Rice is one of the cheapest, most useful things in your kitchen — and one of the easiest to get wrong. Sticky, mushy or crunchy rice nearly always comes down to three things: rinsing, the amount of water, and leaving the lid alone. Get those right and you’ll never need a rice cooker.
Step 1: Rinse it
Put the rice in a sieve and rinse it under cold water, swirling with your fingers, until the water runs almost clear. That cloudy water is loose surface starch — leave it on and it turns to glue in the pan. (The exception is risotto and rice pudding, where you want that starch.)
Step 2: Use the right ratio
Measure by volume — any mug or cup works, as long as you use the same one for rice and water:
- Basmati and long-grain white: 1 cup rice to 1½ cups water.
- Jasmine: 1 cup rice to 1¼ cups water — it’s naturally a little softer.
- Brown rice: 1 cup rice to 2 cups water, and about 25–30 minutes cooking.
Allow about 75g (roughly a third of a cup) of uncooked rice per person.
Step 3: Cook it by absorption
- Put the rinsed rice, water and a pinch of salt in a pan with a tight-fitting lid.
- Bring to the boil, give it one stir, then put the lid on and turn the heat to its lowest setting.
- Cook white rice for 10–12 minutes. Don’t lift the lid — the steam is doing the work.
- Take it off the heat and leave it covered for 10 minutes. This resting time is when it turns fluffy.
- Fluff with a fork, not a spoon, so the grains stay separate.
Fixing rice that went wrong
- Still crunchy? Add two or three tablespoons of boiling water, put the lid back on and give it five more minutes on a low heat.
- Mushy? Too much water or too much stirring. Spread it on a tray to steam off — then turn it into fried rice tomorrow.
- Burnt on the bottom? The heat was too high. Don’t scrape the pan; spoon off the good rice from the top.
Easy ways to add flavour
Cook it in stock instead of water, add a bay leaf or a couple of crushed cardamom pods, or stir a knob of butter and some chopped herbs through at the end. Toasting the rinsed rice in a little oil for a minute before adding the water gives a lovely nutty flavour.
Storing leftover rice safely
Cooked rice needs more care than most leftovers. Cool it quickly — ideally within an hour, spread out on a plate — then keep it in the fridge and eat it within 24 hours. Reheat it only once, until it’s steaming hot all the way through. Our kitchen food safety guide explains why.
Got leftover rice in the fridge? Tell AI Cook what you have and it’ll turn it into egg fried rice, rice bowls or stuffed peppers in seconds.