Arroz navideño, Mexican Christmas rice, is the pot of rice that sits next to the turkey or the roast pork at a Mexican Christmas Eve dinner. It is white rice cooked in butter and chicken stock with raisins that plump up in the pot and pecans folded in at the end. The recipe itself is simple. The tricky part is making enough for a crowd, ahead of time, without it turning mushy or drying out when you reheat it, and that is what most of this page is about.
What Mexican Christmas rice is like
How do you make Mexican Christmas rice? Fry 2 cups (370 g) of rinsed long-grain rice in 4 tablespoons (60 g) of butter with onion and garlic for 4 to 5 minutes, add 4 cups (960 ml) of hot chicken stock and ½ cup of raisins, bring to a boil, then cover and cook on the lowest heat for 18 minutes. Rest 10 minutes, fluff, and fold in ½ cup of separately toasted pecans. 55 minutes for 8 servings.
Expect fluffy, ivory-colored grains with a buttery, savory flavor, a little sweetness from the raisins and crunch from the nuts. It isn’t spicy. Think of it as the Mexican cousin of a holiday pilaf: a side dish that goes on the plate with the meat, not a meal on its own.
There is no single recipe. Mexican home cooks rotate between three versions built on the same base:
- With pecans and raisins, the one below. The most festive, and the one that holds up best when made ahead.
- Creamy, with corn and cream, sometimes with strips of roasted poblano and melted cheese. It has its own section further down.
- With vegetables, with diced carrot and peas cooked in, close to everyday buttered rice.
If you’re after the tomato-based rice served with tacos and enchiladas, that’s Mexican red rice; the poblano and cilantro one is Mexican green rice.
Time and difficulty. 55 minutes, about 20 of them hands-on. Easy: the only things that need care are measuring the stock and leaving the lid alone.
Ingredients and what changes with each swap
The recipe makes 8 side servings of about ¾ cup cooked rice each, which is the right amount when the table also has meat, salad and bread.
Rice and stock, the 2-to-1 ratio
Use long-grain white rice (regular American long-grain or basmati both work) and 2 cups of stock for every cup of rice, measured with the same cup. Rinsed and fried in butter, that ratio gives separate, tender grains. Avoid short-grain, arborio or pudding rice, which release starch and clump. Parboiled or “converted” rice needs whatever liquid its package says, and instant rice won’t work with this method.
The stock carries most of the flavor. With water the rice tastes flat: add 1 teaspoon of salt per 4 cups and a little extra butter when you fluff it. Store-bought stock or broth is already salted, which is why the recipe only adds salt to homemade or unsalted stock. In the UK, one good-quality stock cube dissolved per 2 cups (480 ml) of water does the job; taste before adding any salt.
Nuts, raisins and their swaps
- Pecans. In Mexico, “nuez” means pecan, which is sweet and buttery. Walnuts work the same way and taste a little more bitter. Flaked almonds are crunchier and milder, and are the easiest to find in UK supermarkets.
- Raisins. Dark raisins are sweeter and darker; sultanas or golden raisins are milder. Dried cranberries look more festive but are noticeably tarter.
- Butter. With oil, the rice still comes out fluffy but loses the flavor that sets it apart. To cut fat, fry in 2 tablespoons of oil and stir 1 tablespoon of butter in at the end.
Equipment. A heavy 9½-inch (24 cm) pot with a tight-fitting lid for the 8-serving batch. If your lid lets steam escape, lay a clean tea towel or a sheet of foil between pot and lid. You’ll also need a sieve for rinsing and a frying pan for the nuts.
Making it, step by step
Rinse, drain, fry
Rinsing removes the loose surface starch that glues grains together. Drain well: wet rice spits in the butter and steams instead of frying. Fry for 4 to 5 minutes, until it goes from translucent to opaque white with a few pale golden grains. Don’t take it to deep gold; this rice should stay light.
Hot, tasted stock
The stock should be just below boiling. Cold stock takes too long to come back to the boil, and the rice sits soaking and breaks. Taste the liquid before you cover the pot: it’s your last chance to fix the salt, and it should be slightly saltier than you want the rice. The raisins go in now because they need the steam to plump up.
Covered, untouched
Once it’s boiling across the whole surface, not just around the edge, cover and drop to the lowest heat for 18 minutes. Don’t peek: the steam is part of the cooking liquid, and if it escapes the top layer stays hard. Then 10 minutes’ rest, heat off, lid on.
How to tell it’s done
When you lift the lid there’s no liquid at the bottom, the surface is dotted with small steam holes, and a grain is tender but intact when you bite it. Fluff from the bottom with a fork without pressing down.
- Hard on top, fine underneath. The lid was lifted or doesn’t seal. Sprinkle 3 to 4 tablespoons of hot stock over, cover and give it 5 more minutes on the lowest heat.
- Sticky or mushy. Too much stock, unrinsed rice, or stirring while it cooked. There’s no rescue for tonight; next time measure the stock with the same cup as the rice.
- Scorched at the bottom. Heat higher than the minimum, or a thin pot. Serve from the top without scraping, so the burnt taste doesn’t spread.
Amounts for 4 to 20 people
The 2-to-1 ratio stays the same however much you make. The pot and the timing are what change.
| People | Rice | Stock | Butter | Raisins | Pecans | How to cook it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1 cup (185 g) | 2 cups (480 ml) | 2 tbsp (30 g) | ¼ cup (40 g) | ¼ cup (30 g) | 8-inch (20 cm) pot, 15 min covered |
| 8 | 2 cups (370 g) | 4 cups (960 ml) | 4 tbsp (60 g) | ½ cup (75 g) | ½ cup (55 g) | 9½-inch (24 cm) pot, 18 min |
| 12 | 3 cups (555 g) | 6 cups (1.44 l) | 6 tbsp (90 g) | ¾ cup (110 g) | ¾ cup (80 g) | Wide 11-inch (28 cm) pot, 18-20 min |
| 16 | 4 cups (740 g) | 8 cups (1.92 l) | 8 tbsp (120 g) | 1 cup (150 g) | 1 cup (110 g) | Two 9½-inch pots, 8-serving batch in each |
| 20 | 5 cups (925 g) | 10 cups (2.4 l) | 10 tbsp (150 g) | 1¼ cups (185 g) | 1¼ cups (140 g) | Two pots, one with 3 cups and one with 2 |
Why two pots above 12. Four or five cups of raw rice make roughly 3 to 3.7 quarts (2.8 to 3.5 liters) of cooked rice. Even in an 11-inch (28 cm) pot that’s a layer 2 inches (5 to 6 cm) deep, and the bottom turns mushy before the top is cooked. Two medium pots beat one huge one, and you can cook one the day before and the other on the day.
Onion and garlic scale with the rice: ½ onion and 2 cloves for every 2 cups.
A plan for Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve
Two approaches, and both work.
Cooked on the day, for the best texture. The morning before (or the day before), toast the nuts (they keep in a sealed jar at room temperature) and chop the onion and garlic and refrigerate them. Start the rice 1 hour before dinner: it’s ready in 55 minutes, and off the heat with the lid on it stays hot and fluffy for another 20 to 30 minutes while the meat is carved.
Cooked the day before, to free up the stove.
- Cook the rice all the way through, with the raisins but without the nuts.
- As soon as it has rested, spread it in trays or shallow containers, no more than about 2 inches (5 cm) deep, so it cools fast.
- Get it into the fridge within 1 hour if you can, and never more than 2 hours after turning off the heat (1 hour if your kitchen is above 90°F / 32°C). Cover once it’s cold.
- On the day, tip it into a baking dish, sprinkle 1 to 2 tablespoons of stock per cup of cooked rice and dot with a little butter. Seal tightly with foil and bake at 350°F (180°C). This fits neatly into the 30 minutes a roast turkey rests out of the oven. Check the center with a thermometer: it needs to reach 165°F (74°C). Fluff, fold in the nuts and serve.
The tight foil is what stops it drying out: the stock turns to steam and rehydrates the grains. Uncovered, the top layer goes hard.
Why the rush to cool it. Cooked rice can carry bacterial spores that survive cooking. If the rice sits warm for hours, in the pot or on the table, they produce a toxin that reheating doesn’t destroy. So don’t leave it to cool all afternoon in a covered pot, and at dinner it shouldn’t spend more than 2 hours out of the fridge.
The creamy version with corn and cream
This is the other big Christmas version in Mexico: white rice with sweet corn, bound with cream and cheese, softer and milder, and a favorite with kids. The rule for creamy-but-not-mushy is the same as above: no extra stock. Cook the rice fluffy, then add the cream at the end.
For 8, change the recipe like this:
- Leave out the raisins and nuts.
- Add 1 cup (150 g / 5 oz) corn kernels, frozen or drained canned, with the stock.
- After resting, over the lowest heat, stir in 1 cup (240 ml) Mexican crema at room temperature and 3½ oz (100 g) grated Monterey Jack or mild cheddar, folding gently for 2 to 3 minutes until the cheese melts. Don’t let it boil hard or the cream can split.
- Baked, optional. Spread it in a 9 × 13-inch (23 × 33 cm) dish, top with another 1¾ oz (50 g) cheese and bake at 350°F (180°C) until the cheese melts and browns at the edges; in my oven that’s about 15 minutes.
- With rajas. Stir in 2 roasted, peeled poblano peppers cut into strips along with the cream. Mild, but no longer for anyone who can’t take any heat.
Mexican crema is sold in the Latin aisle of many US supermarkets. Otherwise use sour cream thinned with a splash of milk (add it off the heat, since it splits more easily), or crème fraîche in the UK, which handles heat well. To make it ahead, assemble the dish without the cheese topping, refrigerate, and the next day bake it covered at 350°F (180°C) until the center reaches 165°F (74°C); then uncover, add the cheese and brown it. It comes to about 380 kcal per serving.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
- More stock “to make it moister.” It only makes it mushy. For a richer result, add butter or cream at the end.
- Nuts cooked with the rice. They go soft and grey. Toast separately, add at the table.
- Cold stock. The boil takes too long, the rice soaks and breaks. Heat it first.
- One giant pot for 20. Mushy at the bottom, hard on top. Use two pots.
- Reheating uncovered or without liquid. Dry and hard. Stock on top and foil sealed tight.
- Raisins dividing the table. If someone won’t eat them, soak them separately for 10 minutes in a little hot stock and fold them into half the pot when you fluff.
Allergens. Contains tree nuts (pecans or almonds) and milk (butter). For anyone with a nut allergy, serve their portion before the nuts go in, and check that your boxed stock is gluten-free if that matters.
What to serve it with, storing and reheating
Serve it with the Christmas roast: Latin Christmas turkey with picadillo stuffing, Mexican adobo pork leg or pork loin in prune sauce, whose sweet sauce suits it well. Add Mexican apple salad on the side. If you’re also serving Mexican white spaghetti, make it instead of the creamy rice rather than alongside, or the meal gets very heavy.
Fridge. In shallow, covered containers, cooled as described above, 3 to 4 days. Keep the nuts separate in a jar.
Freezer. In flat freezer bags, 3 to 4 months, without the nuts, which go soft once thawed. The creamy version doesn’t freeze well: the cream turns grainy.
Reheating a portion. In the microwave, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water or stock per cup, cover, heat 1 minute, stir, then another minute. Or use a covered frying pan over low heat. It should reach 165°F (74°C) in the center, and only reheat it once.
Frequently asked questions
How much uncooked rice per person? About 1½ oz (45 g), or ¼ cup, as a side at a dinner with several dishes. If rice is the main side and there isn’t much else, allow ⅓ cup (60 g).
Can I make it in a rice cooker? Yes. Fry the onion, garlic and rice in the butter in a frying pan, move it to the rice cooker with the stock and raisins at the same 2-to-1 ratio, and use the white rice setting. Nuts go in at the end.
Can I use brown rice? Yes, but it changes the recipe: brown rice needs about 2½ cups of stock per cup and roughly twice as long covered. It comes out firmer and nuttier, and feels less festive.
How long can it sit out on a buffet? No more than 2 hours from when it’s served, and less in a warm room. For a long evening, put out a small dish, keep the rest covered in the fridge or a switched-off oven, and refill.
Nutrition
Per serving (⅛ of the recipe, about ¾ cup), calculated ingredient by ingredient with store-bought stock and no added salt:
- Calories: 312 kcal
- Protein: 5 g
- Carbohydrates: 47 g
- Fat: 12 g, of which 4 g saturated
- Fiber: 2 g
- Sugars: 8 g, almost all from the raisins
- Sodium: 516 mg
Most of the sodium comes from boxed stock; with unsalted homemade stock it depends on how much salt you add. The pecans add about 48 kcal per serving and the butter about 54.
In my kitchen the nuts never all go into the pot: I toast double, fold in half and leave the rest in a little bowl on the table, because they’re the first thing to disappear and this way everyone takes as many as they like. And when I’m cooking for a crowd I’d rather use two medium pots than one big one; it has never let me down. Josnaisis.