Easy Recipes: Beefy Mexican Rice (A Family Recipe)

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This past week I made this delicious and super easy Mexican rice meal. Dinner was on the table in about 20 minutes. It is perfect for a busy weeknight.

We have this family cookbook that was put together when my Grandmother was still alive. See, my Grandmother is the youngest of seven daughters. In 2004, even though many of the daughters had already passed away, their children decided to pull together family recipes and have it published in a cookbook. It was appropriately titled with the family name of the daughters- their mother was a Wood and their father was a Troy. A beautiful picture circa early 1930’s was used as the cover photo.

The sisters names (in order from left to right/ top to bottom in the photo below) Ruby, Artie, Willie, Maxine (my Grandmother), Grace and Zula. Isn’t Zula a beautiful name? Lillian is not photographed- she passed away as a toddler.

I have had this cookbook on my book shelf since 2004 and there are many recipes inside that were submitted by my Grandmother. It makes me so proud to see her name in this book and many of the recipes I remember her making when I was younger.

As I searched the cookbook I found a Mexican Rice recipe and it looked tasty. What do you know, it was submitted by my mother. I am excited to share this recipe with you and hope to share many more family recipes with you from this cookbook.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef (or 1 lb of taco meat from my batch cooking recipe)
• 1 (11 oz) can Mexican corn with green and red peppers
• 1 1/2 c water
• 1 1/2 c uncooked Minute Rice
• 16 oz picante sauce
• 1 tsp. chili powder (omit this if you’re using my taco meat as a base since it is already seasoned)
• 1 c grated cheese
• Optional Toppings: sour cream, chips, guacamole

The beauty in using my batch cooked taco meat recipe is that it easily shaves 10 minutes off your cook time.

Take one pound of it out of the freezer and let it thaw.

Toss the taco meat into a skillet and heat it up for about 3 minutes over low-med heat. Mine was still a tad bit frozen in the middle, but it heated up well in just a matter of minutes.

If you’re using plain hamburger, brown it in the skillet over medium heat.

Once your meat is done, add the corn.

My can of corn also had a few black beans added in. I liked the flavor this added.

Add the picante sauce.

Add the rice and the water.

If you’ve used plain hamburger meat this is where you will also add the chili powder.

Stir to combine well and pop the lid on it.

Simmer over low heat for  5-10 minutes.

In the meantime, grate your cheese.

When the beefy rice is done all of the liquid will be evaporated like this photo.

Plate it up.

Serve each plate with some grated cheese on top. I also served this with tortilla chips- we are a family that loves to dip.

I added some sour cream to mine. Yum!

And dinner is done!