Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Easy Mexican Rice & Steak Fajitas

I wanted to make dinner without having to go to the store tonight, so I decided to make simple fajitas and Mexican rice.

Easy Mexican Rice

Ingredients

1 cup Rice long grain, uncooked
1 cup Water
1 cup Chicken broth
1/2 ea Onion diced
1 ea Tomato diced
1 tablespoon Garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon Cumin
1 tablespoon Tomato bullion
1 tablespoon Sugar ( turbinado )
2 tablespoon Butter divided


Instructions
Saute onion in 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat until translucent.

Add remaining butter and as soon as melted add rice. Saute rice like a pilaf until it starts to brown. Add spices and tomato and saute for another minute. Add broth, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

NOTE: Feel free to add corn, cilantro, and/or black beans with the tomato and spices. If the tomato is juicy, it may take longer than 20 minutes to evaporate the liquid.

Yields: 4 Servings

Based off of Best Mexican Rice on Cook.com


We added a few saffron threads to the liquids and I liked the difference it made. We also added some cilantro and a handful of white corn. Next time, I'd like to char the corn on the cob on the grill first.

For the fajitas, I marinaded a flat iron steak and some pepper & onion our favorite fajita marinade. We like it with chicken or beef.

2 tablespoon Oil
3 tablespoon Lime Juice
1-2 clove Garlic minced
1 1/2 teaspoon Season salt
1 1/2 teaspoon Oregano
1 1/2 teaspoon Cumin
1/2 teaspoon Chili powder
1/2 teaspoon Paprika
1/2 teaspoon Red pepper ground
1 tablespoon Cilantro chopped

After a few hours in the marinade, I put the steak on the Big Green Egg, which was set up for direct heat at 600 f. Yeah, it was running rather hot!I shut the lid and left it alone for 4 minutes. Then I flipped it and let it go for another 4 minutes. I pulled it off of the Egg at that point. The steak was at an internal temp of 130f before letting it rest.

I sauteed the veggies for a few minutes, shredded some colby jack cheese that I had smoked, and tossed it all on some flour tortillas.Not bad for a quickie.