Are you like me? Were your years marred by the fact that when you cooked rice, it always turned into a big ole blob in the pan when the water was finally gone? I hated cooking rice. The instant rice always stayed nice and pretty, but didn’t taste nearly as good as cooking regular long grain rice. Just how did Jackie Chan do it?
While scouring the internet for recipes one day, I came upon a different method for cooking rice. It sounded odd, but I was willing to try. It worked great! This will be my method for cooking rice from now until the Lord returns or I kick the bucket. I’m here to walk you through it so your life can be enlightened like mine! It’s so easy you’ll say “Well duh. Why didn’t I think of that?”
Start with a LARGE stock pot of water, about 14 cups. I used a pot that I knew about how many cups were in it, so I just filled it up. However, you can measure the water if you need too. Please, please make sure you use enough water. Yes, it sounds like too much but you need it. If you feel bad about using so much water, strain it when you’re done and let it cool. Then water your plants, the dog, the grass. Anyway, back to the rice!
Bring your water to a boil and add 2 teaspoons of salt.
When it’s boiling really good, add up to 4 cups of rice. Notice I said, UP TO 4 cups. You can use 4 cups. You can use 2 cups. Heck, you can use ¼ cup if you want to. Just don’t use more than 4. Why not? Well, I’m not sure. That’s just what I read on the internet. Ya’ll all know the internet is 100% true, right? When the water comes back to a boil, reduce the heat a little but let it continue boiling. Do not put a lid on.
Stir the rice every 2 to 3 minutes, to make sure it’s evenly distributed. It shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes for the rice to be done. Taste it to make sure. You know you want to. Try not to eat it all though. Save some for dinner for Pete’s sake!
When it tastes done, drain it in a colander and rinse with hot water. It will be nice and pretty and fluffy. That description sounds just like a dog.
Go forth and boil rice! This post is also linked at Kitchen Tip Tuesday on Tammy’s Recipes.
have you ever frozen your rice after cooking? Thought of making large batches for later use.
Yes! It works great. 🙂
will this work for brown rice? The kind that normally takes 40 minutes to cook?
Yes, but you’ll still be boiling it longer.
I have been cooking rice like this for years. A good friend from another country showed me how they done it. They use basmati rice and never again will I use our white rice. There’s has a nutty flavor that is great!
How about steaming rice? It’s easy and fuss free too
You don’t use brown rice?? I miss the white, it tastes so much better…but I thought it was bad news.
🙂 This was one of my very first posts – over three years ago. But yes, we use brown rice.
Nice post! This is the way my Indian mum always cooked rice. When I arrived at university, to the weird water to rice ratios, and rice sticking to the pan, I could not understand it!
Yes – rice sticking to the pan is NOT cool.
Great idea! I have great luck making rice the ‘old fashioned way’ that my Brazilian MIL taught me. I think we don’t get a block o’ rice b/c we add copious amounts of olive oil to the pan to fry garlic and onion in before adding the water and rice to cook down. 🙂
Yes, I can see that oil would keep it from sticking together. 🙂
Thanks for the tip! I linked to this post on my blog 🙂
http://delightingdays.blogspot.com/2011/09/fried-rice.html
Thank you very much! I’m honored. 🙂
How does half the rice not go through the colander?
Mine didn’t. I used a colander with small holes.