You’ll feel like you’ve sat down to a meal in your favorite mexican restaurant with this slightly spicy Green Mexican Rice made with Cilantro, Jalapeno, Garlic, Spinach and chicken stock. 2 minutes in the extra prep added to your normal rice and you’ll LOVE the added flavor!
If you’ve already seen or tried my Mexican Rice with Tomatoes dish then you know I am a fan of flavored rice (Also made Coconut Rice). I’d have to say the only time I ever eat plain rice is baked brown rice or occaisonally steamed white rice when we are out to dinner. While we don’t eat rice that often in the house, I still have a rotation of probably 30 different varieties of rice I use for meals. The reason? Rice is a very neutral food that, like tofu for example, is just begging to be flavored and in turn is incredibly EASY to customize.
This dish literally took throwing a few ingredients into a food processor and adding it to the rice to make. This also leads me to my next tip. Looking to flavor your rice? Look to your entree! The Chicken Enchilada Tamale Bake contained almost all of the ingredients of this rice including onion, cilantro, jalapeno and garlic. What that means is if you were making the bake, the ingredients for this rice would not only be handy but would actually round out the use things like a single onion or a whole bunch of cilantro.
Looking for more rice options?
- Perfect Brown Rice, Every Time
- Halal Style Turmeric Middle Eastern Rice
- Mexican Rice with Salsa
- Light Coconut Rice
- Sushi Rice
Last thing that is awesome about this recipe? It totally reminds me of the green rice at El Torito Grill. Not the normal El Torito, but the higher end version of their restaurant. Living 400 miles away from it now, this brings a flavor of it back to me.
Add the spinach, cilantro, jalapeno, garlic, onion, salt and lime to a food processor and process until it looks like chimichurri sauce waiting for the oil, basically like a paste. 
Add the oil to the dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot and heat on medium high. Add the rice and cook until it starts to turn whitish, but not browning, about 5-7 minutes. 
Add the stock and the spinach-cilantro mixture to the pot, stir and turn down the heat to a low simmer. Cook for 15-18 minutes. Check quickly for doneness, then turn off heat and let sit covered and undisturbed for another five minutes. Fluff with a fork before serving, some of the herbs will collect on the top.
Any flavored rice recipes that you love and would love a recipe for? Sound off below in the comments! And lastly don’t forget to go check out the Chicken Enchilada Tamale Bake recipe from yesterday and the Easy Homemade Enchilada Sauce from Monday!
Ingredients
- 2 cups spinach (cooked kale or chard would be a great substitute too)
- 3/4 cup cilantro leaves (it was about half a bunch for me)
- 1 jalapeno , deveined and deseeded
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/4 yellow onion (aka brown onion)
- ¼ cup canola oil
- 2 cups long grain white rice
- 3 cups chicken stock (water works too)
- 3/4 teaspoon salt (1 teaspoon if you used water)
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
Instructions
- Add the spinach, cilantro, jalapeno, garlic, onion, salt and lime to a food processor and process until it looks like chimichurri sauce waiting for the oil, basically like a paste.
- Add the oil to the dutch oven or heavy bottomed pot and heat on medium high.
- Add the rice and cook until it starts to turn whitish, but not browning, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add the stock and the spinach-cilantro mixture to the pot, stir and turn down the heat to a low simmer.
- Cook for 15-18 minutes.
- Check quickly for doneness, then turn off heat and let sit covered and undisturbed for another five minutes.
Nutrition
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Made this last week to accompany chicken enchiladas, and WOW. So good. My husband’s friend who’s visiting from Guatemala, said it reminded him of his grandma’s rice. :’) If I double or triple the recipe for a party, will the ratios and times stay the same?
DELICIOUS & EASY!!!
Thank you ?
My family is attempting to eat better so getting some green in our diets is key. I love this recipe! I did tweak it a bit. First I used brown rice, which makes it very hearty. I increased the lime juice and included the seeds of the jalapeno. My family isn’t keen on cilantro so I added more spinach. Finally a nice big squeeze of more fresh lime juice at the end.
Sounds delicious!
I made this tonight and it was absolutely delicious!! My whole family loved it-thank you!
Wonderland full of enchanting plethora of flavours. How have I done without this site all the yrs I’ve been cooking & creating (that’s my excuse for some of the recipes I’ve come up with over the years, only fortunately many have worked).
So nice to have this multiple choice of dishes (authentic) from across the Atlantic. Thanks to all those involved in putting together this creative workout of dishes just beging 2 B made.
Sarah from Cheadle in England.
Thank you so much Sarah!
YUM! Made this last night and it was terrific! There are only two of us, but I made it per the recipe to make sure I had the balances right, and i could alter in the future. For the greens, I used a combo of spinach, kale, and arugula.
I also made the enchilada sauce for our enchiladas – it was also wonderful!
Since we had so much rice, we bagged it up and now we have rice in the freezer to serve with the enchiladas. I wonder how long I’ll wait to pull those out of the freezer and eat it all!!!
Thanks for dropping by to let me know! I’m so glad you guys enjoyed it!
Okay, so there are a few sississ at my house (guilty as charged!) about spicy food. How spicy does the one jalapeno make this dish? Could I substitute something a little less spicy (green chilies, maybe? I do not have much experience with spicy ingredients). I’d like the dish to have a little heat, but not hear that it’s too spicy. I realize the perception of spiciness is subjective. Thanks for your help!
It definitely does have a little bit of kick to it, so you can substitute in the green chile for your family of lightweights. 🙂 I hope you guys enjoy it!
Sounds great, love Mexican food. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks!
That is so awesome since it’s green! Love how simple and delish it is!
I should’ve made it in March for St. Patrick’s day, haha.
Love the bright, brilliant green in this rice! This looks like an easy and delicious side dish I’m sure my family will enjoy!
Thanks Trish! It is really easy, I hope you try it!
Yum! I made green rice before, using only parsley. It was delicious. I would love to try this.
Hope you love it!
This sounds like a yummy side! I love Mexican rice but have never tried a verde one. I will most likely make this with my next batch of tamales! The recipe is missing a step or two though (when to mix the processed spinach ingredients into the rice).
Yikes, thanks for the heads up Maddie! Will double check it now. 🙂
I have never tried green Mexican rice. I love cilantro and spinach so I am sure I would be a fan!
Yes! You’d love it!
Omg that looks heavenly. I love Mexican food ????
Thanks 🙂
Oh yum! I could devour a whole bowl of this in one sitting! It looks more than delicious! Now I’m starving! 🙂
I was loving the rice, but then I feasted my eyes on that Tamale bake. Dinner plans are made now.
Can I come over? 😉
We love green rice around here! Especially with this hot summer weather we keep BBQ-ing and this is such a fabulous side dish! Tweet Tweet!
This looks SO good! Tons of flavor and I love all the natural ingredients!
Thanks!
This looks delicious. I especially like what you did with the rice, it’s such a pretty color green.
I love having rice with dinner. I make it a few times a week. I will have to try the Green Mexican Rice recipe. It looks like it has a ton of flavor.
Thanks! It really is super flavorful!
We eat so much rice in our family and this will be such a nice change of taste and color 🙂 I love the vibrant green, its so much more appetizing!
Makes you feel healthier for eating it even though it is still rice, haha. Also an easy way to get the kids to have at least a bit of spinach.
This rice looks delicious! I love that it’s totally a kick up from plain rice, and as you said, only 2 minutes more makes a huge difference!
Ohhhh wow this rice looks perfect!!!!
Thanks!
Oh my family would be super happy with that hint of jalapeno. I’ve never made rice with spice like this before!
I love all kinds of rice. This would be something for my family to try. I’ll have to save this recipe. It looks really good and I love that it’s a lot different then what we’d normally eat.
Gorgeous side dish! The colors are amazing! I can’t really eat pasta anymore but I can still eat rice and this looks amazing! All those fresh herb flavors!!
Well at least you have rice! I would take rice over pasta any day!
This looks so tasty. I love the added garlic.
Thanks!
Chicken stock in rice? I would never have thought of that but love the idea. Thanks so much for sharing 🙂 This dish sounds amazing.
Thanks, the chicken stock really adds a lot of flavor!
This looks so yummy. I can think of the perfect dish to pair it with for our weekly menu next week!
Ooh, do tell!
I adore green rice!! Such a fresh and different way to serve rice. Great job!
Thanks Laura!
Yum. I’m a huge fan of rice, I eat it usually with every meal (and everyone else potatoes) so I could use a nice little change up for it!
Me too, even when I was on Weight Watchers I ate rice all the time in spite of the hit my points took. Totally worth it.
I am sure I would love this rice. I love garlic and cilantro together.
Thanks, I hope you try it!
This looks delicious, a great side dish for dinner. I love to try new sides, and this would go with so many main dishes.
Thanks Susan!
This rice looks delicious! We’ll definitely have to give it a try soon!
Thanks! Let me know if you try it!
Looks so vibrant and colorful, amazing recipe!
Thanks!
This is such a great recipe. It’s the perfect side, because it’s so healthy AND yummy.
Thanks Jennifer, I agree 🙂