Instant Pot Mexican Rice (Spanish Rice Recipe) (2024)

FAQs

Is there a difference between Mexican rice and Spanish rice? ›

Spanish rice has a firmer texture and stronger aroma compared to Mexican rice, it gets its sweet yet savory flavor as well as its golden color from saffron. As it is more absorbent, Spanish rice is also better suited for dishes that need to be slow cooked.

The rice should be a tiny bit on the dry side (but still soft and fluffy). If your rice is really wet and mushy, you probably added too much water and/or overcooked it.

Why Rice Needs Less Water in a Pressure Cooker. In tests, we've found that all varieties of rice hydrate properly with a 1:1 ratio of rice to water; additional water is added to account for evaporation. In a conventional covered pot, where water evaporates during the entire cooking time, we add an extra ½ cup water.

If cooking white rice: Select the “Rice” cooking program on its low pressure setting. (If your pressure cooker doesn't have high and low pressure settings, just use the default “rice” setting.) The pressure cooker will adjust the cooking time automatically.

Restaurant style Mexican rice is savory, tender and a little spicy, it's addictive. But how do you get that flavor and color that they get in the restaurant? Two secret ingredients: a can of Rotel tomatoes with chilies, and a packet of sazon seasoning!

Well, refrigerating rice until it firms up is one way of avoiding “mushy” texture of fried rice. And it's the centuries old technique.

Maybe you took the lid off of the pot too early, letting the steam escape. Maybe you didn't add enough liquid to begin with. Whatever the case, if your rice is looking dried out, or the texture is still hard or crunchy when all the liquid has been absorbed, add up to ½ cup water and return to a simmer with the lid on.

Rice cooking at higher pressure steam produced softer and stickier texture. Compared with the control sample, the adhesiveness of different HPS samples increased 24.2%–76.9%, and the hardness decreased 19.6%–41.6%.

How much water for 2 cups of rice? ›

For tender grains of rice that easily separate, such as in a pilaf, use 2 cups of water for every 1 cup of rice. You can also use another liquid like stock in this 2:1 ratio. For slightly chewier, fluffy white rice, use 1 1/2 cups of water for every cup of rice, or a 1.5:1 ratio.

Our general rec for long-grain white rice is a ratio of 1:1 so for 2 cups of rice, add 2 cups of water. Following our ratio for brown rice (1:2 1/4), you would start with 2 cups of brown rice then add 4 ½ cups of water.

Boil water. Add rice, stir, cover and remove from heat. Wait 5 minutes, or until water is absorbed, then fluff with a fork.

One of the biggest pronunciation differences between the two languages are in z and c before an i or e. This sounds like s in Mexico, but “th”in Spain, for example, Barcelona. Additionally, Spanish from Spain tends to be more guttural, due to its Arabic influences, whereas Mexican Spanish is softer.

Spanish rice, also known as Mexican rice, is a common side dish in northern Mexico. This always savory (and sometimes spicy) side dish is also popular outside of Mexico, especially in the Southwestern United States.

The most popular type of rice used in Mexico is a medium long grain rice. Two types are cultivated in Mexico, Sinaloa (long grain) and Morelos (short grain). Rice is served as a food, in and of itself, in Mexican meals.

Spanish cooks don't tend to obsess over particular rice varieties (though Bomba and Sènia are sometimes found) and would never think of using anything but short-grain rice, as long-grain lacks the capacity to absorb liquid in the way that Spanish cuisine needs it to.