Easy Buttery Rice Pilaf

Simple easy buttery rice pilaf recipe is my no fail go to side dish. Serve this delicious buttery rice with grilled chicken, shrimp, fish, or steak, it literally goes with anything!

One of my favorite meals to serve this with is my Incredible Chicken Shawarma Feast!

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This recipe for easy buttery rice pilaf is absolutely one of my favorite recipes. I spent a lot of time perfecting the texture and consistency of this rice to get it to be just right. We eat a lot of chicken shawarma at home and this rice is the perfect complement to complete the meal!

I seem to be very good at figuring out what will be for dinner except for the side dishes. I feel like we have potatoes with just about everything, mashed, baked, fried, fries, tots, and wedges. As much as I love the almighty potato, I can get very sick of it as the starch on my plate. I love the flexibility of rice and this easy buttery rice pilaf will go with just about anything.

I can put this rice pilaf together in minutes and then get it in the oven while preparing the rest of my meal. I will confess, most of the time it is paired with grilled chicken. Sometimes I make chicken seasoned with shawarma spices when I pair it with a greek salad, other times, I just salt and pepper the chicken for a simple week night meal.

The Ingredients

Let’s talk about the ingredients. Rice pilaf is supposed to be simple, it is meant to compliment your meal, not take it over. I like my rice to be buttery and fluffy and delicious enough to eat on its own, or with every forkful of chicken I eat. I use orzo pasta as the traditional rice pilaf ingredient, but I have heard you can also use angel hair pasta that has been broken into half inch pieces and toasted.

Next we use delicious long grain white rice, nothing fancy here, just the stuff you can get 5 pounds of for $3 or $4 dollars.

When it comes to chicken broth, I usually use Better than Boullion or L.B. Jamison’s Soup Base. Either one works well. Then whatever garlic and onion powder you have in your spice rack. I add the garlic and onion to simply elevate the flavor, you can omit these, but I like to step it up a notch by adding them.

Lastly, I use salted butter. I prefer to cook and bake with salted butter, but you certainly can use unsalted, I would just add a pinch of salt if you use unsalted.

Let’s Make Easy Buttery Rice Pilaf!

The first step is to toast the orzo pasta. This step is very important and really give you that rice pilaf look in the end. Not to mention that toasting the orzo and the rice creates a very fluffy finished product. Now when I say toast, I mean a deep golden brown, be careful not to burn it though!

Next, you throw in your white rice and let that toast for a couple more minutes. I know a lot of people think you have to rinse your white rice to have fluffy rice, believe it or not, toasting dry uncooked rice has the same affect. I am sure there is science behind that, but I have no idea what it would be!

The next steps are simple, throw the rice mixture in the pan with your broth and cover tightly, very tightly with foil. I do lightly grease my pan before I put all the ingredients in it, this just saves some time cleaning the pan.

After you have baked it in the over for 30 minutes, take that foil off and let it finish cooking for 5 to 10 more minutes.

I then remove it from the oven, cover it with the same foil and put my oven mits on top. I let it sit like that for about 10 minutes before I fluff it with a fork or spoon.

Then I usually take a big spoonful and eat it as every good chef knows you must taste as you go!! You’re going to love this easy buttery rice pilaf.

Check out some of my other Side Dishes!