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I have a dear Mexican friend that showed me how to make this wonderful substitute for the Spanish rice. It has been in her family for generations so she knew how to make it, but never wrote down the recipe. I've added a few short cuts (like the canned tomatoes and taco seasoning), but it remains pretty much as she relayed it to me years ago.
I have a dear Mexican friend that showed me how to make this wonderful substitute for the Spanish rice. It has been in her family for generations so she knew how to make it, but never wrote down the recipe. I've added a few short cuts (like the canned tomatoes and taco seasoning), but it remains pretty much as she relayed it to me years ago.
- Carbohydrate 19.7482768752425 g
- Cholesterol 104.438569305256 mg
- Fat 24.5974814671488 g
- Fiber 0.187025000393391 g
- Protein 26.6002045636971 g
- Saturated Fat 9.40531422097335 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (676g)
- Sodium 2279.52397727132 mg
- Sugar 19.5612518748491 g
- Trans Fat 2.08354795782518 g
- Calories 396 calories
Step-by-step
- Melt the butter in a large 12" skillet. Saute the onion and garlic until it is soft and translucent. Add the vermicelli and stir until some of the pasta browns.
- Add the undrained tomatoes, chicken broth, and taco seasoning. Stir until the seasoning is mixed well. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes.
- Remove lid and stir. Mixture should still be a little soupy. Mix in parmasan cheese. Serve.
Limited pantry space requires efficient techniques, and toasting dry pasta directly in butter provides deep flavor without extra pans. Utilizing canned tomatoes with green chiles alongside chicken broth introduces a reliable moisture balance that eliminates the need to measure individual spices from scratch. Moving from preserved items to fresh produce alters moisture levels significantly, demanding careful observation during the simmer phase.
- Break the twelve-ounce package of vermicelli into pieces measuring roughly two inches to ensure even browning across all strands.
- Maintain medium heat when sautéing the minced garlic and diced onion in one-quarter cup of butter to prevent scorching before the pasta enters the skillet.
- Stir the broken pasta continuously until roughly half of the strands turn a deep golden brown, which develops the nutty baseline flavor.
- Simmer the covered mixture for exactly fifteen minutes over reduced heat so the starch hydrates fully without dissolving into a paste.
- Adjust the liquid volume proportionally if halving or doubling the batch size, keeping the ratio of thirty-two ounces of chicken broth to the standard pasta weight balanced.
Properly hydrated noodles retain a slightly soupy consistency before the grated parmesan cheese goes in. Stirring the cheese into the hot mixture creates a creamy emulsion that thickens the remaining liquid instantly.
