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Copycat Cilantro Lime Brown Rice is the 10-minute homemade version of the famous Chipotle brown rice. It's so easy and goes with all things Mexican!
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If you love Chipotle Cilantro Lime Brown Rice, this recipe lets you make it right at home with minimal effort! In 10-minutes, you can turn brown rice into a citrusy, festive side dish for your Mexican-inspired eats.
You'll love the simplicity of heating up cooked brown rice and adding fresh cilantro and fresh limes. Not only is it crazy easy and bursting with flavor, but it's naturally vegan and gluten free!
Cilantro lime brown rice is super versatile too! We love it with burritos, steak nachos, taco meat, healthy taco bowls, vegetarian skillet enchiladas, burrito bowls, refried black beans, and of course, restaurant style salsa. Whether it's game day, family dinner, or Taco Tuesday, copycat Chipotle brown rice fits right in with all the Mexican recipes.
Key ingredients
- avocado oil - or preferred cooking oil
- cooked brown rice - use stove-cooked, rice cooker, or Instant Pot brown rice. Also you can use brown rice in the form of basmati. long grain, or jasmine rice.
- fresh limes - always zest and juice the limes to get the full flavor
- fresh cilantro - you can never use too much fresh cilantro in cilantro lime brown rice
- salt and pepper - to taste
How to make Chipotle brown rice
Heat oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
Add cooked brown rice and saute until warmed through, stirring as needed.
Stir in fresh cilantro, lime juice, and lime zest. Add salt and pepper, to taste.
Remove from heat and serve warm, garnished with fresh limes and chopped cilantro.
Rice tips and variations
You can substitute white rice for brown rice in this recipe. Of course you'll lose the nutritional value of the brown rice, but it'll be just as delicious.
I recommend using long grain brown rice for its fluffy texture and nutty flavor.
You can certainly use short grain brown rice but it tends to be stickier.
Use any method to cook the rice for this recipe. My go-to is pressure cooked brown rice, but rice cooked on the stove or in a rice cooker works beautifully too.
When cooking rice for this recipe, I recommend adding a bay leaf to the cooking liquid if you want to model the official Chipotle® Cilantro Lime Rice.
If your brown rice was cooked with salt, I recommend adding salt to this recipe in very small amounts, if at all. You may not need it.
More recipes we love
📖 Recipe
Cilantro Lime Brown Rice
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Note about scaling
When scaling (2x or 3x), the light gray ingredient amount doesn’t scale. Please adjust those accordingly.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons Avocado Oil, or any oil
- 4 cups Cooked Brown Rice (or white rice), *see recipe footnote
- 2 Limes, zested and juiced
- ⅓ cup chopped Fresh Cilantro
- Salt and Pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a nonstick skillet, heat OIL over medium-high heat until shimmering.
- Add COOKED BROWN RICE and sauté until warmed through, stirring as needed.
- Stir in CILANTRO, LIME JUICE, and LIME ZEST.
- Add SALT and PEPPER, to taste.
- Serve warm, garnished with fresh cilantro and lime wedges.
Recipe Notes
-
Microwave: Sprinkle a few drops of water over it, cover, and reheat rice in one-minute increments until warmed through.
-
Stovetop: On medium heat in a nonstick skillet, heat a few drops of oil, add rice, saute until warmed through, stirring as needed.
Equipment
- 12" nonstick skillet
Jennifer says
Hello, I was just wondering why there is no lemon juice used since chipotle states they use lemon and lime. Thanks!
Traci says
Hiya, you're right. They do use both and you are welcome to add lemon juice to this recipe. Enjoy!!
Jeff says
Oh mann, just had this very Chipotle brown rice last night on homemade taco salad. So dang good! Used your Instant Pot brown rice recipe too. Perfection!
The Kitchen Girl says
Woohoo!! You know what's good and I'm glad you love it as much as I do 🙂