Warning: This recipe is about as Mexican as the chicken fajita, and has only slightly more gastronomic merit than microwave ramen.
That said, it is perfect student food, being yummy, cheap, quick and easy to make, and requiring a minimum of washing up. It also goes well with any other faux-Mexican travesties you can think of cooking up.
Ingredients:
- Rice: amount limited only by the size of your pan
- Chicken stock: 1.5x the volume of rice (stock cubes are perfectly acceptable)
- Onion, finely chopped: one onion per 250g rice
- Garlic, finely chopped/pressed (optional): ~one clove per onion
- Chopped Plum Tomato: one can per onion
- Oil: a splash
Method:
- Preparation: Chop onions, (chop garlic/load garlic press), (prepare stock cube), (chop tomatoes).
- Heat some oil in a saucepan over a low heat, and add the onions, garlic and rice1. Fry, stirring occasionally so it doesn't burn, until the onion is soft.
- Add the chicken stock, turn the heat right down, put the lid on, and leave it alone until the rice is cooked. If you feel the need to stir it, shake the pan around without taking the lid off. To re-iterate, don't take the lid off!
- When the rice is cooked, stir in the chopped tomatoes, and heat through.
- If you're feeling really slobby, eat straight from saucepan.
1 - yes, you really are frying the uncooked rice. Be brave!
Troubleshooting:
- Onions are crunchy: Fry longer before adding stock
- Rice is crunchy: Leave for longer before taking lid off, add more stock
- Rice disintegrates into goo: Add less stock, don't shake pan
- Rice burns to bottom of pan: Add more stock, shake pan while cooking, don't cook for so long
- Most rice problems can probably be rescued by following the advice in how to cook rice.