Copycat El Torito Spanish Rice
The staple rice I make when cooking my copycat El Torito steak or chicken fajitas. Also pairs well with my copycat Chili’s steak fajitas too.
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 tbsp onion finely chopped
- 375 ml long grain rice dry, uncooked
- 500 ml chicken broth
- 1 cup salsa make sure it is chunky
- 1/2 tsp salt completely optional
- 1/4 tsp pepper completely optional
- Wash rice under cold water until all the starch is removed. Strain water from rice.
- Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet over a medium heat
- Once the oil is hot, stir in the onion
- Cook onion until translucent and tender, but not brown. Usually takes about 5 minutes
- Pour the rice into the hot skillet
- Stir rice until thoroughly coated with oil
- Let the rice brown slightly, usually takes about 5 minutes
- Pour the chicken broth in to the skillet
- Put the salsa in the skillet with everything else
- Make sure to get all the rice from the edges of the skillet in to the chicken broth
- Reduce heat to low
- Cover skillet with lid
- Simmer rice mixture for about 20 minutes
- Cook the rice until all the liquid has been absorbed.
Once you put the lid on the skillet, don't remove it under any circumstances until at least 15 have passed.
If you think the rice has dried up before that time then your heat is too high. In that case, do give it a stir to prevent the rice from burning, add a tablespoon or so of water.
At the end of the cooking, the rice will be light and fluffy, all of the liquid will be gone and if you haven't stirred it during the cooking process, will be sticking up like little hedgehog spines. Look for those hedgehogs.
What brand of rice? It doesn't matter. I keep a lot of Basmati rice on hand so that's generally what I cook with.
As a substitute for the salsa you can just dice up a Roma tomato. Throw in about three leaves of finely chopped Cilantro if you have any.