Homemade Gluten Free Rice A Roni | 20 Minutes from Scratch! (2024)

Since the boxed version of Rice A Roni is not gluten free, let’s make our own gluten free Rice A Roni style dish with all the right flavors. With or without chicken, you can make a great meal or side dish tonight in 20 minutes, start to finish.

I always make the dry seasoning ahead of time, then add the raw rice and broken pasta, and make it in one pot. It's the perfect quick, savory meal that can be made in stages ahead of time, then assembled, boiled and served in minutes. A satisfying dinner the whole family will love is only minutes away, any day!

A homemade Rice A Roni recipe | when you’re tired of plain rice

I guess because I write a food blog, you might assume that I am always magically ready with a hot meal on the table at dinnertime. Hahahahahahahahaha. I dread dinnertime just like everyone else does. And I'm not much of a strict planner, either, like I know some of you are.

Whether you're a last minute dinner rustler like I am or a planner with a schedule, you know the value of a really good homemade dinner that everyone loves—and comes together in mere minutes. Since I'm often serving different members of the family dinner at various times throughout the evening, anything that I can make in stages is truly a gem.

This homemade gluten free Rice A Roni style dinner ticks all the boxes. It's super easy, uses regular pantry ingredients, can be made in stages (the spice mix can even be made weeks ahead of time and stored in a sealed container in your pantry), can be built up with protein or left plain, and everyoneloves it.

My gluten free son is probably the only celiac who doesn't really care for plain rice, but he, too, loves this dish. It's always in the back of my mind as a go-to dish, especially if I'm caught out on time and already made my last-minute gluten free pizza that week.

Is rice gluten free?

In case you were wondering, all rice is gluten free.In fact, it's one of the most useful, versatile gluten free grains. That means that brown rice, wild rice, white rice, short grain, long grain and medium grain rice are all gluten free. Even so-called “glutinous rice” is gluten free, as its name refers to the sticky, starchy aspect of the rice itself.

When dry long grain white rice is ground super fine, it is the base for every all purpose gluten free flour blend I use. You can even grind it into a pretty fine flour yourself at home.

Cooked rice also makes the perfect side dish for almost any meal. It's perfect to serve with gluten free orange chicken, lemon chicken or sesame chicken. And if you're looking for dessert, you can turn almost any type of rice into rice pudding (as long as your rice wasn't cooked in chicken stock or something else savory!).

How about the boxed stuff? Is Rice A Roni gluten free?

Even though rice itself is safely gluten free, Rice a Roni in the box is not gluten free. It's made with rice and spices, but it also contains conventional wheat-based pastas like spaghetti and orzo.

If you're just getting started on a gluten free diet and would liketo know the basic rules, maybe you'd like to see my Ultimate Guide to the Basic Rules of a Gluten Free Diet. Everything you need to know is in that guide, along with plenty of links for a deeper dive into some important information.

Why make a homemade version of Rice a Roni?

Some nights we have rice for dinner; others we have gluten free pasta. Here, we use a combination of both gluten free pasta and rice, but with the perfect blend of savory spices that makes the whole dish taste just like the box.

To make it most like Rice a Roni in the package, we use gluten free spaghetti noodles and break them into pieces. That also ensures that everything cooks together at the same rate and nothing gets mushy.

My whole family absolutely loves this side-dish-that-can-be-a-main-dish. It's also ridiculously easy to assemble the fragrant, flavorful dry mixes (and even dice the chicken ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator), so everybody wins.

Serving homemade gluten free Rice a Roni

If you've ever made the actual boxed, gluteny Rice-A-Roni, you know how this works. My method is a teeny tiny bit different than the method on the box. I just find that this way works best for this particular copycat recipe.

When the Rice-A-Roni people tell you how to add chicken to the ingredients in the box, they tell you to cook itwith the rice and pasta. But it only takes a few moments to sauté it separately, and it results in much more flavorful chicken that is never, ever overcooked.

Tips for making the best gluten free rice pilaf (Rice a Roni copycat)

Break up the gf pasta

To make it most like Rice a Roni in the package, we use gluten free spaghetti noodles and break them into pieces. That also ensures that everything cooks together at the same rate and nothing gets mushy.

Choose long grain rice over short grain

I used Lundberg brand long grain brown rice. They also make long grain white rice, but my kids are used to brown rice and I prefer using a complex carb to a simple one. You can’t use short grain rice as it takes much longer to cook.

And yes, the brown rice does cook completely during the 20 minutes that the pan is covered. It really helps to use a large round skillet with a tight-fitting cover, and measure your water carefully.

I have also used this general recipe to make spaetzle-a-roni, believe it or not. And it was excellent!

Use gluten free pasta (or don't!)

I used Barilla dried gluten free spaghetti in this dish. I wanted to make this recipe as simple and accessible as possible and gluten free spaghetti is readily available.

There are a number of companies that make gluten free vermicelli, though, and gluten free angel hair pasta. If you’d like, you can use GF angel hair pasta For a slightly more authentic feel.

I’ve also made this only rice, no pasta. I’ve even made it with leftover white rice from another dish.

Dried spices are much more convenient

Making this dish with dried spices allows you to make the seasoning entirely ahead of time. In fact, I always keep a small jar with at least a double recipe in the spice cabinet and use it to make so many savory dishes.

FAQs

Why isn't boxed Rice a Roni gluten free?

Boxed Rice a Roni contains wheat-based ingredients, like conventional pasta. It is not gluten free in any way.

How do I store leftover gluten free rice pilaf?

If you have leftovers (that you don't think your hungry teenager is going to eat at 10:00 pm, like mine), place the leftovers in a sealed container in the refrigerator. The leftovers will dry out a bit, so just add a few pats of butter or a turn or two of olive oil on top, stir, and warm in the microwave.

Can I freeze gluten free Rice A Roni?

Sure, you can freeze the leftovers in a sealed, freezer-safe container. I would defrost in the refrigerator, then warm in the same manner as the refrigerated leftovers above.

What's the best way to reheat gluten free rice recipes?

I like to reheat rice in the microwave, at least loosely covered. It allows your rice to retain any moisture it still has after being refrigerated. The oven dries food out.

What are the ingredients for a homemade Rice A Roni seasoning recipe?

The ingredients in the seasoning are so simple, but you won't believe how amazing they all taste together. They are nutritional yeast, dried onion flakes, garlic powder, dried parsley, dried thyme, salt, and a bit of turmeric. There are similarities between this spice mix and our gluten free onion soup mix, but this is a much more robust mixture, particularly with the nutritional yeast.

Can I mix homemade Rice a Roni ingredients for use later?

Yes! In fact, to mimic the experience of the boxed mix, I describe how to make the dry mix ahead of time. Store it in a sealed glass container in a dark pantry until you're ready to use it.

Homemade Rice A Roni ingredient substitutions and variations

The flavor profile doesn't lend itself to using beef in place of the optional chicken, but I think that turkey would work fine. Here are a few words about the other ingredients and potential substitutions:

Dairy free gluten free homemade Rice a Roni

If you use a vegan butter substitute (my favorite is Melt brand VeganButter, but I've also used virgin coconut oil and Earth Balance with success), this recipe is entirely dairy-free. I'd recommend cutting down on the salt a bit, though, if you use a vegan butter substitute as they tend to be quite salty.

Long Grain Rice

I used Lundberg brand long grain brown rice. They also make long grain white rice, but my kids are used to brown rice and I prefer using a complex carb to a simple one. You can't use short grain rice as it takes much longer to cook.

And yes, the brown rice does cook completely during the 20 minutes that the pan is covered. It really helps to use a large round skillet with a tight-fitting cover, and measure your water carefully. I have also used this general recipe to make spaetzle-a-roni, believe it or not. And it was excellent!

Gluten Free Spaghetti

I used Barilla dried gluten free spaghetti in this dish. I wanted to make this recipe as simple and accessible as possible and gluten free spaghetti is readily available.

There are a number of companies that make gluten free vermicelli, though, and gluten free angel hair pasta. If you'd like, you can use GF angel hair pasta For a slightly more authentic feel.

I've also made this only rice, no pasta. I've even made it with leftover white rice from another dish.

Nutritional Yeast

I used Bragg brand “Nutritional Yeast Seasoning,” and I find it online, in my local health food store and in Whole Foods. Bob’s Red Mill also makes a gluten free “Nutritional Food Yeast,” but I haven’t tried it.

Nutritional yeast is an inactive form of yeast and has a mild nutty and cheesy flavor. And strangely, it sort of tastes like chicken. These are life's little mysteries. Embrace them.

I don't know of any substitute for the nutritional yeast—especially since it's often used as a substitute for cheese. I imagine the dish would be quite good with finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, though.

Veggies

Like you can add chicken to this homemade gluten free rice dish, you can also add any cooked vegetables you like. I love serving this dish with steamed broccoli, tossed with a bit more of the seasoning mix.

You can also defrost mixed frozen vegetables and toss them in, like we do with our cauliflower fried rice. In fact, you could even add some riced cauliflower in place of some of the rice in this dish.

Broth

Most recipes for homemade Rice a Roni call for a premade liquid broth as an ingredient. This recipe doesn't call for any sort of broth, and instead relies on dried seasoning that mimics the taste of broth without the expense or bother.

If you'd like to add some broth to this dish, you can replace some or even all of the water with vegetable or chicken broth. I wouldn't use beef broth, as that's a different flavor profile.

Spices

This recipe has what I consider to be the perfect blend of mild but flavorful spices. If you'd like to experiment with replacing one or the other, you certainly can but I can't promise how it will taste!

How to make Rice a Roni from scratch, step by step