Cookbook Club – Cinco de Mayo

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, we did a Mexican themed Cookbook Club in May. We sourced recipes from three places – Joy of Cooking (2019 Edition), America’s Test Kitchen, and Chef John’s Food Wishes. Feast your eyes on the whole fiesta on my Cookbook Club site. For now – my dish!

I adore rice, in all its many varieties, but I realized I’d never made Spanish rice. So when I saw this Spicy Spanish-Stye Rice in Chef John’s Best Mexican Recipes, I decided it was high time I changed that.

I melted butter, then stirred in long-grain white rice, jalapeno, green onion, and garlic.

I added chili powder, cumin, chipotle, cayenne, and salt, stirring until fragrant.

I stirred in chicken stock and tomato sauce.

I brought the mixture to a simmer, covered, reduced the heat, and simmered for 20 minutes. Then I turned the heat off and allowed to sit for 8 more minutes with the cover on.

I fluffed the rice with a fork. Done!

Very easy and I really enjoyed the kick from all the spices, but some people found the spiciness pretty intense. My one note on this recipe – after the 8 minutes of sitting after simmering, the rice was still a touch crunchy on the inside. This was a bit underdone for my tastes, but luckily it sat for awhile more between traveling to Cookbook Club and finally eating, and the rice had softened up by then.