This 5-ingredient rice cooker cilantro lime rice is super easy to make, so delicious, and on the table in less than 30 minutes! It’s perfect for busy weeknights to serve alongside grilled meats, burritos, tacos, or fajitas.

Cilantro Lime Rice In Rice Cooker

This rice cooker cilantro lime rice is so easy to make and super refreshing. The rice comes out perfectly tender and fluffy. It’s mixed with the exact right amount of freshly chopped cilantro and freshly squeezed lime juice.

The flavors are bright, subtle, and refreshing. That’s what makes it delicious to eat on its own, in a burrito, or as a side dish. This cilantro lime rice in a rice cooker recipe is an easy peasy recipe from start to finish.

When I make this for taco night, I normally get comments like “Oh the tacos were delicious, but that rice! It was SO good, I loved it!” It’s definitely the kind of side dish that accidentally steals the show. The best part is that it takes less than 30 minutes from start to finish and requires almost zero effort.

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Ingredients

Basmati Rice: This is absolutely the best possible rice for this recipe because it is a long grain rice where the grains actually cook up light and separate. It doesn’t have a tendency to end up mushy or clumped together, which means that you’re basically guaranteed your rice will turn out great.

Olive Oil: A small amount of olive oil added to the cooking water helps guarantee that the grains of rice won’t stick together, and it also gives the rice a little bit of a richer flavor. Feel free to swap this for avocado oil if that’s what you keep on hand.

Fine Sea Salt: It’s so important to salt your cooking water when you’re making rice. It’s your one chance to season the rice from the inside out, which is a much more effective way of seasoning rice than trying to salt it afterwards. At that point it normally just ends up tasting salty instead of seasoned. You can swap this for kosher salt if you like. If you’re using table salt, cut the amount by half because table salt tastes saltier.

Cilantro: Adding fresh cilantro to your rice gives it that bright pop of color, fresh herby note, and signature Chipotle-style flavor. If you’re one of the people that thinks cilantro tastes like soap, feel free to swap this for fresh parsley. I’ve tried it that way and it’s still delicious.

Lime Juice: A bit of fresh lime juice mixed into the rice after cooking makes the whole dish taste bright and less heavy. I definitely recommend using fresh lime juice instead of bottled lime juice because the flavor difference really is noticeable.

How To Make Cilantro Lime Rice in Rice Cooker

Rinse: Add the rice to a fine mesh strainer and rinse under cool running water, stirring with your hand, until the water runs completely clear. Drain as much excess water as possible. (See the recipe card below for the full printable instructions.)

Cook: Add the rice, water, olive oil, and salt to the rice cooker, give everything a gentle stir to combine, then cover with the lid and turn it on.

Rest, Fluff, and Season: Once the rice is done cooking, let the rice rest on the warm setting for a bit. Remove the lid, transfer the rice to a large mixing bowl, and fluff it with a fork. Add the freshly chopped cilantro and lime juice, then gently fold everything together. Transfer to a serving dish, and enjoy! See the recipe card below for the full written instructions, including ingredient amounts, cooking times, and helpful tips, etc.

Pro Tips

• Rinse Your Rice: Seriously, don’t skip this step. It’s so important to rinse your rice because it removes the excess surface starch. If you don’t rinse your rice, it will be gummy and clump together.
• Don’t Lift the Lid Before the Rice is Done: Even if you’re tempted to check on the rice while it’s resting on the warm setting, don’t lift the lid until it has finished resting. The steam that’s remaining in the pot is finishing cooking the rice. If you lift the lid too soon you’ll end up with slightly underdone rice.
• Use a Fork to Fluff: This gently separates the grains from each other, creating fluffy rice. If you use a spoon, it will mash and press some of the rice together, which can make it mushy.
• Season to Taste: After you finish mixing everything in, taste the rice before serving. You may want to add a touch more cilantro, lime juice, or salt.

Can You Put Cilantro In A Rice Cooker?

I wouldn’t recommend mixing the cilantro in until after the rice is done cooking. If you add it in before the flavor won’t be that noticeable. Mixing it into hot rice that was recently cooked is different because that level of heat blooms the flavor of the cilantro, which enhances it.

How To Add Flavor To Rice In A Rice Cooker?

The main thing is to always salt the cooking water. Other simple ways that you can season rice in a rice cooker are cooking the rice in broth instead of water with some seasonings to make seasoned rice, or cooking the rice in Mexican seasonings with a combination of tomato sauce and water to make Mexican rice.

Can I Put Lime Juice In A Rice Cooker?

It’s best to add the lime juice after the rice has finished cooking for two reasons. First, the acid in the lime juice negatively affects the rice cooking. Second, the flavor of the lime juice is better when it’s fresh, not cooked.

How Much Cilantro And Lime To Put In Rice?

For 2 cups of dry rice, a quarter cup of freshly chopped cilantro and about 2 tablespoons of lime juice (roughly one lime) is the perfect amount. You can always taste it before serving and adjust it to your preference though.

How Do You Keep Cilantro Lime Rice Fluffy?

Start by rinsing your rice well, then don’t lift the lid to the rice cooker until it’s completely done cooking and resting, then gently fluff the rice with a fork (never a spoon). As long as you do those three things, you should have perfectly fluffy rice every single time.

What Does Cilantro Lime Rice Taste Like?

It’s bright, fresh, and herby. It’s the kind of dish you feel like you could always eat just a little more of, and that’s probably because the freshness of the lime juice and cilantro both taste really good and make the rice taste lighter than it normally does.

Should I Toast Rice For Cilantro Lime Rice?

You don’t need to. Toasting rice is a great technique when you’re trying to deepen the flavor and give it a nutty flavor. Since the goal with this recipe is to make the rice taste light and fresh, it’s actually counterproductive to what we’re trying to make.

What Is The Secret To Perfect Rice?

It comes down to the 3 R’s. Rinsing, ratio, and rest. Rinse the rice before you cook it, make sure you’re using the correct ratio of water to rice, and let it rest long enough before you fluff it.

Storing And Reheating

You can store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. I like to reheat it in a skillet over medium-low heat with a splash of water added in. Sometimes it can lose some of the lime and cilantro flavor, so you may want to add a bit more of those after it’s reheated.

Keep In Touch

I’d love to hear what you thought of this recipe in the comments or on Instagram! @KeyToMyLime #KeyToMyLime

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Mexican Recipes

If you like this recipe, be sure to check out all of our other Mexican recipes. Some reader favorites are:

• Instant Pot Cilantro Lime Rice
• Chicken Taco Seasoning
• Cilantro Lime Chicken
• Easy Pico de Gallo Salsa
• Cilantro Lime Sauce
• Creamy Cilantro Slaw
• Cilantro Garlic Sauce

If you’re looking for the best easy Mexican rice recipe, this rice cooker cilantro lime rice is exactly what you’re looking for!