Spanish Rice in the Crockpot

My cousin has a cooking blog and I always look forward to reading what she's made on Tuesday nights.  She's a great cook, way more daring than I am (check out her mad bread making skills).  In one post, she reminded me of  the spanish rice in the crockpot that my grandma and mom used to make.  I have my own homemade (that is, not from a box with a seasoning package) version of this, but the crockpot is really convenient sometimes.

This past weekend I made a crockpot of Chipotle Carne Asada and a crockpot of the rice.  However, I  made a bit of a mistake . . . I used Thai Jasmine rice instead of a regular long grain rice and it got sort of mushy.  But, I added some spices to the family recipe and really liked the overall flavor.  I used 2.5 cups of rice and 5 cups of liquid and it made a crockpot full . . . we had 20 guests and I had tons of leftovers (maybe because it was so mushy??)

Spanish Rice (6 side dish servings)

1.5 c. raw long grain rice

1/4 c. olive oil

1.5 c. tomato juice (I used low-sodium V8)

1.5 c. water

1 small onion, chopped 

1 small green bell pepper, finely diced

2 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. ground chipotle pepper (or paprika or for a kick, 1/4 tsp. cayenne)

1/2 tsp. salt

Saute the rice, onion, and bell pepper in the olive oil until the rice is golden brown and the onion & pepper are soft.  Put it in a crockpot with the rest of the ingredients.  Stir well.  Cover and cook on low.  My cousin's instructions say low for 4-6 hours or high for 2-3 hours.  My crockpot is notoriously hot / fast and I checked it when the liquid was absorbed at about 2 hours on low and it was done.