Chipotle Mexican Rice

We eat a lot of rice in our house.  I love it.  It's something my picky eater will eat too, so it's a staple!  I don't normally dress the rice up too much...I just mix in some veggies and garlic.  But, lately, I've been wanting to be a bit more adventurous when it comes to our side dishes. I got the idea for this from a recipe I saw on Nibble Me This.  Chris (not to be confused with my non cooking boyfriend Chris) made a yummy looking Adobo Mexican Rice a few weeks back that I knew I had to twist and make my own!  Ok, ok, so I confess, I really just simplified his recipe because I really was feeling quite lazy the night I made this...I'm not ashamed to admit it.

I cooked my peppers on the grill, but just long enough to make them tender, and then diced them.  If you want to leave them raw or just saute in a pan until tender to save a step, by all means do it.  I just really wanted that fire roasted flavor in the rice to go along with the smokiness of the chipotle.  And speaking of the chipotle, I made a puree instead of chopping up the pepper by hand.  I actually took 4 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce and 2 Tbls of the sauce and placed them in a blender and pureed.  If you want to save even more time, you can use 1 Tbls of sauce and 1 pepper, finely diced.  Once again, feel free to put your own twist on it, I know I did!

Chipotle Mexican Rice

Inspired by Chris at Nibble Me This

Printable Recipe 
Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 large garlic clove, minced

1 cup Basmati rice

1 Tablespoon chipotle puree

2 cups chicken broth

1 red pepper, cut in half, seeds and stem removed

1 jalapeno pepper, seeds and stem removed

Garlic salt and pepper (optional)

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the garlic and allow to cook for 1 minute.  Add the rice and saute for 1 minute.  Stir in the chipotle puree and saute for 1 more minute.  Slowly add the chicken broth, turn up heat to high and bring to a boil.  Cover and turn down heat to low.  Simmer for 15 minutes or until all the water is absorbed.  Remove from heat and allow to sit for 5 minutes.  

While the rice is cooking, heat your grill or broiler.  Rub olive oil on the peppers, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place directly on grill grates, or on a broiler pan under the broiler.  Let them cook until just starting to soften, about 5-8 minutes.  Remove and dice.

When the rice is ready, add the peppers to it and fluff with a fork.  Season with garlic salt and pepper if you desire.  Enjoy!

Oh...and for those of you that stuck around until the end...I have some kick ass news!  Only, to find out the news, you are going to have to go check out yesterday's Nibble Me This post....of course I want you to check out the recipe Chris posted (the chicken looks so frickin' good, I wish I had eat-a-vision...you know, where you can just reach your hand into the screen and pull out that yummy piece of chicken...eat-a-vision) but I also want you to go all the way to the very bottom of the post....the last little part there about the guest post heads up....!! Go on...read it....I am excited to say the least :)