Easy Salsa Spanish Rice

If you like to make your own salsa and find yourself with pints leftover after a year, this might be your recipe. The recommended length of storage is about a year and a half for homemade and canned salsa. After that the salsa is safe if the jar is still properly sealed but the quality may be declining. I had several pints of salsa that are about 2 years old and needed to be used pronto!

The Fox Valley Foodie is one of the few bloggers I follow on Facebook. He has the most unusual and interesting looking recipes! When I saw he made Spanish rice using salsa, I gasped out loud (GOL). This was the answer to using up some pints of salsa! I couldn’t wait to try it!

Cook 2 cups dry rice in salted water according to package directions.

I boiled up 2 cups of dry rice according to the box directions. That yielded about 4-5 cups of cooked rice. I had lightly salted the water.

Stir 2 tablespoons bacon drippings into hot rice.

When the rice was cooked I stirred in about 2 tablespoons of bacon grease I store in the fridge for such uses. I like my Spanish rice with a touch of bacon added to it. I was out of bacon this particular day but some grease would add a touch of the flavor I was looking for.

Use 1 pint of homemade canned salsa.

After the bacon grease was stirred into the hot rice I poured the pint of salsa into the same saucepan and stirred well. I’d used a medium grain rice and it had overcooked a bit but no problem. It was still going to be fine.

Stir salsa, chili powder and garlic powder into rice. Stir in salt to taste.

I’d actually made the rice a day ahead, so when my cousin was visiting for a cookie baking day she joined us for supper that evening. Along with our hot dogs (my P.S. was in the mood and had brought hot dogs and buns home) I microwaved servings for each of us in bowls.

Best cooked a day ahead so that flavors can meld.

It was great! Shirley was so surprised and loved the flavors as well. I thought it was a super easy way to make Spanish rice and it was so tasty! Perhaps the rice was even better since it had 24 hours for the flavors to meld. This could be made with store-bought jars of salsa as well. We even have a few of those in our pantry. I’m going to try one of those jars of Pace as well. I’ll let you know how that works out!