Delicious Food that Happens to be Gluten Free - Cilantro Lime Rice

We had Pioneer Woman White Chicken Enchiladas for dinner tonight. You should all be so lucky. I really do like that Pioneer Woman. Her white chicken enchiladas are fantastic. The recipe makes a ton so you can use it to feed a crew or sometimes I'll make 2 or three smaller batches and throw the extras in the freezer for a night that I'm feeling lazy.

HERE'S a link to her recipe. I follow it pretty closely, with the exception of adding heavy cream to the chicken. And I put my tortillas in the microwave to soften them instead of frying them in oil. And I use boneless, skinless chicken breast instead of a whole chicken. And I don't use jalapeno peppers in it. And you have to substitute a GF free flour to make the sauce. But other than that, I follow it exactly.

Pioneer Woman White Chicken Enchiladas

But this post isn't only about the mouth wateringly delicious enchiladas, it's also about my very favorite rice. Cilantro lime rice. I've kind of made this recipe up, just putting things in that sound good to me, but I'll try to pin down the amounts of things that I use so that others can also enjoy them some cilantro lime rice.

Here's the ingredients...

But not in the quantities shown. For instance, this recipe does not call for an entire cube of butter, nor does it require half a bottle of chicken cubes. Just wanted to clarify that point.

I made three cups of rice tonight, so, you know,

1.5 cups of rice

three cups of water

and 3 bouillon cubes...

one diced onion

a bunch of cilantro, chopped - and by "a bunch" I'm not specifically referring to the entire bunch that you grab at the grocery store. More like "some" cilantro

about a tsp. of minced garlic

1 or 2 Tbsp. of butter - it does wonders for the texture and flavor

salt & pepper, maybe 1/2 tsp. of each

and lime juice. My rule of thumb for this rice is that you want the juice of a whole lime for every cup of uncooked rice you have. I used 1.5 limes tonight.

And if you're me, you throw it all in your rice maker, give it a good stir and turn the sucker on.

Don't forget to turn it on. I've forgotten. More than once. It doesn't work out so well when your main course comes out of the oven and you have no cilantro lime rice. People don't like that.

At this point, I rely so heavily on my rice makers (i have 3) that I'm not sure I even know how to cook rice on the stove anymore. It's sad really. My mom got me a new one for Christmas. It came from Sam's and it has changed my life for the better.

Oh ricemaker. I DO love you so.

When it looks like the white rice cycle is close to coming to an end, I always stir it up a little and check the seasonings. Add a little salt or pepper or more lime juice at that point to make it just right and serve it up.

As aforementioned, we ate it with enchiladas tonight, but I make it for lots of things. We love it with fish tacos (if you live anywhere near me, you must come have fish tacos with us some time. we're thinking of having a cinco de mayo fish taco party) I've made it for taco salad, I make it all the time. Tonight, my kids literally cheered and told me that this rice is their favorite part of dinner. It's always a crowd pleaser.

Let's take another look, shall we?

There you have it. As far as I'm concerned, you really can't go wrong with anything that has cilantro and limes and garlic and rice in it. I might go pick at the leftovers now.