Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Rice In Mexican Cooking

Rice is among the most heavily cultivated of all grains and is the cultivated crop, which is eaten by more people around the world than any other is. In much of Asia, Africa and South and Central America as well as Mexico. It is hard to imagine Mexican cuisine without rice; after corn, it is the most important staple of the Mexican diet, with a large number of Mexican rice recipes being classic examples of Mexican cooking.

As central as rice is to Mexican cooking, it is a relatively recent arrival in the grand scheme of things, having arrived in what is now Mexico with colonists and explorers from Spain and Portugal. The peoples of the new world took to the new grain with enthusiasm and rice was soon one of the most important staples in the Mexican kitchen. Some of the dishes, which are now considered to be traditional Mexican rice recipes date from the early days after rice, began to be cultivated in the Americas.

Traditional Mexican Rice Recipe

Arroz con pollo is both a classic Mexican rice dish and a classic Mexican chicken dish. From the Spanish for "rice with chicken," this is the Mexican take on this timeless comfort food and it is an incredibly satisfying one. This is one Mexican rice recipe you may want to try making at home - it is a great change of pace from the familiar American version with canned soup.

Arroz con pollo is an excellent example of how recipes, which originated in Spain became Mexican recipes through adaptation to use locally available ingredients as well as to work in flavors and ingredients, which became popular with the European settlers. In the case of this recipe, tomatoes found their way in to the cooking pot, as did the more assertive Mexican oregano as a substitute for the European variety, which was unavailable in the country.

Spanish Cuisine Adapts To The New World

Since rice was introduced to Mexico by the Spanish, a number of traditional Mexican rice recipes are adaptations of Spanish dishes using the ingredients available in Mexico. One example is paella, which is a rice recipe, which is strongly identified with Spain. However, Mexican cooks were doubtless creating rice and seafood dishes for a long time before paella as it is eaten in Europe was popularized by cooks in Valencia.

Of course, even Spanish paella happens to have a slight Mexican accent due to the inclusion of tomatoes and quite often, bell peppers - both of which are native to the Americas and were brought back to Europe from the new world! Needless to say, this is also a very popular Mexican rice dish with many regional variations being found throughout Mexico, especially in coastal regions of the country.

Lightly seasoned Mexican rice is another of the better-known Mexican rice recipes. This rice is served as a complement to a wide variety of Mexican dishes, particularly beans. This is a dish, which is quite similar to Spanish rice; and just as with paella, this rice actually contains some new world ingredients.

An essential staple of the Mexican pantry and of the country's cuisine, rice has assumed the same status in Mexico as it holds in much of the outside world. Rice is just one example of an ingredient, which came over to Mexico from the old world and was made into a part of something new and different. Mexican rice recipes may not have as long of a history in the Mexican culinary tradition as say, salsa, but it is clearly an addition to Mexican food for which the country's cuisine is richer.
MexicanFoodRecipes.org is the place to look if you want to find the most comprehensive list of excellent Mexican recipes all in one place. We have everything from tacos to tamales and fajitas to casseroles, soups, salads, salsa recipes and everything else you can think of, which you can cook yourself at home with ease.