Spanish Rice

Tonight I am making tacos, because it is Taco Tuesday!  In addition to the tacos and beans that I made last week (please see my blog about Taco Tuesday if you need those recipes) I'm making homemade spanish rice.  I'm pretty sure this is Dayne's favorite side dish, the kid can't get enough of the rice when I make it.  :-)  I like to use the left over rice the next day and make rice and cheese burritos.  It's super tasty!  This is a recipe I wrote down years ago (can't even remember from where), but have modified the heck out of it.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup white rice
1 15oz can diced tomatoes (mexican style or with green chiles) - DO NOT DRAIN
1 4oz can diced green chiles (mild)
4 tbsp taco seasoning
3 1/3 cup water
1/2 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
Mrs. Dash Southwest Chipotle Seasonings
Nonstick cooking spray
Optional:
2 celery stalks, diced small
1 can corn, drained
2 cans of chicken broth (instead of water)

Directions:
1.  Heat a large pot and add the nonstick cooking spray.  Saute the onion and garlic.  Add the celery (if using celery), saute until celery is almost tender. 
2.  Add the rice and saute until rice is opaque.
3.  Add the water (or chicken broth), can of tomatoes, diced green chiles, corn, taco seasoning and Mrs. Dash Chipotle Seasonings.  Use as much or as little of the Chipotle seasonings, this is up to you and how much heat you like.  I just give a good sprinkle.
4.  Bring pot to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to a simmer (low heat) and cook for 20 minutes.  Remove from heat, stir rice and let stand about 5 minutes.

Side Notes:
1.  I love to use celery if I have it in the house.  It just adds a little more flavor to the rice.
2.  I also love using corn in the rice too, if I have it on hand, again, adds a little extra flavor.
3.  I like to top the rice with a sprinkle of shredded cheese.
4.  You can substitute the white rice for brown rice, but allow extra cooking time.  Anywhere from 15-30 minutes.  Brown rice does not get as soft as white rice, so your spanish rice might be a tad al dente if using brown rice.  I personally prefer using white rice when making spanish rice.
5.  The green chiles do not add heat to the rice, they only add flavor.  Mild diced green chiles (such as Ortega) do not have any heat to them, they are pure flavor!
6.  If you don't have taco seasoning on hand, use a combination of ground cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, garlic salt and chili powder.  It will give you basically the same flavors.

Hope you enjoy this tasty side dish!