If you’ve never made rice in the Instant Pot you should start by making this Mexican Rice! You’ll never want to make rice another way.
It’s full of flavor and the perfect side dish to any meal.
If you follow the purple plan you could use brown rice to reduce the points. Making this Mexican Rice as is would be 4 points (for 1/2 cup) for blue, green and purple.
You will want to use a long grain rice for this recipe. I used jasmine rice.
The most important thing to do is to rinse off your rice before cooking with it. This will remove any extra starch. Trust me, your rice will taste much better.
There have been a couple of times that I’ve forgotten to rinse off the rice and I can tell right away.
As far as lightening up this recipe there wasn’t too much I did. Most of the points come from the rice itself.
A lot of Mexican rice recipes call for as much as 1/4 cup of oil. I only used 1 tablespoon of oil which reduced the points quite a bit.
If I used 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil it would’ve been 17 points!! Using only 1 tablespoon of oil was only 4 points. That’s a huge difference.
You could make this recipe vegetarian by replacing the chicken broth with vegetable broth.
To give this rice lots of flavor I sautéed onions and garlic in oil. The smell of that alone gets me excited for any recipe!
I turned the Instant Pot off when that was done then added the chicken broth, followed by the rice.
You’ll want to give it a good stir then pour the tomato sauce over it. Lock the lid to the Instant Pot and let it cook on high pressure for 3 minutes.
Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes. This step is very important! If you open the lid after the 3 minute cook time the rice will not be ready.
All that’s left to do after that is to fluff the rice with a fork.
I love cooking rice in the Instant Pot. You don’t have to worry about stirring it or anything!
Yield: 8 (half cup) servings (4 points per serving for blue, green and purple)
- 2 cups long grain rice (rinsed)
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup yellow onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 8 oz. tomato sauce
- Salt and pepper, to taste
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Turn the (6 qt.) Instant Pot to sauté. Add the olive oil, onion and garlic. Stir for 1 minute then turn the Instant Pot off.
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Add the chicken broth to the Instant Pot then add the rice. Stir together then pour the tomato sauce over the rice.
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Secure the lid and lock it. Make sure the lever is set to seal. Press the manual button and set the time for 3 minutes.
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When the time is up let the pressure manually release for 10 minutes, then release the pressure and remove the lid. Fluff the rice with a fork and serve.
Here are some more WW friendly Instant Pot recipes to try:
Instant Pot Chicken Fried Rice
If you’re looking for some zero point recipes, check out my post 20 Zero Point Recipes or my post 20 (More) Zero Point Recipes. Both are filled with delicious recipes that won’t cost you a single point! They’re perfect for days when you’re running low on points, or trying to save up points for a night out.
If you’re looking for dessert recipes you can visit 50 Weight Watchers Freestyle Desserts. It’s filled with delicious desserts perfect for Weight Watchers!
Kimberly
April 6, 2021 at 7:01 pmTry frying your rice or “browning” it before you add the liquids. It helps the rice bloom. It’s much more flavorful. It doesn’t have to be a lot of oil still. ❤️
Diana
April 7, 2021 at 12:38 pmI love the recipes, the only problem is I and others do not own an instant pot. I love and use my slow cooker. More recipes for that would be awesome! Thanks
keepingonpoint
April 7, 2021 at 12:44 pmMost of my Instant Pot recipes include instructions for the slow cooker as well. 🙂