If long grain and wild rice blend has turned up in a recipe or caught your eye at the store, here's what you need to use it with confidence and how to choose it, cook it, store it, what to substitute, and 15 recipes to try it in.

What is long grain and wild rice blend?

A long grain and wild rice blend is a packaged mix of slim white or brown long-grain rice and dark wild rice, usually sold with a seasoning packet tucked inside. The Uncle Ben's and Rice-A-Roni style boxes are the ones most cooks picture.

The two grains do different jobs. Long-grain rice cooks up light and fluffy and carries the seasoning.

Wild rice, which is actually an aquatic grass seed and not a true rice, brings the chew, a nutty flavor, and that flecked black color. Together they read as fancier than plain rice for almost no extra effort.

That convenience is the appeal. One box plus water and a pat of butter gives you the look and texture of a composed pilaf.

How to Use the Blend

Straight from the box it is a side dish. Simmer it with the seasoning packet and serve it under roast chicken or game like Pheasant A' L'Orange, where the nutty wild rice suits the richer meat.

Its real strength is as a casserole base. The blend is the backbone of chicken-and-rice bakes such as Wild Rice Chicken and Baked chicken & wild rice with onion & tarragon, where it cooks in the oven while it soaks up broth and cream.

It anchors Deem's Chicken Casserole and Spicy Rice Casserole the same way.

Cooked and cooled, it turns into a hearty grain salad. Garden Wild Rice Salad and Big Batch Paella Salad lean on its chew to hold up to a vinaigrette without going mushy.

It also bulks out a holiday Double Rice Stuffing and folds into Wild Roasted Chicken Wraps for texture.

Cooking the Blend Evenly

The one real challenge is that the two grains cook at different speeds. Wild rice needs forty to fifty minutes to split open and soften, while white long-grain is done in about eighteen.

A boxed blend is calibrated so they finish together, so follow its timing rather than your instinct for plain rice.

Use the liquid ratio on the box, usually around 2½ cups of water or broth per cup of blend. That is more than plain rice needs, because the wild grains drink it up. Keep the lid on and resist stirring, which knocks loose starch and turns the long grain gummy.

The common failure is wild rice still tooth-crackingly hard while the white has gone soft. Add a splash of hot liquid, put the lid back on, and let it steam ten more minutes off a hard boil.

Swap broth for the water and the whole pot tastes seasoned rather than flat.

Substitutes

No blend on hand? Build your own from ¾ cup long-grain white rice and ¼ cup wild rice.

Give the wild rice a head start, simmering it alone for about twenty-five minutes before you add the white, so both finish tender at once.

Season it with your own bouillon and herbs, plus a little dried onion, to replace the missing packet.

A brown-and-wild blend swaps in directly and adds more chew and fiber.

Plain long-grain rice works if you only need a neutral side, though you lose the color and the nutty note. For salads, cooked barley or farro gives a similar hearty bite if wild rice is nowhere to be found.

Buying and Storing

Check the box for whether the rice is white or brown based, since brown blends take longer and drink more liquid.

Note the seasoning packet too; some are heavily salted, and a few skip it entirely for a plain blend you season yourself.

Unopened, the dry blend keeps in a cool, dry pantry for a year or two. The grains are shelf-stable, though the seasoning packet's flavor fades first, so go by its date. Transfer an opened box to an airtight jar to keep out moisture and pantry moths.

Cooked blend keeps in the fridge for four to five days in a sealed container and freezes well for up to three months.

Spread it on a tray to cool quickly before chilling, since rice left warm too long is a food-safety risk.

Quick facts

In Chinese

长粒稻和野生稻混合

British (UK) term

Long grain and wild rice blend

en français

à grain long et sauvage mélange de riz

en español

de grano largo y mezcla de arroz salvaje

Recipes using long grain and wild rice blend

There are 15 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 15 recipes