19 Rice Recipes for Main Dishes

These rice recipes cover beef and sausage skillets, chicken and salmon bowls, fried rice, stuffed peppers, family bakes and seafood. Compare rice types and preparation stages, with short notes and direct links to every complete recipe.

Dry rice, ready-cooked rice and safely chilled cooked rice are different starting ingredients. Some recipes cook the grain under a lid; others prepare it separately for bowls or reheating. Check that distinction before measuring broth or choosing an appliance.

Rice Recipes for Skillet Meals

Check which skillets use dry grains and which fold in rice already cooked.

Rice Recipes featuring Nacho Beef Rice Skillet

1. Nacho Beef Rice Skillet

Dry white basmati simmers with cooked beef, tomatoes, corn and measured water. Drained roasted peppers join before a covered rest and cheese finish. Fresh tomato, chips and cilantro are added late rather than simmered into the rice.

View the full recipe

Beef Black Bean Taco Rice

2. Beef Black Bean Taco Rice

This skillet starts with ready-cooked rice, heated by its label before being folded into beef, beans and a reduced tomato-corn mixture. Colby Jack melts under a lid. It is not the same liquid method as cooking dry rice in the pan.

View the full recipe

Sausage Pepper Rice Skillet

3. Sausage Pepper Rice Skillet

Ordinary dry long-grain white rice simmers with sausage, peppers, onion and broth in a covered skillet. Check whether the sausage is raw or fully cooked before the rice stage. Optional tomatoes are drained, and extra hot water is conditional on grain tenderness.

View the full recipe

Beef Black-Eyed Pea Rice

4. Beef Black-Eyed Pea Rice

Cooked canned black-eyed peas and browned beef share a covered pot with dry white rice, tomatoes and seasonings. Begin checking the grains before adding small amounts of reserve water. Uncooked dried peas are not a direct substitute for the canned beans here.

View the full recipe

Rice Bowls and Fried Rice

The grain is prepared before topping or stir-frying in these methods.

Korean-Style Beef Rice Bowls

5. Korean-Style Beef Rice Bowls

Browned ground beef is briefly coated in a sweet soy-sesame sauce before being divided over hot prepared rice. Green onion and sesame finish the bowls. The recipe measures rice after cooking rather than adding dry grains to the beef skillet.

View the full recipe

Air Fryer Salmon Rice Bowls

6. Air Fryer Salmon Rice Bowls

Cubed salmon air-fries separately while cooked rice, prepared edamame and fresh vegetables are arranged in two bowls. A cold mayonnaise-chili sauce finishes them. Prepare and measure the cooked grain and edamame before assembling the fish and toppings.

View the full recipe

Thai Basil Chicken Rice Bowls

7. Thai Basil Chicken Rice Bowls

Ground chicken and shallots cook with a sweet soy and fish-sauce mixture before fresh basil is folded in. Jasmine rice is prepared separately. Choose this for an aromatic topped bowl rather than a rice dish simmered together in one sauce.

View the full recipe

Thai-Style Egg Vegetable Fried Rice

8. Thai-Style Egg Vegetable Fried Rice

Safely chilled cooked jasmine rice is stir-fried with separately scrambled eggs and small vegetables. Soy, fish sauce, sesame oil and lime provide the finish. The rice’s earlier cooking and cooling are additional preparation rather than part of the short skillet stage.

View the full recipe

Ground Chicken Fried Rice

9. Ground Chicken Fried Rice

Ground chicken is cooked first before eggs, prepared vegetables and chilled rice are combined in the pan. Soy sauce and green onions finish the mixture. This starts with rice already cooked and refrigerated, and the finished batch is intended for immediate eating.

View the full recipe

Stuffed Vegetables and Rice Bakes

Whole peppers and oven dishes give rice another serving format.

Grilled Beef Rice Stuffed Peppers

10. Grilled Beef Rice Stuffed Peppers

Browned beef and cooked rice fill six large bell peppers with tomatoes and cheese. Each pepper cooks in an upright foil packet over indirect grill heat. Prepare the filling before wrapping and allow room around the peppers for the closed grill stage.

View the full recipe

Beef Rice Stuffed Poblanos

11. Beef Rice Stuffed Poblanos

Dry white rice is prepared separately while halved poblanos begin softening in the oven. Beef, black beans, corn and tomatoes make the filling with cheese inside and on top. The recipe fills sixteen pepper halves rather than eight intact peppers.

View the full recipe

Cheddar Beef Rice Bake

12. Cheddar Beef Rice Bake

Cooked white rice and browned beef are coated with condensed mushroom soup, milk and paprika. Cheddar is divided between filling and surface. A chilled assembly can take longer to heat, so check the middle before serving.

View the full recipe

Chicken Burrito Rice Bake

13. Chicken Burrito Rice Bake

Cooked chicken and rice join drained black beans, corn, salsa and taco seasoning beneath melting cheese. This is a prepared-component casserole without tortilla wrapping. Include earlier cooking and storage time for both the rice and chicken in your meal plan.

View the full recipe

Rice with Beans and Seafood

Beans, lentils and seafood broaden the choices beyond chicken-based bowls.

Cajun Shrimp Rice Skillet

14. Cajun Shrimp Rice Skillet

White long-grain rice simmers with peppers and broth before seasoned raw shrimp is arranged on top near the end. The spice blend is divided between grain and seafood. Check the rice before adding shrimp so the seafood does not wait through an extended grain-cooking stage.

View the full recipe

Slow Cooker Jambalaya

15. Slow Cooker Jambalaya

Chicken, fully cooked andouille and vegetables make the cooker base. Rice is boiled separately near serving, and shrimp cooks in a skillet before the hot components are combined. This method uses several vessels and does not put raw rice in the slow cooker.

View the full recipe

Yellow Rice Sausage Shrimp Jambalaya

16. Yellow Rice Sausage Shrimp Jambalaya

Plain white rice cooks with turmeric for color while sausage and vegetables heat in a separate sauce. Shrimp also has its own pan stage. The cooked components are combined promptly, with only a small reserve of water used if the skillet needs loosening.

View the full recipe

Black Bean Sausage Rice

17. Black Bean Sausage Rice

Dry white rice and cooked black beans simmer with sausage, peppers, onion and broth in a covered pot. The recipe specifies fully cooked beans rather than soaked dried beans. A short covered rest follows before the grain is fluffed and portioned.

View the full recipe

Mediterranean Lentils and Rice

18. Mediterranean Lentils and Rice

Cooked lentils and cooked basmati rice warm through spiced softened onions, with lemon and optional yogurt to serve. Honey seasons the onion stage. If using the dry-rice alternative, cook it separately before beginning the final skillet combination.

View the full recipe

Saffron Chicken Shrimp Rice

19. Saffron Chicken Shrimp Rice

Ordinary medium-grain white rice cooks with chicken pieces and saffron-infused broth before shrimp and peas join late. Keep the chicken cooking continuously from browning onward. The complete recipe distinguishes this rice product from instant, brown and other specialty grains.

View the full recipe

Before You Choose Your Recipe

For a meal built around dry rice, browse the covered skillets or stuffed poblano recipe. Bowls and fried rice use different preparation sequences. Lentils, black beans, shrimp and saffron give the remaining dishes distinct flavors without requiring more chicken-rice variations.

More Recipe Ideas