How to cook rice on the stove (my default method)
- Place 1 cup of rice (no rinsing!) and 1.5 cups water in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high – no lid;
- Turn heat down to low, cover with lid, and leave for 13 minutes;
- With lid still on, remove saucepan from stove and stand for 10 minutes; and
- Fluff with a rice paddle, rubber spatula or fork, marvel at perfect fluffy rice! {See recipe video for a good close up!}
This is my default way of cooking rice, and of the 3 methods I’m sharing today, it yields the best result – the closest to using a rice cooker. All the rice cooks evenly, the grains are tender but not mushy, and the surface of the grains are not mushy and gummy.
There is no need to rinse rice if you use my rice cooking method!
How to cook rice in the oven
Useful for hands off, big batch rice cooking.
- Place rice and boiling water* in a small casserole with a lid (or use a pan and foil);
- Cover with lid, bake at 200°C/390°F (180°C fan) for 35 minutes;
- Remove from oven and stand for 10 minutes; and
- Fluff with fork, marvel at perfectly cooked fluffy oven baked rice. {See recipe video for a good close up!}
* Boiling water helps rice cook more evenly in the oven because the water doesn’t require time to come up to temperature in the oven (which can take over 10 minutes).
This is my next preferred method to cook rice. It’s not as perfect as rice cooked on the stove because some of the rice on the edges gets a wee bit crispy. But it is still very very good and the small compromise is worth the convince of this entirely hands-off method of cooking rice.
Some people think rice should not be sticky at ALL, but that’s not right! Rice is supposed to be a bit sticky, otherwise 5 billion Asians would struggle to eat rice with chopsticks!
How to cook rice in the microwave
Useful emergency method! I use this when I’m scrambling for rice props in photos!
- Place 1 cup of rice and 2 cups of boiling water in a microwave proof round^ container that’s 3 to 4 times taller than the water level (the water bubbles up quite a lot);
- Microwave uncovered for 12 minutes on high;
- Remove from microwave, cover then rest for 10 minutes;
- Fluff and enjoy!
* Most microwaves heat things from the outside in. Using boiling water helps rice cook more evenly.
^ Round container cooks more evenly than square or rectangle, but not critical.
Cooking rice in the microwave is just as fast as using the stove, but it’s more hands off. BUT microwave rice is not quite as good as cooking rice on the stove. The rice doesn’t cook quite as evenly, but the difference is marginal and I’m pretty sure only rice snobs can tell the difference!
You might turn your nose up at the thought of microwave rice… but it’s super handy to know how!
When I’m cooking on the job and need rice for stir fries or curries or something else I’m shooting, rice gets made in the microwave more often than not – for sheer convenience. Things get pretty hectic around here on shoot days!
Here’s a look at the rice cooked in the microwave. Hard to capture the texture in photos, but it is fluffy and doesn’t have that unpleasant gluey surface on the grains. You can see it better in the recipe video below!
The biggest mistake you’ve been making all your life
The biggest mistake people make when cooking rice is using too much water with most recipes calling for 2 cups of water to 1 cup of rice for stovetop cooking. This virtually guarantees overly soft rice with gummy surfaces.
The problem of too much water is then exacerbated by rinsing the rice, with promises that removing the excess starch will make your rice fluffy. Ever weighed your rice before and after rinsing? All that extra weight = water.
So actually, recipes that call for 2 cups of water AND rinsing rice end up using almost 2 1/4 cups of water for 1 cup of rice = overly soft rice with gummy surfaces.
The perfect rice to water ratio is 1:1.5 for the stove. If you insist on rinsing the rice, reduce the water by 2 tablespoons.
There is no need to rinse rice to make it fluffy!
There’s a widely held belief that rinsing rice is the key to to successful rice, that doing this washes away excess starch on the rice grains which makes the rice extra fluffy.
Yes that’s true, it does wash away excess starch.
But your rice will still be beautifully fluffy even without rinsing if you use my 1:1.5 rice to water ratio and cooking method for the stove (or other methods above).
The only reason to rinse rice are under the following circumstances:
- to clean it – if you’ve purchased it at street markets or similar (ie not in packages at grocery stores) and you’re concerned about how clean it is, washing the rice will remove impurities;
- flavoured rices – there are some rice recipes I’ve shared that call for rinsing in circumstances where other ingredients create a thicker cooking liquid. So to ensure the rice is still fluffy, I rinse the rice and sometimes even par boil it beforehand eg. Biryani, Curried Rice with Carrots, Coconut Rice.
If you DO rinse rice, you need to reduce water by 2 tablespoons for each cup of rice because the rice has some remaining water clinging to it (weigh your rice before and after rinsing – the weight increase is all water!).
How do you wash rice?
Easiest way is to use a bowl, fill with water and swish rice around, then pour water off. Do this 4 times or so. Note: The water will never get completely clear.
