Combine the flavors of Mexican rice and the cooking style of Asian rice to create a unique Mexican fried rice recipe to serve for dinner on your next Taco Tuesday.
This Mexican Fried Rice Recipe is a delicious twist on the traditional Mexican rice that is cooked in a saucy liquid. Traditional Mexican rice is delicious, but we love the texture that cooking it fried rice style gives it.
This Mexican fried rice recipe is also a great way to quickly make a side dish using precooked rice from a batch cooking session or leftover rice. The key to making great fried rice is using cooked, cold rice. When I make any type of fried rice recipe, I like to batch cook rice the day before and refrigerate it overnight so it gets nice and cold. Cooked rice also freezes well if you wanted to make a larger batch and freeze it in the amounts you need for this and other rice recipes.
Here is how to easily cook rice in the oven and here is how to cook white basmati rice in an Instant Pot. You can find more tips for batch cooking recipes as well as lots of delicious recipes in my cookbook, Prep-Ahead Meals from Scratch.
When you add the rice to the pan, be sure to stir it frequently, almost constantly, to blend all of the ingredients and prevent it from sticking. Once the spices and seasonings are well incorporated into the rice, you can let it sit a little longer without stirring. This will give you those little bits of crunchy rice that are so delicious in fried rice.
I love adding a healthy amount of sliced green onions at the end for a pop of flavor and color. You could also add black beans, jalapeño peppers, or cilantro. Use the recipe below on how to make Mexican Fried Rice to create this tasty dish.
Mexican Fried Rice Recipe
Ingredients:
- 3 cups cooked white rice
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup frozen corn, thawed
- 1 4-ounce can green chiles, drained
- 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 2 green onions, sliced (save a few slices to garnish if you wish.)
Directions:
- Add two tablespoons of the olive oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- When the oil is hot, add the onion, and sauté for 3 to 4 minutes or until soft.
- Add the tomatoes, corn, and green chiles, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the liquid has cooked out.
- Add the seasonings and garlic, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until the garlic begins to brown.
- Turn the heat down to medium, add the remaining olive oil and the cooked rice.
- Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently to blend the rice and seasonings.
- Stir in the green onions, and remove the pan from the heat.
- Top with the remaining green onions.
This Mexican style fried rice is delicious served alongside an entree or stuffed into burritos, tacos, or taquitos!
Printable Recipe for Mexican Fried Rice
- 3 cups cooked white rice
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup frozen corn, thawed
- 1 4-ounce can green chiles, drained
- ½ cup chopped tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 green onions, sliced
- Add two tablespoons of the olive oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat.
- When the oil is hot, add the onion, and sauté for 3 to 4 minutes or until soft.
- Add the tomatoes, corn, and green chiles, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until the liquid has cooked out.
- Add the seasonings and garlic, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until the garlic begins to brown.
- Turn the heat down to medium, add the remaining olive oil and the cooked rice.
- Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently to blend the rice and seasonings.
- Stir in the green onions, and remove the pan from the heat.
- Top with the remaining green onions.
More Rice Recipes:
Summer Vegetables Shrimp Fried Rice
Chicken and Root Vegetables Over Rice
Judy says
Easy and good. Just added a few red pepper flakes. Will be having the rice tonight with chicken enchiladas.
Kathy Enis says
Can you make this fried Mexican rice ahead and freeze it ?
Thank you
Kathy
Janet says
Great dish! My family loved it. Served with lime marinated chicken breast. Added black beans to rice and i forgot to add the green onions. It was great, next time I will prep them and set out ready to add before serving. I was short on time so I used 2 packages of ready to use rice. It worked well.
Lou says
I had some leftover brown rice and used it in this recipe. Amazing!
Kerr Family, Dublin, Ireland says
Oh wow, I just made this tonight for my husband and three teenage sons and it’s all gone! All they left me was the washing up! I kept to the recipe, served it with spicy chicken goujons and a bowl of roasted red pepper and chilli sauce for my eldest who loves his food hot.
Thank you so much for the recipe – definite keeper!
Trayce says
This Rice was AWESOME! 5 Stars from my Hubby too!! Thank you! Will be making again!! And Again!
Tabitha says
Wow! I’ve never been on this site before, but this recipe is enough to keep me coming back!! I’ve made other Mexican Rice dishes before, like the ones you start dry and cook in stock with tomato paste – and this was so much better. It even hid that my rice was a tad overcooked!! I used a whole can of diced tomatoes and left out the corn and chiles just because I didn’t have them, and probably put more than the called for seasonings. It was awesome. Definitely going in the recipe book!!
Alicia says
Best Mexican Fried Rice we’ve ever tasted! I followed the recipe exactly with one slight variation: I used 1/2 tsp. of regular paprika and 1/2 tsp. of sweet smoked paprika, whih gave a bit more depth to the flavor. Plenty of ideas for reusing the leftovers, since there’s just the two of us. Lots of room for improvising!
Priscila says
Yessss! Perfect Mexican rice. Made this last night for hubby and I, and we both loved it!
I had some leftover cooked pork chops so I cut those into small, thin pieces and sauteed them with the olive oil and onion. I didn’t have frozen corn, so it was frozen peas and carrots instead! Next time I want to add not only the corn, but some black beans as well. I would’ve liked to have added more chopped tomatoes, so I’ll remember that for next time. Finally, we never buy green chiles, but I did add a dash of cayenne pepper (1/8 tsp maybe?) and it was excellent! Oh, also, we topped it off with some grated cheddar on top because cheese makes everything better! 😀
Alea Milham says
I love your substitutions, your dish sounds delicious! And you are right, cheese does make everything better. 😀
Michelle says
This is an awesome recipe. My husband and two young adult daughters like this. I make extra rice so I can have this on hand.
Annie says
Loved, loved this recipe and have made it three times as a huge hit with my family! Very easy, especially if you do all of the prep ahead of time.