Copycat Chipotle Cilantro Lime Rice Recipe

Make your own fluffy and flavorful lime rice.

Photo byBrian Child, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

I love Chipotle for its convenience and fresh ingredients, but it may be its cilantro lime rice that steals the show.

Luckily, it's not that hard to make your own fluffy and flavorful rice similar to Chipotle's.

What is in Chipotle's cilantro lime rice?

According to the Chipotle website, the company uses long-grain rice and cooks it fresh each day:

"Every morning, we make our cilantro-lime white rice from scratch in each of our restaurants. We steam it with bay leaves to impart their herbal fragrance, then season it with lime and lemon juices and toss it with cilantro for its fresh, slightly tart flavor. It's like a classic white T-shirt - familiar, never goes out of style, and goes well with tomatillo-green chili salsa."

How does Chipotle make its rice?

We know Chipotle uses the following for its cilantro lime rice:

• long grain rice
• bay leaf
• lime juice
• lemon juice
• fresh cilantro

Based on that, we can come up with a Chipotle rice recipe that is surprisingly similar.

Photo byLindsay MoeonUnsplash

Copycat Chipotle Cilantro Lime Rice Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup basmati rice
• 1.5 cups chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• bay leaf
• juice from 1/2 a lime
• juice from 1/2 a lemon
• 2 to 3 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
• kosher salt to taste

Directions:

1. Rinse the basmati rice well until the water runs clear. You can do this by putting the rice in a bowl and rinsing it under cold water. (Don't skip this step. It's the key to having fluffy rice.)
2. In a medium cooking pot or saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat, then add the rice and toss it to coat.
3. Add the chicken broth and bay leaves.
4. Bring the water to a boil. Turn the heat to low, cover the pot, and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until all the water is absorbed.
5. Turn off the heat and let sit for 5 minutes
6. Add lime juice, lemon juice, chopped cilantro, and salt to taste. Fluff and serve.

What to serve it with

Photo byDragne MariusonUnsplash

Cilantro lime rice goes well with many different dishes. You can add it to burritos, serve it alongside tacos, or make it as a side dish to be served with meat such as pork carnitas or Barbacoa beef.

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