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homemade uncle ben's rice
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Copycat Uncle Ben's Rice

This homemade version uses a method of precooking the wild rice portion of the recipe ahead of time, and then adding it later to the white rice and spice mixture.

Ingredients:

Precooking the wild rice:

  • ½ cup wild rice
  • 1 cup water

White rice mixture:

  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder or chicken base
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley
  • ½ teaspoon onion powder
  • ½ teaspoon garlic salt
  • ½ teaspoon dried basil
  • ½ teaspoon rubbed sage
  • ½ teaspoon celery salt
  • ½ cup long grain white rice
  • 1 packet precooked wild rice (about 3 Tbl)

Instructions:

Precook the wild rice:

  • Put the 1 cup of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil on the stove. Stir in the ½ cup of wild rice, cover, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Let the wild rice simmer on low heat for 50 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
  • I divide the cooked rice into four snack size ziploc bags, with each bag containing about 3 tablespoons of the cooked rice. I put these bags in the freezer to use later for making the rest of this recipe.

Make the Uncle Ben's copycat rice:

  • Combine the water, butter, chicken base or bouillon, and spices in a saucepan and bring to a boil on the stove. Stir in the white rice, cover, and reduce the heat to a simmer.
  • Take a baggie of precooked wild rice from the freezer. Empty the rice from the baggie onto a plate (you may need to break it apart a little bit) and microwave for about 45 seconds.
  • Then add the wild rice to the mixture that's simmering on the stove. You can do this either at the beginning of the cooking time or towards the end of the cooking time.
  • Let everything simmer for about 20 minutes or until the white rice has absorbed the liquid. Remove from the heat, fluff with a fork, and serve.