This dish is easy to make, cooks fast, and is a one-frying-pan meal. I should really create a new category called “21 things to do with leftover roast chicken”, and this recipe would fit right in with a bunch of others. (Maybe I’ll work my way up to 21.) The other gem in this recipe is the use of cauliflower rice.
It’s easy to substitute grains with other kinds of food that can compliment the dish. This recipe uses cauliflower as the rice, however the dish holds up quite well with quinoa or brown rice. I keep frozen packets of Trader Joe’s Organic Brown Rice in my freezer – each packet heats up in 4 minutes.
If you’re going for cauliflower, just chop up the cauliflower to a “rice-like” consistency, and add it to the saucepan. If you want more detailed instructions, here’s a link from About.com that helps, and there’s another one at eHow.com. There are an abundance of cauliflower rice recipes on the Internet, from cauliflower fried rice to cauliflower rice pudding.
If you’re going with quinoa, it will take about 15 minutes to cook, so you’ll want to prepare it ahead of time. If you have leftover quinoa in the refrigerator, that will work too.
Mexican/Spanish Rice
Ingredients
- about 1 tablespoon of olive oil for the frying pan
- about 2 cups of chopped tomatoes (Roma or other tomatoes); I use a food processor to dice the tomatoes
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 3 stalks of celery, diced
- about 2 cups of shredded or chopped roast or grilled chicken
- about 1/2 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt (or to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon of cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon of tumeric
- 1/4 teaspoon of chipotle powder (or other spicy pepper-like powder such as cayenne powder; this is optional and spicy!)
- about 1 to 2 cups of cauliflower rice (brown rice or quinoa work well too)
- Optional: 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (or other kind)
Method
- Preheat the olive oil in a frying pan on medium heat.
- Add the celery, onions, and tomatoes to the frying pan and let sizzle for a few minutes.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for a 5 to 10 minutes while stirring occasionally.
- Enjoy. This dish reheats well too! I really like this dish with a bit of shredded cheddar cheese sprinkled over it – it’s up to you.
Good to hear!
This came out SO good! Thanks for the great recipe!!