Texas Rice

Texas rice is a delicious side dish or main dish! Loaded with flavor and lots of goodies. Skip the boring rice dishes and make this instead!!

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword ground beef and rice casserole, hamburger casserole recipes, southern recipes

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 45

Total Time 1

Servings - 8 servings

Calories 822kcal

Author Kathleen

Ingredients

4 cups water
2 cups uncooked long grain white rice
6 slices bacon
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 onion chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, ribs and seeds removed and chopped
1 (28-ounce) can RO*TEL original diced tomatoes and green chilies
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Arrange the oven shelf to the bottom third of the oven. Preheat oven to 400ºF (204ºC). Generously butter, grease with bacon fat, or spray a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Set aside.
Place the rice in a sieve set over the kitchen sink. Rinse, stirring and turning the rice in the sieve. Repeat 2 more times.
In a medium sauce pan with a tight fitting lid, bring water to a rolling boil. Add rice and bring back to a rolling boil. Stir the rice. Reduce heat to low, as soon as it boils, and cover with a lid.
In a high sided 12-inch skillet, cook the bacon until crispy. Drain, reserving 2 tablespoons of drippings in the skillet. When bacon is cool enough to handle, crumble; set aside.
Add the ground beef, green pepper, and onion to the skillet and cook over medium heat. Season the mixture with salt and pepper. Cook until the beef no longer has any pink, and is cooked through.
Add cooked beef mixture and cooked rice into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Add the tomatoes, bacon and reserved drippings, mixing until everything is well blended. (You can also mix everthing in a large mixing bowl. (Frankly it's easier to mix in a bowl. I mix in the casserole dish because I hate doing dishes and this way, I avoid washing the bowl!!) Spread the shredded cheese over the top.
Spread a sheet of foil, long enough to cover the bakingdish and wrap over the edges. Spray one side with nonstick cooking spray.
Cover the baking dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until cheese is bubbly, and the center is heated through.

Notes

Make It A Main: This is a versatile dish and can easily become a main dish by adding more veggies. Just keep the ratio of liquid the same.
Cut It First: Instead of crumbling the bacon after cooking, cutting the raw bacon before cooking is a convenient way too!
Don’t Stick! Spray non-stick spray on one side of the foil. The last thing you want is for the cheese to stick to the foil when you take it out of the oven.
Rice: The rice should be fully cooked before mixing with the meat and tomatoes.
Make It Yours: Variations: add additional vegetables, fresh or frozen such as corn, green beans, black beans, or mixed veggies. You can spice up the dish by adding jalapeños, green chilis, hot sauce, or Cajun/Creole spices. Serve with sour cream.

Nutrition