How to Cook Rice in a Rice Cooker, Get A Perfect Rice All The Time

miraclebaratlanta chef writer avater
By Ashley Woodward • Last Updated: February 16, 2023

Miraclebaratlanta.com is reader-supported. When you buy via links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you. Learn more.

How to Cook Rice in a Rice Cooker

Do you love to eat rice a lot? Learn how to cook rice in a rice cooker and get that perfect fluffy rice all time!

All-rice meals! Rice, regardless of its types and varieties is simply one of the comfort foods we usually lean on when something comes up or have something to celebrate or simply just craving for a cup of perfect fluffy rice.

Let’s find out if a rice cooker exceeds every rice lover’s expectations.

Rice Cooker Benefits

If your daily meals are not complete without rice then probably you need to have a rice cooker in your kitchen. Owning a rice cooker can help you with basic cooking as well as become a kitchen expert later on.

Normally we can cook rice on the stove top but this can take much of your time since you have to check on it randomly until it is cooked. There is this doubtful part when cooking rice on a stove-top that either you burnt it or you made porridge.

However, with a rice cooker, all you need to do is to get the right measurement of rice and water ratio and you are good to go. Plus you can do a whole lot more!

This genius kitchen appliance can also let you cook other dishes such as soups, stews, porridge and a lot more. If you want to know more about how to use a rice cooker let’s begin with a cup of rice for tonight’s dinner.

How to Cook Rice in a Rice Cooker

Cook Rice in a Rice Cooker

Cooking rice in a rice cooker is easy when you have fully understood the types of rice you are cooking with.

As we have previously posted, there are many types of rice that differ in color, size, and variety. These characteristics also affect the way you cook rice.

Here are some important factors you need to consider before cooking rice:

Read the Manual

All rice cookers come with a manual that easily gives cooking instructions, especially on the water to rice ratio and the cup used. Not all rice cooker brands are using the standard –size cup, some are a bit smaller while some are quite large.

If you happen to buy a modern type of rice cookers such as with computerized technology like fuzzy logic and induction heating, they actually provide more specific cooking settings. What you need to do is simply push the right cooking setting of your choice and it will do the job and switches to automatic keep warm right after cooking.

Water Ratio

The next facto that you need to understand is the correct rice to water ratio. Each rice variety has their own water needs in order to achieve cooking perfection. Here is a list of rice to water ratio you can keep in mind:

  • Short-grain, White rice- 1 and 1/4 cups of water to 1 cup rice
  • Medium grain, White rice – 1 and 1/2 cups of water to 1 cup rice
  • Long-grain, White rice – 1 3/4 cups of water to 1 cup rice
  • Long-grain, Brown rice – 2 and 1/4 cups of water to 1 cup rice
  • Parboiled rice – 2 cups of water to 1 cup rice
  • If using Basmati or Jasmine– use the common rice to water ratio which is 1:1. These grains use only less water upon cooking

Notice that brown rice requires more water to cook because of its grain characteristics. Let’s take for example white rice which is the most common type and readily available at all groceries.

How to Cook White Rice in a Rice Cooker

How to Cook White Rice in a Rice Cooker

Now that we are clear with the basic factors to consider in cooking rice, we will now walk you through step by step process on how to cook rice in a rice cooker.

What you need:

  • Rice cooker
  • 1 cup of white short-grain rice
  • Spatula

Method:

  1. Measure 1 cup of rice and put it inside the rice cooker inner pot
  2. Rinse the rice to remove dust, dirt and other impurities
  3. Add 1 and ¼ cups of water
  4. Add salt or oil for optional taste
  5. Place the inner pot into the rice cooker and use the correct rice cooking setting
  6. When the rice is ready or has switched to automatic keep warm, fluff the rice using a spatula or fork and let it sit for another 5 minutes
  7. Remove the inner pot from the rice cooker and serve warm rice!

For other grain options, use the rice to water ratio and the correct cooking setting for that perfect fluffy rice. The best part about using a rice cooker is that you can leave it cooking while you are doing other important tasks at home.

When you already perfected the rice cooking, you can now head on to cooking other kinds of rice dishes using your very own rice cooker.

Yup, there are plenty of rice dishes you can make! You can even make a cake, no-bake needed! You can also watch this short video on how to get that perfect fluffy rice all the time.

Summary

Rice is an essential part of every Asian meal and is now becoming a global food. Each rice variety has its own health benefits too. You only need to consult your dietitian for the right kind of rice suited for your health.

If you love eating rice, for sure you will appreciate the tiny wonders of having a rice cooker. There are so many rice cookers you can choose from, all you need is to list down the cooking settings you require to get the right brand for you. You will no longer have to endure the trial and error cooking phase when using the stove-top method.

Have you tried using a rice cooker? Which rice cooker brand are you comfortable with? Let us know in the comments below.

🔥 Editor's Choice
Zojirushi NS-ZCC10

Zojirushi NS-ZCC10

Relatively small kitchen-counter footprint, an attractive exterior, and a number of different cooking presets,