sized stockpot. Don’t get this too hot, or you will burn the rice. Like the Goldilocks fairy tale, you want it “just right.” If you burn the rice, you will need to start over. And that’s just such an incredible waste of time… and rice.
Add the rice. Stir constantly. You simply want to toast the rice. This will only take about 2 minutes. Pay close attention. If any burned rice starts to happen, remove immediately from the heat. Just say “No” to burning stuff in the kitchen – unless you want those hunky firemen to pay you yet another visit. “Hola, bomberos!” 😉
Now add the onion and garlic concoction. Stir frequently. You want the liquid to disappear, or be absorbed by the rice. This will take about 4-5 minutes.
It will look kinda like Arroz con Leche. Milky, creamy, and white, but it’s far from our beloved Mexican dessert. Don’t eat this. lol. It will not taste good AT ALL!
Once the liquid is gone and you’ve been stirring for a bit, add the rest of the water. Give everything a stir.
Make an incision into the jalapeño (Think “kitchen surgery” without the anesthesia or insurance co-pay). This jalapeño is completely optional. You need not to worry. There will only be a mild jalapeño flavor.
Please know that it will not make your Arroz Blanco spicy, but it will add a lot of flavor. You can also use a serrano pepper. If you’re not keen on using a chile, simply don’t use it. It will only change the flavor slightly.
Let this cook for 20 minutes with the lid on. Make sure the heat is not on too high, or you will need more liquid. Rice can be tricky, but it’s all in the amount of water you use. You can always add more, but you can’t take out.
At the 20 minute mark, the rice will almost be done. My Tía would have cooked the vegetables fresh with the rice, but I take shortcuts where I can. You can also add diced green beans and calabacitas.
Check to see if it needs more water. If so, add another ¼ cup and cook for 3 more minutes. If not, add the frozen vegetables at the 20-minute mark, and put the lid back on. Let this cook for another 2 minutes on low.
For More Mexican Side Dishes:
Once it is all done, turn off the heat and let it stand for a few minutes. Fluff the Arroz Blanco with a fork. And, hey. Who doesn’t like Fluffy?! LOL. One thing I can say for sure. Your family will just love this simple side dish. I hope you try it soon. Enjoy!
Arroz Blanco (Mexican White Rice)
Ingredients
- ¼ onion chopped
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tablespoon vegetable bouillon
- ½ cup water + ½ cup water + 2 cups water divided
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup long grain white rice
- 1 Jalapeño or serrano pepper
- ¼ cup frozen peas
- ¼ cup frozen carrots
- ¼ cup water if needed
Instructions
- Add onion, garlic, bouillon, and ½ cup water to a blender.
- Blend until smooth.
- Set aside until ready to use.
- Heat olive oil in a medium-sized stock pot.
- Add rice. Stir constantly.
- Toast rice for 2-3 minutes.
- Be careful not to burn.
- Add the onion mixture from the blender to the pot.
- Stir frequently for the next 4-5 minutes, or until the liquid is absorbed.
- Add ½ cup of water to the blender to get any remaining onion mixture.
- Add the liquid from the blender to the stock pot along with 2 cups of water.
- Stir to combine.
- With a sharp knife, gently make a cut into the center of the jalapeño.
- Add the jalapeño to the stock pot.
- Cover with a lid.
- Check the rice after 20 minutes.
- The rice should be fully cooked.
- If the rice needs liquid, add ¼ cup water and cook for more 3 minutes.
- If not, add the frozen peas and carrots.
- Cook for 2 minutes more on low heat.
- Turn the heat off and let rest for 1 minute.
- Fluff the rice with a fork.
- Enjoy!
Fantastic Mexican rice dish, love Mexican cuisine and will be perfect for our Mexican night
Perfect for Mexican night indeed! Glad you liked it
This was delicious! We love spicy food so added a little extra jalapenos. Thanks!
I think so too delicious glad you liked it
I love the simplicity of this recipe. A great recipe here!
Right? So easy and delicious
Such a simple and quick delicious recipe. I’m definitely going to make it.
Easy and delicious. What’s better that that?
This Arroz Blanco is making me hungry! I love this quick and delicious dish.
Quick and delicious!
I love the fresh, bright look of this Arroz Blanco! A perfect side to so many meals.
The perfect side dish indeed! Hope you try it!
How simple but full of flavor! Love this recipe
Thanks! So glad you liked it.
I don’t usually think of rice as something I can’t wait to make but this arroz blanco looks so amazing! I also can’t wait to try the jalapeno infusion, so cool!
Hope you try it, os delicious!
What a fabulous and flavoursome sidedish!
Thank you very much. Hope you try it!
Oh man, that looks SSOOOO delish. I have never added anything to my rice while cooking it, but it sounds so flavorful, I need to try it now. And I love that it soaks up the flavor before you do the full cook
Yes! You must try adding stuff to your rice. Arroz Blanco is so yummy! Perfect way to sneak in some veggies.
This looks so tasty and fresh and so quick and easy to make! I’m sure that my family will love it!
My family loves Arroz Blanco. Yes, very quick and easy recipe.
Yum this recipe looks so delicious. We love cooking with rice, but we try to be gluten / starch free during the weekend and save rice for the weekends.
That’s very smart. I know several people who do the gluten free weeks. I hope you save Arroz Blanco for one of your weekends.
This rice recipe looks quick to make and incredibly delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe with us!
Quick recipes. I am not a fan of food taking hours to get on the table – with the exception of maybe tamales. lol. Arroz Blanco does not take long to make.
I love anything made with rice and this recipe looks yummy as well as easy to make. I will be going to try this recipe on the coming Sunday.
We like rice in our family too especially this Arroz Blanco (Mexican White Rice). Any way you can add more veggies into your food is a good idea in my book.
oh my the dish looks oh so tasty , i never eat that before but i so want to try it
Hope you do. Arroz Blanco (Mexican White Rice) is very yummy.
What a good idea to cook with the pepper that way. I think this sounds delicious.
I think so too. The peppers adds only a mild flavor to the Arroz Blanco (Mexican White Rice).
Thank you so much for this easy recipe, it is thrusday march 26 at10:00 am during the covid-19 crisis and I am on my first day off from work for two months (gotta take care of my father whose got lung issues, and me,well I get anxiety attacks where I can’t breath, so better be safe than sorry) and i am officially on quarantine but happy to tell you I watched your blog and am so excited to look forward on making this easy white rice recipe. Thank you, and hey who doesn’t have those ingredients in their pantry, it practically calls for nothing! I think everyone’s got those ingredients that we all stocked during the Covid-19 pandamic crises, so let’s all put a smile on our faces with this easy recipe and chow down. Thanks a bunch! See ya, gotta go make it
Hope you try it! It’s so delicious and simple to make!
Arroz Blanco looks so healthy and delicious. The recipe sounds familiar to the Indian vegetable pulao although there are some differences
I’ll have to Google that. Never heard of it. I have had several Indian readers tell me that we have similar foods.
you make this look pretty easy to make. i’ll have to try it
Hope you do. Arroz Blanco is super easy and super tasty side dish.
Easy to make. Once I recover I will try making it… So yummy!
Hope you have a speedy recovery.
Looks delicious! Veggie and rice work great alongside each other. Veggie rice is currently my favorite!
Mine too! The more veggies, the better. 🙂