Tequila Sun Rice & Chipotle Ketchup

As always, the What is dedicated to presenting you with colorful ideas for everyday life. Many of our ideas are food-related, because we love food. Learning how to cook for yourself now that you no longer have your mom or your meal plan to provide your meals can seem like a daunting task. We at the What are here to show you that cooking can be fun, easy, and rewarding by offering up recipes like this from our personal cookbooks. As is the case with most of our recipe-based ideas, this one is simple and delicious, just like us.

Tequila Sun Rice & Chipotle Ketchup

Like most great accomplishments in science and history, good meals come from happy accidents. Such is the case with Tequila Sun Rice. I found myself with pork chops and nothing to accompany them, so I took a cup of Jasmine rice and jazzed it up into the best rice I've ever had. Unfortunately, I did not write anything down, so I'll be recreating this recipe by memory. I'm also going to be presenting it in two parts, the rice itself and the Chipotle Ketchup I whipped up to go along with it.

Peppers add flavor and color to your rice

Ingredients (Rice)

1 Cup Jasmine rice

Corn (small can)

Red bell pepper

Orange bell pepper

Mesquite Seasoning

Paprika

Garlic Powder

Onion Powder

Directions (Rice)

1. Chop up your peppers, a medium-dice should suffice.
2. Follow the directions on the package to prepare the rice.
3. When you add the rice to the water, add in your veggies.
4. Add roughly a teaspoon or two of the garlic and onion powder.
5. Whatever you added for the aforementioned seasoning, add double the Mesquite and paprika.
6. Stir and let the rice cook as directed.

I have to say, I'm very proud of the next part of this recipe. Everything was nearly done cooking when I decided to try making my own Tex-Mex style of barbecue sauce. What I came up with was a delicious concoction that reminded me of the Chipotle Ketchups I've had at Southern BBQ joints, so that's what I'm calling it.

Ingredients (Chipotle Ketchup)
Salsa (I went with mild)
Taco Sauce (Again, mild. Feel free to up the spice ante)
Ketchup
BBQ Sauce
French Dressing
Mesquite Seasoning
Paprika
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
TODAY'S SECRET INGREDIENT IS: Tequila Blanco

Directions (Chipotle Ketchup)

1. Add ketchup, salsa, taco sauce, BBQ sauce, and French dressing to a mixing bowl. I used anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of each one. Mix well.
2. Add seasonings to taste. Again I used more paprika and Mesquite than the powders. Taste test to see what you like and feel free to add salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.
3. Drop in a few shots of tequila, two or three should do just fine and again, mix well. In fact, if you have a mixer that may be even better.
4. As I started this at just about the time the rest of my meal was ready, I just nuked the sauce to warm it. In the future, I will do all of this on the stove.

Once everything was done, I mixed about have off the Chipotle Ketchup with the rice, stirring it in until the rice was a nice orange color. The rest of the sauce was used to top the pork chops I had cooked (Seasoned with the Mesquite seasoning and paprika, cooked at 350 for about 25 minutes). The result was a vibrant, delicious meal that took less than half an hour to prepare and was made entirely from ingredients I found laying around the kitchen. I highly recommend giving this one a try and washing it down with a nice, cool margarita. Buen Provecho!