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Cilantro Lime Rice is the perfect side dish for all your Mexican-inspired meals. It also goes great as a filling in a burrito or as a way to bulk up a salad.
Cafe Rio Cilantro Lime Rice Copycat
If you are looking for a new, delicious side dish, then this Cilantro Lime Rice recipe is your answer. You can have delicious Cafe Rio or Chipotle-style rice in no time! It is bursting with flavor and really brings your Mexican-inspired meal together. It comes together in just a few easy steps. First, you cook the rice in chicken broth, garlic, lime juice, and butter to make a rich, flavorful base. Then, when the rice is cooked you stir in a sweet and tangy cilantro mixture to top it off. That’s it!
Ingredients for Cilantro Lime Rice
- Rice – a white, long grain rice like Jasmine rice or basmati rice works best. You can substitute for brown rice but cooking times will be longer
- Butter
- Garlic
- Limes – fresh limes are best to get the best flavor. Use a juicer to get the fresh lime juice. You can also add a little lime zest if you like it extra lime-y.
- Chicken broth – you can also sub for vegetable broth
- Salt (to taste if needed)
- Sugar
- Fresh cilantro (leaves and tender stems)
Tips for Making Cilantro Lime Rice
- The rice recipe really does make a ton so if you aren’t a huge fan of rice, I would suggest halving the recipe.
- Use long-grain white rice when making this recipe. Once I tried it with Calrose rice because it was the only rice I had on hand and it DID NOT turn out well.
- Make sure you use fresh cilantro! Dried cilantro just won’t cut it. Using fresh gives the rice an incredible flavor.
- For a little extra flavor, sauté a little finely dice onion in some butter in the saucepan before adding the remaining ingredients.
- To make Instant Pot Cilantro Lime rice, combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 teaspoon lime, chicken broth, salt, and water to the Instant Pot and follow the instructions to make our easy Instant Pot rice. Continue with Step 2 in the recipe below.
What Pairs Well With Cilantro Lime Rice?
Cilantro lime rice pairs well with so many delicious dishes including black beans, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, carne asada, fajitas and more! Here are some more of our favorite recipes to serve with cilantro lime rice:
Read More: 33+ Easy Dinner Ideas
Storing and Reheating Leftovers
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. You can also freeze the leftovers. Simply place leftover rice in a freezer-safe container in the freeze for up to 5 months. Reheat in the microwave by heating for a minute at a time, stirring each time. You cal also re-heat by placing the rice in a large non-stick skillet with a little oil or butter and heating on the stove top until heated through. If re-heating frozen leftovers, thaw the rice in the fridge overnight before re-heating.
Cafe Rio Copycat Recipes
This easy cilantro lime rice recipe originally came from our collection of Cafe Rio inspired dishes. It is the perfect copycat for Cafe Rio’s Cilantro Lime Rice. Cafe Rio is a beloved Tex-Mex chain that serves burritos, burrito bowls, tacos, salads, and more! We were obsessed but some of us didn’t have a location near our house. We started trying to recreate Cafe Rio recipes at home. Not to toot our own horn, but we totally nailed them! Those recipes helped us get on the map as recipe bloggers and they are some of our post popular posts to this day! Check out the collection here: Cafe Rio Copycat Recipes – All the Best in One Place. We have had such great feedback with ALL of our Cafe Rio recipes and we’d love to hear yours! Leave us a comment and let us know how your Copycat Cafe Rio dinner turned out! We love hearing from our readers!
How to Make Cilantro Lime Rice
Cilantro Lime Rice
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice uncooked, long-grain, white rice
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon lime juice freshly squeezed
- 15 ounces chicken broth
- salt (to taste)
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon lime juice freshly squeezed
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons cilantro fresh chopped
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 teaspoon lime, chicken broth, salt, and water. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook on low 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender. Remove from heat.
- In a small bowl combine lime juice, sugar and cilantro.
- Pour the mixture over hot, cooked rice as you fluff the rice with a fork. Mix until fully combined.
Notes
- Make sure you use fresh cilantro! Dried cilantro just won’t cut it. Using fresh gives the rice an incredible flavor.
- For a little extra flavor, sauté a little finely dice onion in some butter in the saucepan before adding the remaining ingredients.
- To make Instant Pot Cilantro Lime rice, combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 teaspoon lime, chicken broth, salt, and water to the Instant Pot and follow the instructions to make our easy Instant Pot rice. Continue with Step 2 in the recipe below.
Just made this tonight for dinner and it took me right to Cafe Rio 😀 Delicious!
Also for the rice, make sure you don't stir it too much otherwise the rice gets sticky and mushed together.
Just the regular size.. I think it's 14 oz…
What can size of black beans did you use?
I made the beans for my family last night. The only complaint was that they were too salty. I didn't even put in the amount listed on the recipe because I thought it was a lot of salt but it was still very salty. Otherwise it was good.
We like pinto beans on our salads do you use the same recipe for those as you would for the black beans? Thanks:)
4-6 depending on how big of eaters you have…
How many servings do you get out of this recipe? We are wanting to do it for a Company party and I don't know how much to plan on. Thanks
the key to getting the rice just right is to brown it before you add the water. heat the butter or oil in the pan on medium heat, then add the rice and cook it until it starts to brown being careful not to burn it. add the garlic and cook the rice until it is a golden color, then add the water and other ingredients and cook following the rest of the directions. this keeps the rice from being sticky at all and each grain stays individual. it is seriously the key to getting the rice right. and you can can pretty much use any kind of rice, including calrose, and it turns out just right.
I've tried making this and my rice always comes out sticky. Do you have any tips?
Yeah that's right. The lime juice is divided. You use a little bit of it earlier in the recipe (when cooking the rice) and then you use the rest later (in the sauce you pour over it).
on the rice it says lime juice two times, is that right?
I have never made the beans from scratch, but I am sure they would be great if you added the seasonings while cooking them. If you are worried if it will be too strong or come out mushy (which I don't know if they would, because again, I have never made the beans from scratch), I would say just make them plain and then add them afterwards. They will probably taste the same either way you do them.
DO NOT cook dry beans in tomato juice first! The tomato juice must come after they are completely cooked, otherwise, your beans will never soften. It has something to do with cooking them in acid. Cook with spice in water if you must, but add tomato juice last.
I always start with dry beans, and I agree…don’t start with juice. I actually don’t evens add spices because it always makes them cook longer. I cook them in a crock pot, but you can cook them on the stove. When they are soft, add the ingredients, and follow the recipe as directed. They won’t get too mushy. The tomato juice and salt will ensure they are fine.
How would you recommend doing the beans from scratch? Would you cook with the seasonings or just plain and then add things afterwards?
love their sweet rice and black beans, many thanks for sharing♥♥ love their salads♥ many thanks again♥
Yeah, you just serve them with a slotted spoon so they drain off. If they aren’t swimming in juice they will dry out.
We tripled the black bean recipe and ended up using 4 cups of tomato juice. The beans were swimming in the juice and didn’t look right although they okay. Do you really use that much juice?
I tried it with instant rice and it turned out great. I look forward to trying it again when I have long grain. I combined the can of broth with the butter, garlic, lime juice and eliminated the water. Once it was boiling I added 2 cups of instant rice and let it stand. Then I poured the other mixture over it the same when I fluffed it. Great!!
I used just plain, long-grain white rice. I tried it once with Calrose rice (because it was what I had on hand…) NOT good! 🙂
I’m wondering what kind of rice you used. Obviously not minute rice because you cooked it 15-20 minutes.
I used bismati, because it is what I buy bismati and arbeo in bulk (my two favorite white rices.) it worked well. Venessa, I noticed the web site looked like the family might be from UT….so I read their bios. I think they are. I know since I have moved to UT, I often have to add a little extra water (water boils at a lower temperature at higher altitudes, so more of it boils off). Maybe, if you are at a lower altitude, if your rice was sticky…add a little less water or broth. Maybe 1/4 cup less? Add more if it is still not hydrated enough?