This garlic rice is a perfect, easy way to jazz up your rice side dish.
A lot of my recipe ideas come from trying new things at restaurants. Take this Garlic Rice for instance.
A few years back I ate at a Peruvian restaurant with some friends. I had never eaten at a Peruvian restaurant before so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. As I perused the menu, my eyes came across a few words that determined my meal right then and there: Served with garlic rice. Eureka!
I ordered right away and I waited patiently. About as patiently as a kid who gets up at 4am on Christmas morning patiently waits to open presents. In other words, I was anxious and by the time my food finally arrived I was ready to devour it.
And I’m not gonna lie… devour it I did.
What can I add to make rice taste better?
This is question I used to ask myself all the time. And honestly, a question that I got from a lot of friends.
Growing up, I found it kind of boring. But there are ways that you can jazz things up. First of, like in this recipe, you can cook the rice in broth instead of water. Broth is obviously much more flavorful than water so it adds much more flavor.
You can also add different kinds of herbs. Cilantro is always a good option, if you like cilantro that is. My family would always say butter and soy sauce. And while these are all great options, adding garlic to rice is my absolute favorite way to jazz it up.
Which type of rice should you use for garlic rice?
I am not quite sure why I never thought to make garlic rice before. It is such a simple and easy way to jazz up rice. I opted to use jasmine rice for this recipe because I have about 20 pounds of it sitting in my kitchen. It is my favorite kind of rice and worked very well for this dish.
For those of you that don’t have much experience with jasmine rice I really suggest picking up a bag.
Jasmine rice is a fragrant long-grain rice that has a subtle nutty flavor. I use it for just about any dish that calls for rice. It can be expensive at grocery stores but if you have an Asian market near you you can probably get a 20lb bag for around $20.
If you have a Costco membership, depending on their inventory, you might even be able to pick up a 20lb bag for around $15.
How do you make garlic rice?
STEP 1: Heat butter and olive oil together in a pan until butter melts.
STEP 2: Add garlic. Cook just until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
STEP 3: Add rice and stir to coat in the butter. Allow to cook just until rice becomes translucent about 4 minutes.
STEP 4: Pour in broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook 20 – 25 minutes. Carefully remove lid and fluff rice with a fork.
This rice side dish and I LOVE serving it with my family’s favorite Chicken Curry and our favorite Baked Salmon with Lemon Caper Butter.
And if you are looking for more ways to use this garlic rice, I’ve also made some and stuffed it in portobello mushrooms. It was divine. Check it out for yourself here: Garlic Rice Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms.
I have made this recipe for garlic rice several times over the years and it is still one of our family favorites. My boys pretty much devour it every chance that they get. For those of you that cannot find jasmine rice, you can substitute long grain rice too.
Other Best Easy Side Dish Recipes:
Note: This recipe was originally posted in 2009. It was updated in 2020 with step by step photos, tips and a video.
Servings
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic (sliced)
- 1 cup uncooked jasmine rice
- 2 cups chicken broth
- chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- In a saucepan over medium heat combine butter and olive oil. Once butter has melted add garlic and cook one minute.
- Stir in rice, cook until rice becomes slightly translucent. Stirring occasionally to make sure rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. About 4 minutes. Rice may brown slightly.
- Stir in chicken broth, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and let cook 20-25 minutes.
- Carefully remove lid, fluff rice with a fork and sprinkle with chopped parsley.
- Serve.
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I need to try my hand at making sinangag sometime! I didn’t realize it required day old rice. Thanks for the tip!
this was pretty good. I let the butter, oil and garlic cook burn ever so slightly so the rice came out a little bit darker, but I don’t think it skewed with the end result all that much. I only tried this method b/c I didn’t have any day old rice to make my typical filipino garlic rice (sinangag), which I think is different, but preferable to this.
What’s the serving size?
No! You can leave it out if you like :)
Is the fresh parsley necessary
[…] Garlic Rice. This garlic rice is a perfect, easy way to jazz up your rice side dish. A lot of my recipe ideas come from trying new things at restaurants. Take this Garlic Rice for instance. A few years back I ate at a Peruvian restaurant with some friends. I had never eaten at a Peruvian restaurant before so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I ordered right away and I waited patiently. […]
I never have used pre-minced garlic in this but I don’t see why not! Hope you enjoy this and the steak bites :)
Can you use minced garlic instead of fresh garlic slices? It sounds good and can’t to taste it. Making garlic butter steak bites.
I’ve made it with vegetable broth before when I was serving some vegetarian friends, it worked great!
Hi. How would you think it would taste with vegetable broth?
Thanks!!
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You’re welcome!! Thanks for your feedback!
Simple and tasty!!!! Thanks.
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Glad you enjoyed it, Lelia!! That sounds like a perfect dinner!
Fantastic! I love the slightly nutty flavor. I paired it with seared butter garlic chicken breasts. They complemented each other nicely.
Yay! So happy to hear that, Margaret!
This rice was the bomb my family truly enjoyed it.
Loved the flavour; family only gave it a 5:10 as consistency was very heavy/ not fluffy, and made it too filling…not sure what I did wrong, however the rice was very gluey; was really hopefully for this one!
I am so happy to hear that, Harriet! Thank you for taking the time to review! :)
I know this recipe has been around for a while but I only just came across it today. The whole family loved this, we had it with Keema. We have loads left over so we will use it as an egg fried rice tomorrow. Thank you very much for this recipe, we used around 6 garlic cloves as we are all garlic lovers.
Hi! I usually use the low-sodium Better than Bouillon. :)
Hi, what’s the recipe you use for chicken broth? :)
Patricia, I’ve never tried doing it that way before so I can’t say it would taste the same. If you do try it, I would add the garlic powder with the chicken broth. It would likely burn if you sauteed the rice in it. Hope this helps!
Can I substitute powdered garlic for the sliced garlic.
You can! The rice wouldn’t have as much flavor (more like steamed rice with garlic) but still good! Half water/half broth would also be good.
Can you use water or a mix of water and chicken broth?
[…] a nice chicken dish with the freshness of lemon. This healthy dish tastes great when served with garlic rice or mashed […]
Thank you for such a fabulous review, Scott! I am so happy to hear that you and your wife enjoyed it!
Made this last week with Basmati rice….our preference. My wife has talked about this rice a dozen times since! Tonight I’m making Asian chicken lettuce wraps and my wife aaked me to make THIS RICE specifically to have with the wraps. I consider this a winner! It was very tasty, very fluffy, and the first time I made it, my wife had the leftover rice for lunch the next day…a woman who RARELY eats leftover ANYTHING! I followed the recipe other than a little cracked black pepper and a couple of extra garlic cloves…absolutely delicious! MAKE THIS RICE! You will NOT be disappointed!
Kie, I have not personally made it in a rice cooker but a few people in the comments have! If your rice cooker has a saute feature you could use that. Or you could do the sautéing in a pan and then transfer it to the rice cooker, pour in the chicken broth and cook as usual. :)
Can this be cooked using rice cooker?
Hi Rob! I don’t see why not but I have not personally tried it so I can’t be sure.
can the rice be cooked in a rice cooker after the initial steps?
Thank you so much! I am happy that you and your family love it! Also, little jealous of your sunshine from here in Seattle ;)
Absolutely fantastic,
we love it ,and have passed the rcipe on to my family,
works with so many things,,
Regards from sunny hertfordshire, uk
I’m sorry to hear that! The saltiness could be because of the chicken broth used. You can fix that by using a low-sodium chicken broth or doing half chicken broth/half water. I am not sure of the issue with the consistency though. I’ve never had that problem but would be happy to help you trouble shoot. Can you tell me what kind of rice you used?
I found it to be extremely salty and almost porridge like.
It is the perfect rice!
This is the brazilian recipe of rice!! hahahaha. Just: Oil + Fresh minced garlic + Rice + Sault = the perfect rice! ❤
[…] Garlic Rice […]
I was just browsing through some recipes when the term “garlic rice” caught my eye. I’m fixing Korean spicy lamb chops tonight and voila!!! this will be the perfect side. Everything about the recipe–its presentation and instruction and finished dish photos–convinced me to try it. I’m sure it will be perfect.
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It’s great to know that you can do it in the steamer this way!! Glad you enjoyed it :)
I made this in a rice steamer by adding the rice, microwaving the garlic, olive oil and butter and putting it in with the rice and mixing it up, adding the chicken stock and mixing all…. and then steaming the rice the same way I always do and it worked out PERFECTLY!! SO delicious! Thank you for the recipe!!
I made this recipe using the mixed basmati rice from Trader Joe’s. Everyone raved about it. This is how I’ll serve it to my family from now on. Thanks.
so very good……we loved it ….thank you for sharing your recipe
You’re welcome! And thank you!
Deseree, thank you! Veru tasty and easy-to-cook) Pinned it)
Your recipes are great, simple and yummy. They really bring in our interest into cooking. Love them.
That is wonderful to hear! And also good to know that it works with brown rice as well. How long did you cook it?
Excellent ! Perfect!
This recipe elevates rice to something a little more special than just cooked rice. It’s fragrant with just a hint of garlic.
It works well with brown rice too. I tried it with garlic that I bought chopped in a jar but that didn’t work as well.
Thank you for this! I have had people ask if it works well in a rice cooker, that is good to know! :)
I followed the recipe until step 2 in a sauté pan and then put it in a rice cooker with the liquid and it turned out perfect!
So happy to hear that Shannon!
Very easy and very good!
I am loving that variation! Garlic and lemon is always a great combo!
Me and my family have been making this recipe consistently now! We add the zest of one lemon for 1 1/2 cups rice when we fluff the rice after cooking. It’s a nice variation.
Hey Qeryn!
If your rice cooker has a sautéing feature, I think that you could use it! If not, I think this would be better in a pot :)
Hi Deseree, I found your recipe and it seems amazing :). One question: I usually cook rice in a rice cooker. Do you know if this recipe is feasible in a rice cooker and how? Thank you for your help!
[…] Garlic Rice | Des from Life’s Ambrosia […]
You are so welcome Steve! I’m so happy you enjoyed it! :)
I made this last night as a side dish to Baked Haddock. It was delicious! I will definitely make this again and again! Thank you Deseree.
I made this for dinner tonight, and this recipe is definitely going into my regular dinner rotation. It was a hit. I added a little extra garlic (wouldn’t have hurt to have even more), and I should have turned the heat down to low as I would usually do because it burnt a bit on the bottom in 20 minutes.
You are welcome Eileen! I am so happy you liked it! :)
I was so excited to try this that within 10 minutes of reading it I had it on the stove! Haha! And I must say… OMG soooooo good!!!! I had to settle with using what was in the house, so I substituted vegetable broth for chicken broth (we have some vegetarians in our household), used 5 large cloves of garlic instead of 4 (as we’re all garlic lovers!), and since vegetable broth can be rather bland, I also added 1/2 tsp salt. Just smelling it cooking made my mouth water, and I couldn’t wait to dig into it! I was amazed at just how simple it was, with such an amazing outcome! Thanks for the awesome recipe, it’s now a family favorite! Highly recommended!
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Thank you @chayoroxxg:disqus! I am so happy to hear that you and your family enjoyed it! :)
I made this rice about 2 weeks ago and it went fast. It is so simple to make and sooooo delicious. I sliced my garlic. My husband wants me to add at least 15 more sliced garlics. We are garlic lovers. My son only wanted to eat this when I made it. (GO MOM)
The Jasmine rice gives it an added good taste as well. I am so happy I found this recipe.
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My sister-in-law is married into a Filipino family. They have rice and garlic for breakfast. Served with fried eggs on top so they can be chopped into the eggs. Its a great boost in the morning.
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Hmmm!!!! I found the recipe. It looks scrumptious. I note that the garlic used is not mashed, but rather, sliced. Has anyone made it both ways? Any preference?
I love rice, and I also love cooking, Garlic rice its really tasty.
I have a couple of more suggestions for rice. Put in your blender the normal water You r going to use to cook your rice, parsley and a sachet of chicken bouillon?? and cook it as normally You do. It will b a green rice and it’s yummy!
I love it!!!! Hope You like
I make this rice whenever I want a little something different. My husband cant get enough, it’s even delicious by itself. YUM.
Thank you Marilyn! And congrats to you on 44 years of marriage, that’s wonderful! :)
Also made this tonight with the Adobo chicken, it was a great hit. The rice is very tasty and very aromatic. Didn’t use the full amount of garlic as the husband is not wild about garlic, but I married him anyways 44 years ago!!!!
oh man garlic and rice together? I’m in love!
Garlic Rice is delicious! Sometimes I like to add some white wine with the stock and then add chopped cilantro right before serving.
garlic? rice? I’m sold!
This sounds like a delicous side!! I love garlic!
Wow- I’ve never thought of garlic rice either, but it’s such a smart idea! It sounds and looks so good!
It sounds so aromatic!
YES! Love garlic in any form so I can’t wait for this one! Thanks for the birthday shout out:)
YUMMY!!! I was just trying to think of a new way to serve rice! Thank you!!!
This sounds delicious! I bet the aromas of the garlic, parsley, and jasmine rice are wonderful! I will definitely be trying this recipe!