This restaurant style Spanish rice recipe uses all simple ingredients and cooks to perfection in your Instant Pot pressure cooker. With all the flavors you know and love, it’s the perfect compliment to your next Mexican style dinner fiesta!
Most Mexican restaurants include a main dish, followed by 2 side dishes – refried beans and Spanish rice. Our Instant Pot Refried Beans has you covered for that recipe. And now we’re proud to offer a truly awesome and easy recipe for Instant Pot Spanish Rice.
What is Spanish (Mexican) Rice?
So basically, the names are interchangable. Some recipes call it Mexican rice, some call it Spanish rice. While there are recipes for a more traditional rice as is made in Spain, for all intents and purposes, in the United States the names are really interchangeable with the two. The recipe consists of a long-grain white rice that’s been toasted and seasoned with tomato and various latin spices, the most common of which is cumin. Occasionally it will also contain any combination of peas, carrots and corn. The Instant Pot is so perfect for rice recipes and Spanish rice is no exception.
What do I need to make this recipe?
Long-grain white rice such as Jasmine or Basmati rice. Of course a package of good old long-grain white rice is perfectly fine.
Seasonings include chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, salt and pepper
Diced tomatoes with chiles, about ½ cup of canned is perfect. Or you can dice a couple of Roma or Campari tomatoes.
White onion provides a wonderful flavor base by sauteing first in 2 teaspoons of olive oil.
Chicken broth provides the liquid base.
Toasting Rice and Spices
After we sauté our onions, we’ll add in the rice and spices, which will get sauteed (toasted) for about 2 minutes. By toasting the rice and spices, we’re bringing a whole other level of flavor to the dish. Toasting white rice brings out a deeper, almost nutty flavor and this step also “blooms” the spices. It’s an important step that really adds that restaurant quality to the recipe. After we’ve toasted everything, pour about ¼ cup of broth into the pot and scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon. This is called deglazing and all those little bits we scrape are loaded with even more flavor. This also prevents us from getting a burn notice while pressure cooking, so make sure to scrape up those cooked on bits!
Pressure Cook and Natural Release
After we’ve secured the lid, we’ll pressure cook for 4 minutes, followed by a 10 minute natural release. It will take the Instant Pot a few minutes to come to pressure before the 4 minute countdown begins. After the 4 minutes are up, the timer will begin counting up. After 10 minutes, go ahead and release any remaining pressure.
Remove Lid and Fluff
Now that our rice has cooked to perfection, it’s time to remove the lid and give everything a stir with a wooden spoon or fork. The rice will smell amazing and become nice and fluffy and will be the perfect side dish for your dinner. If you want to add any peas, add some frozen peas at this point and simply stir them in.
Storage and Reheating
Most rice dishes are best enjoyed at the time they are cooked. That’s just the nature of rice. If you do have leftovers however, store them in an airtight container as soon as possible. When reheating in a microwave, adding a tablespoon of water can help rehydrate any dried parts. Store in refrigerator no more than a couple of days.
Recipe
Best Damn Instant Pot Spanish Rice
- Total Time: About 30 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 servings
Description
A restaurant quality Spanish rice recipe that cooks to perfection in your Instant Pot pressure cooker.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup white onion, diced
- ½ teaspoon course salt
- ½ teaspoon hot smoked paprika*
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup Jasmine or Basmati rice (long grain white rice)
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ cup canned diced tomatoes with green chiles
- 1 cup chicken broth
Instructions
- Place the rice in a medium colander, and rinse under cold water until the water runs clear. Set aside.
- Place olive oil in the instant pot and set to “sauté” function.
- When the pot is hot, add the diced onion and sauté for 2-3 minutes or until onions start to become translucent.
- Add the rice, chili powder, cumin, paprika, salt, pepper and diced tomatoes to the instant pot and stir for 1 minute.
- Turn the instant pot off. Pour in the broth, and scrape up any brown bits from the with a wooden spoon.
- Secure lid and make sure the valve is set to sealing. Pressure cook (manual on some appliances) on high pressure for 4 minutes. Let pressure naturally release for 10 minutes, then release any remaining pressure.
- Press cancel, carefully remove lid, and stir/fluff with a wooden spoon or fork.
Notes
*If you don’t have hot smoked paprika, use ½ teaspoon smoked paprika and ⅛ teaspoon cayenne.
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 4 min + 10 min release
- Category: Side dish
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Mexican
Patricia K says
This rice was the best Spanish Rice I have ever tasted. I followed the recipe as close as possible. I did get a burn message on my instant pot so I finished cooking on the stove top. The rice was very creamy and the spices were perfect. It did have a very nice smokey flavor. This will be my go to Spanish Rice for now on.
Side Note-This is not the first time my Instant pot has given me the burn message So I have to figure out why my instant pot gives me burn messages when trying to cook Spanish Rice.
Kathy928 says
My husband stated it’s the best Spanish rice he’s ever had! I thought it was a little too spicy and will tone it down a little and not add the cayenne pepper. I t used the original mild rotelle canned tomatoes and that with the 1/8 tsp cayenne( since I only had smoked paprika) was surprisingly very spicy. I added a can of rinsed black beans hoping that would maybe stretch out the spiciness and everyone liked it I think I might just be a lightweight so I’m still giving it 5 stars! This will be my go to recipe for making it
Tony George (Personal) says
This turned out delicious! Used regular smoked paprika because I was making for a group. Very very good!
Robin P says
Can brown rice be used in place of white rice?
RecipeTeacher says
I’ve not tested this particular recipe with brown rice. Brown rice usually takes longer to cook.
Teri Marotta says
This is excellent! I made it just as it is and it turned out perfect! Many Thanks 🙂
RecipeTeacher says
Thanks Teri! I’m glad you liked it!
Chrystal says
Have you tried the recipe doubles or tripled? Would you adjust the cook time?
RecipeTeacher says
No problem doubling or tripling the recipe. Time will be the same.
Bonnie Hibbard says
Hey there..Jason.
I do not see any measurements for paprika in this IP spanish rice dish. I will add some but the right measurements would be good to have to add to this recipe.
I really do love your recipes. My 1st try with my new IP was for the pork tenderloin and it was super. Tender and I loved it. Thank you.
Now just need the correct amount of paprika for this.
RecipeTeacher says
Hey Bonnie! Thanks for pointing that out. I’ve made the correction. It’s 1/2 teaspoon of smoked hot paprika. If you don’t have smoked hot paprika, use regular smoked paprika and add 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne.