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This Cilantro Lime Rice copycat is the perfect side dish for all your Mexican-inspired meals. Great as a filling in a burrito or salad.
Cilantro Lime Rice Copycat
I don’t know about you, but our family is obsessed with Cafe Rio and Costa Vida. The key ingredient to any dish at these restaurants is their tasty cilantro lime rice. If you are looking for a new, delicious side dish, then this Cilantro Lime Rice recipe is your answer. You can have delicious Cafe Rio style rice in no time! It is bursting with flavor and really brings your Mexican-inspired meal together.
How to Make Cilantro Lime Rice
It comes together in just a few easy steps. First, you cook the rice in chicken broth, garlic, lime juice, and butter to make a rich, flavorful base. Then, when the rice is cooked you stir in a sweet and tangy cilantro mixture to top it off. That’s it!
Recipe Tips and Tricks
Here are a few tips to make sure it ends up perfect every time.
- The rice recipe really does make a ton so if you aren’t a huge fan of rice, I would suggest halving the recipe.
- Use long-grain white rice when making this recipe. Once I tried it with Calrose rice because it was the only rice I had on hand and it DID NOT turn out well.
- Make sure you use fresh cilantro! Dried cilantro just won’t cut it. Using fresh gives the rice an incredible flavor.
- For a little extra flavor, sauté a little finely dice onion in some butter in the saucepan before adding the remaining ingredients.
- To make Instant Pot Cilantro Lime rice, combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 teaspoon lime, chicken broth, salt, and water to the Instant Pot and follow the instructions to make our easy Instant Pot rice. Continue with Step 2 in the recipe below.
Frequently Asked Questions
Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. Reheat in the microwave by heating for a 30 seconds at a time, stirring each time. You can also re-heat by placing the rice in a large non-stick skillet with a little oil or butter and heating on the stove top until heated through.
Yes, you can freeze the leftovers. Simply place leftover rice in a freezer-safe container in the freeze for up to 5 months. If re-heating frozen leftovers, thaw the rice in the fridge overnight before re-heating.
Read More: 33+ Easy Dinner Ideas
What Pairs Well With Cilantro Lime Rice?
Cilantro lime rice pairs well with so many delicious dishes including black beans, tacos, burritos, enchiladas, carne asada, fajitas and more! Here are some more of our favorite recipes to serve with cilantro lime rice:
More Cafe Rio Copycat Recipes
This easy cilantro lime rice recipe originally came from our collection of Cafe Rio inspired dishes. Cafe Rio is a beloved Tex-Mex chain that serves burritos, burrito bowls, tacos, salads, and more! We were obsessed but some of us didn’t have a location near our house. We started trying to recreate Cafe Rio recipes at home. Not to toot our own horn, but we totally nailed them! Those recipes helped us get on the map as recipe bloggers and they are some of our post popular posts to this day! Check out the collection here: Cafe Rio Copycat Recipes – All the Best in One Place. We have had such great feedback with ALL of our Cafe Rio recipes and we’d love to hear yours! Leave us a comment and let us know how your Copycat Cafe Rio dinner turned out! We love hearing from our readers!
Cafe Rio Cilantro Lime Rice
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup rice uncooked, long-grain, white rice
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon lime juice freshly squeezed
- 15 ounces chicken broth
- salt (to taste)
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon lime juice freshly squeezed
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons cilantro fresh chopped
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 teaspoon lime, chicken broth, salt, and water. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook on low 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender. Remove from heat.
- In a small bowl combine lime juice, sugar and cilantro.
- Pour the mixture over hot, cooked rice as you fluff the rice with a fork. Mix until fully combined.
Notes
- Make sure you use fresh cilantro! Dried cilantro just won’t cut it. Using fresh gives the rice an incredible flavor.
- For a little extra flavor, sauté a little finely dice onion in some butter in the saucepan before adding the remaining ingredients.
- To make Instant Pot Cilantro Lime rice, combine rice, butter, garlic, 1 teaspoon lime, chicken broth, salt, and water to the Instant Pot and follow the instructions to make our easy Instant Pot rice. Continue with Step 2 in the recipe below.
Well, these weren’t bad per se, but I was expecting the flavor of Cafe Rio’s cilantro lime rice and black beans. Neither one of these recipes tasted anything like Cafe Rio’s food. I won’t be making them again.
I live in Oregon, we don’t have Cafe Rio here, but so many visitors from Utah *Missionaries* LOVE Cafe Rio… so, I started making these recipes 2 years ago… then, last summer, we visited a cafe rio when visiting family in layton…
Personally, we love these recipes and flavor MORE than Cafe Rio! 🙂 we won’t go back to cafe rio. our family has another restaurant they like better and we will try that one. but we love these recipes!
kari
This is the best comment EVER! Thank you so much! I am so glad you have liked these recipes 😀 I am sure the missionaries love coming to dinner at your house.. I would!
I used your recipe for the cilantro lime rice and it was so yummy! Thank you so much for sharing.
Is there any substitute for the tomato juice? My nursling is sensitive to tomato products; too acidic. Thanks!
I have never used a substitute. Maybe V8 juice? or is that still too acidic?
We are wanting to do these for a meal when we go to Lake Powell, so I wanted to do as much as I could before we leave. Have you done the rice or beans ahead of time and if so, how long will they last before they need used? Thanks, we love these!
First of all…. JEALOUS!!! I love Lake Powell. It is probably my favorite place in the world! Secondly, I have done them ahead of time– totally fine. I would say 4-5 days ahead would be just about right.
How did you store these items to make in advance (especially the 4-5 days)? Just in the fridge? Or did you freeze the rice/beans/etc…?
For dried beans, soak overnight then simmer for about two hours – don’t add anything to them until they are cooked otherwise they will toughen. Once cooked, drain and follow the recipe above
Thank you so much for all these fabulous recipes! I’m wondering if you could email me your recipe for the pinto beans…?
almost 3 cups of liquid for 1 cup uncooked rice seems like too much is that the correct amount? You said in a comment that you use a rice cooker have you used the stove as well ? The flavor is great but it is almost mush and I did not over flake with a fork and I also browned the rice in butter and garlic prior to adding the liquid.
Now that it’s cooled off its perfect. I’m making this for 100 people and I think I’ll try a little less liquid. Thank you!
I LOVE your Cafe Rio recipe! Thanks so much for posting it! One question…is there something I could substitute the chicken broth with in the cilantro lime rice? I’m making this for a party on Sunday and my father is a vegetarian.
You could try vegetable broth.
When you say tomato juice in the bean recipe – is that tomato sauce? or actual tomato juice – aka V-8?
Yes, I used v8 but I’m sure tomato sauce is ok.
Exactly how long did it take u to create “Our Version
of Cafe Rio
Do you want to know how long it takes to prepare or how long it took me to come up with the recipe?
I was wondering if you have the recipe for Pinto Beans, we live near the Pinto Bean Capitol of the World and we love the Pintos but not the black beans. Is it the same recipe just different beans?
Yes we do! It is in our cookbook! The recipe isn’t the same… Send me an email and I will email it to you.
This may seem like a silly question, can you cook the rice and the rest of the ingredients in a rice cooker?
Yes, you can. I usually do!
The rice was fantastic, I love the tartness of the lime with the little bit of sweetness from the sugar. Yum, thanks!
@ Frank and Victoria– I don't know. I have never tried it. If you do it, maybe don't used canned beans, try using the dried ones. I'm not sure what to recommend! If it turns out well, let me know!
can this be cooked in a crock pot with out the beans going mushy?
@ Megs– ya know, I have had a lot of people complain about the amount of salt. For some reason I haven't noticed but I will actually go ahead and change it on the recipe. I wrote it up over 3 years ago so it very well could be a typo. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!
I loved your Cafe Rio salad dressing recipe, but these beans have SO much salt! 1 1/2 tsp for one can of beans?! If I had stopped to think before just following the recipe, I never would have added salt. I'm sure this is a typo– right???
Canned beans are very high in sodium, I would not recommend adding salt to them. Just look at the label on the can to see the salt content of the brand you are using.
I've never had Cafe Rio (they haven't made it to Texas yet apparently!), but this recipe looked great so I gave it a try anyway. Although at first the sweetness of the pork scared me a little bit, when you layer it with all the other flavors, it was wonderful!! I didn't do the tortilla/cheese part, and I also skipped the rice. Finally, I added a can of corn like you suggested. Although the changes I made surely made it less like the actual Cafe Rio salad, it was really good none the less! I think it would be great for having guests over! Thanks!
thank you, we love these!!! and have had them SEVERAL times now!!!
However, they are WAYYYYYY too salty for us with that much salt. Like, I don't know how it's not too salty for everyone! But, we know that now and have adjusted to for what we like! thanks!