Make Perfect Rice Every Time With This Helpful Step-by-Step Guide

New York Times

28-03-2025

We'll teach you how to master the technique, and how to tweak it to get each batch the way you like it. If you have rice, you have so much more than a side. Karsten Moran for The New York Times Published March 28, 2025 Updated March 28, 2025
[This article was first published on Feb. 28, 2018.]
A hot, tender heap of rice is comfort food, just the way it is. There are so many ways to define a perfect batch, and as many ways to achieve it, but cooking basic rice on the stovetop is arguably the most versatile method. Once you've learned it, you'll be able to make delicious rice anywhere, anytime, without any special equipment. Here's how to get started: Rinse, cook, rest and fluff.
If you ask cooks around the world about the secret to consistently perfect rice, many will point to their electric rice cookers. There's not much technique involved: You'll want to follow the directions of each individual machine. Some use their own measuring cups and instructions to dictate the amount of water used. Most machines don't allow for adjustments on cooking and rest times, but once you've followed directions once, you'll know if you want to adjust the water. Electric multicookers like Instant Pots will seal rice under pressure, cooking the rice in just a few minutes then slowly letting the pressure out of the pot. Most machines have rice-specific settings, which you can try and adjust to taste, but you'll have much more control if you play around and set both the pressure levels and cook-times yourself. (For more on making rice, and other dishes, in a multicooker, check out our How to Use an Instant Pot guide.)
For our purposes, all you need is a steady heat source and a pot with a fitted lid (my favorite vessel for cooking 1 cup of rice is a cozy cast-iron pot). A pot with a see-through glass lid is a good option, too, if the base isn't too lightweight. A flexible, heatproof rubber spatula works well for stirring the rice as it comes up to a boil (and it's more gentle on cooked rice grains than a fork when it comes time to fluff). Karsten Moran for The New York Times
The world of rice is huge and diverse, with thousands of varieties across the globe. They're sold under names that speak to the length of the grain or to the origin of the plant, or according to starchiness, color, botanical variety or type of processing.
Rice is often categorized by its length in relation to its width. As a general rule, long-grain rice is four or five times longer than it is wide, while medium-grain rice is just about two to three times longer. Short-grain rice isn't very long at all, so it appears almost round.
Most of the rices you find at the grocery store are the grain of a type of grass called Oryza sativa, first cultivated in Asia, and are a subspecies of either indica or japonica. Others belong to Oryza glaberrima, first cultivated in West Africa. You can find these sold as both white or brown rice, depending on how they're processed.
Brown rice is brown, or darker in color than white rice, because it's unmilled, or barely milled, and still has its bran, germ and aleurone layers. It's generally a little chewy and nutty-tasting, and requires more water to cook than white rice. After it's milled and polished, brown rice loses its color and becomes white rice. Aromatic medium- and long-grain rices, such as basmati and jasmine, have an almost buttery, toasted fragrance as they cook, thanks to a naturally occurring compound they share.
Sushi rice, which needs to stay soft and tender even as it cools, is generally a short- or medium-grained pearly rice , with grains that cling together after they're cooked.
Also called sweet rice, or glutinous rice, short-grain sticky rice doesn't actually contain sugar (though it can easily be worked into a dumplinglike dough to make mochi, and a vast range of sweets).
Smooth short- to medium-grain rices like arborio and carnaroli are ideal for risotto. (If you're making them, don't rinse to get rid of excess starch: It's what produces that rich, creamy consistency you're after.)
Bomba is a chubby, short-grain rice cultivated in Spain, best known for its starring role in paella. It's an ideal vehicle for soaking up flavorful stock, and capable of absorbing a lot of liquid without turning to mush.
Sometimes called forbidden rice, slow-cooking black rice has roots in China, and turns purple as it cooks. Rarer, delicious black rice varieties come from West Africa, with a bran layer that ranges from red and purple to black.
Wild rice is the long, thin, dark grain of an aquatic grass; you can cook it like pasta, in boiling, salted water, then drain it when it's cooked through.
Rice can be cooked on stovetops or musical rice cookers, in pressure cookers, bamboo steamers or tightly compressed banana leaves. All of these methods give rice what it needs: heat and water. Though water ratios and cook times can be adjusted to taste, understanding these basic steps will help you cook rice perfectly every time.
The foundation of successful rice is a rinse. Some cooks skip the rinse entirely, but washing dry rice gets rid of the extra starch all over the surface of its grains, which can cause an overly sticky, clumpy or mushy batch.
There are many ways to go about it, but here's one: Pour the rice into a bowl, and fill it with cold water. (You can also use a strainer set inside a bowl, as above, to lift the rice up out of the starchy water.) Use your fingers to gently swirl around the grains. You'll notice the water get cloudy. Tip out all that starchy water. Rinse the rice and repeat. You'll need to do this anywhere from two to six times, depending on the type of rice and what you'll be using it for, until the water you're tipping out runs almost clear. Now the rice is ready to cook.
Check the packaging on the rice you buy, as water requirements and cook times both vary according to grain type, when the rice was harvested, and whether or not it's been parboiled. For most long-grain and medium-grain rice, such as basmati and jasmine: 1 cup rice to 1⅓ cups water
For most short-grain rice, such as sushi rice: 1 cup rice to 1 cup water
For most brown rice: 1 cup rice to 1¾ cups water
If you like firmer, drier rice, reduce the water by a few tablespoons, and pull back on the cook time by a few minutes. If you like a wetter, softer rice, increase the water by a few tablespoons. You can use these ratios to cook rice on the stovetop, the oven or pressure cooker. Our method, below, gives instruction for all three.
Resting the rice for a little while is crucial. As the rice rests, covered, off the heat, its starches cool down slightly, which means the grains firm up. (If you stir the grains as soon as they're cooked, while they're still very hot and wet, they can break up and get mushy.) After 10 to 15 minutes, you can use a flexible rubber spatula to fluff the still-hot rice if you like, stirring it gently, creating some volume in the pot without squishing the rice. This is also the moment to taste, and to season with a little more salt. The rice is ready, just keep it covered until you're ready to eat. Karsten Moran for The New York Times
It's easy to figure out where a batch of rice went wrong, and to adjust the next one. And if you're working on the stovetop, you're in control: You can adapt to the rice as you go along, adding a spoonful or two or water and cooking for longer if the grains seems dry when they're meant to be done, or letting excess water evaporate for a few minutes with the lid off if the bottom of the pot is sodden. The rice is squishy and clumpy. This might be from excess water in the pan (check the ratio on the grains you're cooking), but it could also be the result of skipping two crucial steps: rinsing and resting. Rinsing gets rid of the excess starch that can be responsible for overly sticky rice, and resting is important for the starchy grains, which need time to get back together and firm up after reaching such a high temperature.
The rice is too wet. Some rice varieties, along with rice that's been recently harvested, require less water to cook through. You can reduce the amount of water you use the next time, but you can improvise right now, cooking it for a few extra minutes with the lid off, so as to evaporate as much water as possible. If this happens, and it seems far too wet to eat, you can always make congee. (Our leftovers section, below, can help.)
The rice is scorched on the bottom. A layer of blackened, crisp grains at the bottom of your pan usually means two things: The heat is too high, or the pan's bottom is too thin. Once the water comes up to a boil, stir the rice well, put the lid on and turn the heat way down, to the lowest setting. If you've done this, and the pan is still scorching, you might need to invest in a heavier-bottomed cooking vessel.
The rice is stuck and starchy on the bottom. Did you rinse? O.K. Then a bit of athletic stirring with a spatula or wooden spoon, when the rice first comes up to a boil, should help release all the grains sticking to the bottom of the pot early on. You can easily take a pot of rice in the direction of jollof rice by adding tomatoes and Scotch bonnets. Johnny Miller for The New York Times
Congratulations! You've learned the foundations of successful stovetop rice. Now, you're a few easy steps away from hundreds of dishes. Replace some of the cooking water with coconut milk to make coconut rice, or add spices and quick-cooking lentils to the mix to make khichdi. Fry those raw grains first, to develop a toasted flavor, then blend them with chiles and herbs, and you've got arroz verde. Or add a purée of tomatoes and Scotch bonnets to take it in the direction of jollof rice. Play around with the stovetop cooking technique, and you can build a crisp, golden-bottom on the rice to make a tahdig.
Adding mix-ins after the rice is cooked can elevate even the most humble pot of rice into the most desirable of side dishes.
The best time to season rice with mix-ins is after it's cooled slightly, so you can fold it without squishing any grains, but while it's still warm and steamy. You don't really need a recipe for this, just think about a main ingredient and build around it with a supporting ingredient or two and some coordinating fresh herbs. If your main ingredients are sharp and tangy, add a glug of olive oil, if they're sweet and fatty, be generous with lemon juice or vinegar. No matter what you mix in, add main ingredients that are warm, or room-temperature, but not fridge-cold, so they can meld together nicely with the warm rice. Here are some ideas to get started: Roast cherry tomatoes with olive oil and salt, until they burst and the liquid reduces slightly, then mix into the rice with grated Pecorino, black pepper, ripped up basil leaves and a drizzle of good vinegar.
Blanch fresh or frozen peas, drain and mix into the rice with chopped ham, lemon zest and plenty of spring onion.
Crack open a pomegranate and get out all the seeds, mix them into the rice with roughly chopped pistachios, a glug of olive oil and fresh mint.
Supreme a couple of blood oranges, chop some green olives and mix into the rice with a little thinly sliced red onion.
Shred leftover roast chicken and mix into the rice along with some finely sliced green chiles and shallots, crushed toasted cumin seeds and fresh cilantro.
If you end up with rice that's a little undercooked or overcooked, or just have some left over from a batch that's turned out well, you can always turn it into something else. Portion and freeze it, reheating it a minute at a time in the microwave. Or keep it in the fridge to be used as quickly possible (in less than three days). But definitely use it: Leftover rice is a gift.
There are so many uses for leftover rice, which can work as both a side and main: Toss it with fresh herbs and drizzle it with yogurt sauce.
Sauté it with Spam and kimchi to make fried rice.
Shape it into patties and pancakes to crisp in a hot pan.
Season leftover rice with spicy pork to make boudin balls.
Simmer it in broth with mushrooms and nori to make a comforting soup.
Make a Thai-style rice salad by spreading 2 cups of cooked rice on a plate and chilling it overnight. The next day, use your hands to coat the grains with 1 tablespoon red curry paste and 2 tablespoons rice flour. Pan-fry rice in batches until golden and crisp, then season with fish sauce and lime juice, and toss with Thai fermented pork sausage, sliced chiles, shallots, ginger, chopped peanuts and cilantro.
Cook congee by adding about 4 cups stock to 1 cup cooked rice, and simmering it gently until the mixture is thick and the grains are falling apart, somewhere between soup and porridge. Adjust the texture with more stock, and season with soy sauce. Ladle into bowls with chopped scallions, a drizzle of sesame oil and crunchy fixings, such as fried onions or crushed cashew nuts.
Or, try fried rice. Separate cold clumps of leftover rice with your hands and sauté it in a large, hot pan coated with canola oil. Remove from pan and sauté a few chopped vegetables, such as onion, carrots and peas until tender. Add back the rice and scramble an egg or two right into the pan. Season with soy sauce and sesame oil, and toss with chopped scallions.