It’s rare that I do much more with rice than serve it plain as a side, but this Baked Sour Cream Chile Rice has a way of compelling you to up your side dish game into something more. It’s a dish with zesty Mexican flair – thanks to spicy green chiles and sweet corn, cilantro and Monterey Jack cheese – but it’s also creamy and comforting. Because of all that flavor and the creamy, cheesy texture, it’s so much more than a side dish… it’s more of a showstopper!

This isn’t a dish where the rice is actually cooked in the oven, so it also functions as a great way to dress up leftover rice you happen to have in the fridge. You just take that cooked rice, mix it with sour cream, green chiles, cilantro, corn, and a bit of cheese and pop it into a baking dish before topping it with more cheese and baking it. Easy, right?

The resulting combination of flavors is pretty incredible. Since the green chiles are mild, it’s zesty but not quite spicy and the pops of corn add a contrasting sweetness even if it was. Those flavors and the soft, tender rice all come together in a creamy base that has the slightest tang and, of course, there’s ooey-gooey cheesiness too.

This baked rice is rich and satisfying and fairly filling so could almost work as a main dish, but it’s not quite a complete meal. No, its place is really as that unassuming side dish that always manages to steal the show.