Mexican Rice with Shrimp

Lenten season is here and I have a one-pot meatless meal for you.  Mexican Rice with Shrimp!  Once a week for the next seven weeks, I will be posting a new meatless recipe (no red meat, pork, or chicken) as part of a Lent recipe blog hop, which means you’ll find many more ideas for your meatless Friday’s at the end of this post.

Here is what you will need for a Mexican Rice with Shrimp, one-pot meal

One item not pictured is the garlic salt.  I left that out accidentally, but it ended up being a good thing because it reminded me that we can always add it later.  Salt is a sensitive ingredient that should be used sparingly in my opinion.  As long as there is some salt included in the recipe to help bring out the flavors, you don’t need to get crazy and add a lot.  It can always be added at the end, so taste test often!

First off, make sure to dice up the tomatoes, onion, and garlic before you start.  You’re going to want to have these ready to go as soon as the rice is done being toasted.

Then, in a large saute pan on medium heat, add roughly a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, but not more than two.

Add the rice and stir constantly to keep the rice from burning or getting too brown.  Toast until you see some of the rice grains begin to change into a light golden brown color, but still very much white in color.  This should take about ten minutes.

Once you see the rice start to change color, go ahead and add the onion and garlic.  Cook them in the rice for about a minute stirring constantly still.  You definitely want to keep the rice, garlic and onion moving because they will burn easily.

Still on medium heat, add the tomato and incorporate it into the rice well.  Let the rice soak up the tomato juices for a minute.  Continue to stir, toss, and mix like no tomorrow.

After the rice has had a chance to start cooking with the tomato (about a minute), add the four cups of chicken broth…

and all the seasonings.

Let it come to a low boil.  Reduce the heat to low, then add the chopped cilantro.

I typically remove the stems from the cilantro then loosely chop the leaves, this time however, I didn’t.  Instead I chopped the entire bunch into three sections (just to shorten the stems).

Stir the cilantro in the rice well, then cover again and keep the temp lowwwww.  Cook for another ten minutes.

After ten minutes, add the shrimp and stir making sure to submerge them into the rice.

See what I mean?  Submerge them.  Press the rice down to seal them in there good.  The shrimp will start to cook instantly.

Return the lid onto the pan again and cook another five minutes.  After five minutes turn off the heat.

Serve immediately!

I sometimes like to add a sprinkle of Lawry’s garlic salt or lemon juice.  Or both :).

Related Recipe: Shrimp and mushroom quinoa with white truffle oil

And now for some more Lenten recipes!