One of my favorite things to experiment with is white rice. Simmering rice with various liquids and ingredients always makes for a delicious side dish. Let me warn you that this recipe in particular features an ingredient that people love or hate…cilantro. In fact, recent studies have shown that some people have a genetic predisposition to dislike cilantro. These people often describe the taste as being “soapy”. There’s even an “I hate cilantro” Facebook group with nearly 14,000 users and website dedicated to this genetically challenged (yes I’m biased) group.

Fortunately I have not run into any “cilantrophobes” and I can assure you that nobody in our family falls into this group, so we tend to use quite a bit of it in our cooking. Enter one of our favorite dishes – Drunken Cilantro Rice. While this dish is only made of up 5 simple ingredients, its flavor packs a punch. I had made this countless times on a stovetop, but even my largest plan can only hold 3 cups of rice. Not nearly enough when I’m having a large party. I was excited to give this a try in the Ninja since I know I could probably fit twice as many cups in there if I needed to.

I decided to base this recipe on 2 cups which results in a 6-8 servings. Feel free to double or half the ingredients if you need more or less.