Spanish Rice with Bacon

 And what’s a Mexican Fiesta without rice?

Nada!

So…Early Saturday morning I created my own version of  Spanish Rice.  But since this was a BREAKFAST dish, I knew MY recipe had to include BACON.

So here is my version…

SPANISH RICE with BACON
8-10 strips of thick cut bacon, diced
1 large onion, diced
2 cups uncooked white rice, rinsed and drained
4 cups chicken broth
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 10 oz. can Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies

Now…the HOW TO…

Rinse the uncooked rice thoroughly in a colander to remove the starch from the grains…then set aside.

Dice the raw bacon and throw it into a heavy bottom pot.  Cook until crispy, and remove from the pan.  (Leave the bacon grease in the pan.)

COOKING TIP:  When you want CRISPY bacon, always cook the bacon alone!  If you add the onions, etc. the bacon will NEVER get crispy…it will simply steam!

Stir the rinsed and drained, uncooked rice into the bacon fat.  Cook and stir for several minutes to “toast” the grains.  Then stir in the onion and garlic.  Sprinkle in the packet of Dry Taco Seasoning Mix and stir to combine.  Then add the can of tomatoes with Green Chilies.  Mix well and add about 3 1/2 Cups of Chicken Broth.  Stir to combine and simmer, covered, over low heat for about 18 minutes.  Remove from the heat, remove the lid and fluff the rice.  Then stir the crispy bacon into the rice.

Now add the paper towels as directed below…

COOKING TIP: Remove rice from the heat and drape 3 or 4 paper towels over the pot of rice and place the lid back on top of the paper towels. Those layers of paper towels will absorb all the extra moisture and steam that can make the rice sticky and clumpy.  Try it!  It really works!

After the paper towels were put in place, we transported the pot of rice to our tailgate spot.  Then I removed the paper towels and fluffed the rice once more…and it was ready to eat.

(At this point you could stir in other veggies like multicolored peppers, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, etc. if you’d like some more color and  “crunch” in your brunch!)

 

 

 

Rice with bacon?