8/18/21

Mama’s Brown Rice (Not the Healthy Kind, the Beefy, Buttery Kind!)

Rice browned in butter then baked in beef consommé for an absolutely perfectly cooked recipe easy enough for weeknight meals and special enough for holiday dinners!

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Here I sit, yet again, thinking my family’s way of cooking something was the way everybody cooked it. 

I’ve been running this blog, publishing recipes for over ten years, and could have shared this a thousand times by now but never did because it’s one of those recipes I just assumed everybody already had.

But nope. At least not from what I’m seeing online. I can’t find one single recipe exactly like this one. And I’ve spent all morning looking.

Mama’s Brown Rice (Not the Healthy Kind, the Beefy, Buttery Kind!) Rice browned in butter then baked in beef consommé for an absolutely perfectly cooked recipe easy enough for weeknight meals and special enough for holiday dinners!

What got me looking was I couldn’t figure out what to call this so I wanted to see what everybody else calls it. We just call it brown rice.

But it’s not actually brown rice. Brown rice is the less processed, somewhat healthier form of rice that still has the bran and germ (unlike traditional white rice which does not).

This recipe is actually browned rice – traditional white rice that’s been sautéed in butter until lightly browned and almost nutty in fragrance – that’s then made further brown by cooking in beef consommé.

I still don’t know what to call this but I’m hoping inspiration strikes before I get to the recipe.

Mama’s Brown Rice (Not the Healthy Kind, the Beefy, Buttery Kind!) Rice browned in butter then baked in beef consommé for an absolutely perfectly cooked recipe easy enough for weeknight meals and special enough for holiday dinners!

The main differences in our recipe and the ones I see online are:

Less butter – most recipes use twice the amount of butter as this one. Most use 1 stick of butter like this one does but this recipe makes twice the amount (this uses 2 cups of rice, most other recipes use 1 cup). As much as I love butter, I honestly think 1/2 cup of butter is way too much for a recipe with just 1 cup of rice.

Sautéing the rice – many of the recipes I see add cold butter to the dish before baking. Our recipe uses the butter to sauté the rice (to brown it) which adds so much flavor and texture. I mentioned it in my Mexican Restaurant-Style Rice recipe, but sautéing the rice does something to the texture that helps it hold up better – it makes it almost (but not quite) chewy (in a good way!).

Beef Consommé – our recipe uses all beef consommé. I do see recipes online that use it, though about half use French onion soup. I definitely prefer it with beef consommé but I’ve used French Onion and Beefy Mushroom soups (and combos of the three) and like those options too. 

Mama’s Brown Rice (Not the Healthy Kind, the Beefy, Buttery Kind!) Rice browned in butter then baked in beef consommé for an absolutely perfectly cooked recipe easy enough for weeknight meals and special enough for holiday dinners!

Beef consommé is a little different than other beef soups. It's a bone broth that's highly reduced then also clarified so the flavor is extra concentrated. Because it's a condensed bone broth, it's naturally thicker (slightly gelatinous) due to the collagen. I think that richness really comes through in this recipe. The consommé just seems to “stand up” in this where the others can seem a little watery and weak. 

Mama sautés a diced onion with her rice. Sometimes I do too but since I usually don’t, I didn’t add it to the recipe below. If you’d like to, simply finely dice a small onion then add it to the butter with the rice when following the recipe below.

This recipe is such a favorite in my family, it comes out at the BIG meals like Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. It goes great with baked ham and I almost always serve the two together. 

You can reduce or increase the recipe very easily. The cooking times stay the same – just use a smaller or larger dish of course. Here are the ratios for the ingredients:

Welp, I didn’t come up with anything clever to call this so I’m just going to call it Mama’s Brown Rice and hope that the “Mama” part might tip somebody off that this isn’t the whole grain healthy stuff (that has the texture of what I imagine my ottoman poof is stuffed with).

I’m sure you have a version of this you enjoy but I sure hope you try this one too! We love it so much! Our college junior was on her way out the door, I told her I’d made this for y’all and there was a whole pan in the fridge and the next thing I heard was the microwave beeping. When something’s good enough to make a 20-yr old carb-counting coed circle back for leftovers, it’s good y’all. 

Mama’s Brown Rice (Not the Healthy Kind, the Beefy, Buttery Kind!) Rice browned in butter then baked in beef consommé for an absolutely perfectly cooked recipe easy enough for weeknight meals and special enough for holiday dinners!

NOTES ABOUT MAKING BEEFY BROWN RICE:

  • You can use French Onion or Beefy Mushroom soup as well or a combination of the three. I have and enjoy them but definitely like the more condensed beef flavor in the consommé best. 
  • Feel free to add finely diced onion when sautéing the rice – that’s how Mama usually makes it!
  • I have no clue how to make this with actual whole grain brown rice. I’m sure it can be done but I couldn’t tell you how long to cook it.
  • To reduce or increase the recipe, see the table above. Cooking time and temperature will stay the same.
  • Do not add salt to this recipe. This is a frog's hair from being too salty so if you're sensitive to salt, consider subbing 1 can of the beef consommé with reduced sodium beef broth and using unsalted butter. 
  • You must cover the dish tightly with foil and start with a hot oven for the rice to cook properly.
  • The dish won’t boil over so you can fill it pretty full (don’t go wild – no closer than half an inch from the top). If you bake it in something much wider than needed (making it very shallow) it will likely be done quicker than an hour so check it early.

Recipe for Beefy Brown Rice

brown, browned, rice, stick of butter, beef consomme, consome, consume, bullion, broth, french onion, beefy, mushroom, paula deen, fried, sauteed, onion, baked, casserole, bake, covered dish, side dish, potluck
covered dish, side dish, potluck
Yield: 8 Servings
Author: Mandy Rivers | South Your Mouth
Mama’s Brown Rice (Not the Healthy Kind, the Beefy, Buttery Kind!)

Mama’s Brown Rice (Not the Healthy Kind, the Beefy, Buttery Kind!)

Rice browned in butter then baked in beef consommé for an absolutely perfectly cooked recipe easy enough for weeknight meals and special enough for holiday dinners!
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 5 M

Ingredients

  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
  • 2 cups uncooked long-grain white rice
  • 4 10.5-oz cans beef consommé

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add rice then sauté for about 5 minutes or until rice is light brown. The butter will become foamy and lovely and the rice will start to smell somewhat nutty.
  3. Pour rice and butter into a 2-quart baking dish then add beef consommé. Cover tightly with two layers of aluminum foil then bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour.
  4. Remove from oven, fluff rice with a fork, then serve.

Notes

  • You can use French Onion or Beefy Mushroom soup as well or a combination of the three. I have and enjoy them but definitely like the more condensed beef flavor in the consommé best. 
  • Feel free to add finely diced onion when sautéing the rice – that’s how Mama usually makes it!
  • I have no clue how to make this with actual whole grain brown rice. I’m sure it can be done but I couldn’t tell you how long to cook it.
  • To reduce or increase the recipe, see the table above.
  • Do not add salt to this recipe. This is a frog's hair from being too salty so if you're sensitive to salt, consider subbing 1 can of the beef consommé with reduced sodium beef broth and using unsalted butter. 
  • You must cover the dish tightly with foil and start with a hot oven for the rice to cook properly.
  • The dish won’t boil over so you can fill it pretty full (don’t go wild – no closer than half an inch from the top). If you bake it in something much wider than needed (making it very shallow) it will likely be done quicker than an hour so check it early.
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Mama’s Brown Rice (Not the Healthy Kind, the Beefy, Buttery Kind!) Rice browned in butter then baked in beef consommé for an absolutely perfectly cooked recipe easy enough for weeknight meals and special enough for holiday dinners!


24 comments:

  1. My mama floured and seared boneless pork chops and placed them over the rice and beef consomme for an all in one dish. Thank you for posting this. We've never sauteed the rice in butter beforehand though so I'm anxious to try this. Love all your recipes!

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  2. Mandy, I love your blogs! Thank you for all the great recipes over the years. I plan to make Mama's Brown Rice later this week for my sister. Sounds great!

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  3. If you were to break up some thin spaghetti into short pieces and sauté it in the ratio 1 spaghetti to 2 rice following your recipe of two cups liquid to one cup spaghetti/rice, you could name it Mama's-Rice-A-Roni. Might work with Chicken bullion/water instead of consommé as well.
    Thanks for sharing this recipe ...

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  4. Have you tried making it stovetop instead of baking it in the oven? I believe it would cook a lot quicker in a covered pot, don't you think so?

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    Replies
    1. That's how I make it!!!

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  5. I still make this rice. My grandmother taught me years ago. Add sautéd (in butter) chopped onions.

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  6. This sounds amazing. I vote for calling it "Buttery Browned Rice" :)

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  7. I make this and add in a can of sliced mushrooms... Im not normally big on canned mushrooms but it is soo good in this!

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  8. My mom made this growing up, but we called it Consomme Rice. Also, we use a can of mushrooms and 1 can consomme and 1 can french onion soup. It is kryptonite to me! :)

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  9. At $6.32 for 4 cans of consomme I'll try halving the recipe.

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  10. I have had "brown rice" all my life but we make a lazy version of it. I am sure yours tastes better, much more complex and is worth the time. Mine is 1 can beef broth, 1 can beef consumme, 1/2 stick of butter and 1 cup of rice. Some people add onion or mushrooms. Bake at 375 for about 45 min. Or until all liquid is absorbed. It's good with almost any meat.

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    Replies
    1. My recipe is exactly like yours. Family from ages 3 to 75 love it!!!

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  11. I cooked this in the cast iron skillet with the top on it in the oven. Turned out perfectly. Didn’t have to dirty another dish - plus😬

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  12. I made this tonight and it was absolutely delicious! Your rice recipes have never failed me!

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  13. You did have onion listed in the ingredients but not the instructions. I sautéed the onion with the rice. This has half the butter of the version I used to make. I had been tempted to try it with less, this inspired me to do so. Glad I did!

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  14. My mom showed me her (very similar) recipe and we do not cover in the oven at all! Rice cooks! Regular long grain rice and we don't sauté it 1st either. But add water chestnuts and mushrooms. Yummy.

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  15. I cut the recipe to 1/4 and it turned out perfectly anyway.

    Problem is with me. I should have found out first if I like beef consomme! The flavor is "foreign" to me and does not taste like any beef I've had before. I was disappointed, but most people won't be. I'll make this again, but I'll make a beef stock and simmer it long to intensify it. Thank you for sharing this recipe.

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  16. Heyyyyyyyy! My mom and HER mom have been making this recipe for over 60 years! The only differences I see are that they use a table spoon of minced garlic with the butter when browning the rice and the rice they use is Uncle Bens Converted Rice. The texture from the converted rice is a smoother grain. Awesome recipe!!!!

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  17. Made it for the first time tonight. Very happy, but am curious about one thing:
    Where it calls for 2 cans of beef consommé, I used Campbell’s condensed, which of course calls for a can of water. Should I use one can of consommé and a can of water, as it says on the can, or two cans of consommé and no water?

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    Replies
    1. And now I have a good excuse to make it again soon!
      Thought it was good with half consommé, half water, wife and kids may not get any when I do it again

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  18. Love this recipe; it is exactly how my mama used make it and I howbI make it, turns out delicious every time!!!

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  19. Just wanted to say how happy I am to find this recipe. My mom's been making this my whole life but I couldn't remember the exact ingredients. I tried calling her for the recipe but she didn't answer and since I'm about to go to the store, I thought I'd try googling it. Of course, most of what popped up was just cooking regular brown rice so at first, I felt a little defeated. Then I spotted "Mama's Brown Rice (Not the Healthy Kind, the..." and that was all I needed to *know* that was gonna be the one. Even the note about adding the onions checks out! This really *is* my mama's brown rice! (Apparently, it's a lot of people's mama's brown rice recipe haha. That was fun to see.) So thank you for posting this classic dish, it's much appreciated. Can't wait to chow down.

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  20. My grandma’s also had onion soup mix and we just called it oven rice.

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Hi there! While I’m not able to respond to every comment, I try hard to answer any questions that haven’t been addressed in the post, recipe or in other comments.

I can tell you now 1) I have no idea if you can substitute Minute Rice or brown rice in my recipes because I’ve never used them and 2) If I know how to convert a recipe to a Crock Pot version, I will make a note about it (otherwise, I don’t know).

And though I may not respond to them all, I do read each and every comment and I LOVE to hear from you guys! Thanks, y’all! - Mandy