If You have Failed at Cooking Rice on the Stove, Check out Your Oven

Developing up in a Filipino family, our technique for a great day to day rice recipe was basic: use a rice cooker. But if you do not have a rice cooker, cooking rice in the oven, fairly than on the stove, may possibly basically be the subsequent best factor.

I was skeptical at initially. Rice on the stovetop was 1 of the to start with recipes I at any time discovered, and there is no purpose to mess with a little something so tried out-and-real. Tender fluffy rice, nevertheless, can be deceptively sophisticated to attain if you have not had some exercise. Use a warmth that is way too significant and you can burn up the base layer. Raise the lid also soon (or much too typically) and you may well close up with a mushy mess. 

The consistent and mild warmth of the oven, on the other hand, is similar to the atmosphere of a rice cooker, taking away several of the variables that can direct to burnt, mushy, or gummy rice. Mainly because the rice is in the oven, there’s no temptation to carry the lid and release steam, or to (heaven forbid) stir the pot. The oven strategy is also excellent for when you need to no cost up stovetop room or are on the lookout for a hands-off approach. It is virtually foolproof, suggests Ali Slagle, a recipe developer who’s examined a handful of rice-cooking approaches.

Here’s how to cook rice in the oven:

To start, you are going to have to have an oven-harmless pot with a restricted lid this kind of as a Dutch oven or even a casserole dish tightly equipped with aluminum foil. When the oven heats to 400°, rinse the rice two to a few times until eventually the drinking water runs very clear. I like to use jasmine rice as an uncomplicated side to any meal, but you can cook dinner any style of medium- or prolonged-grain rice in the oven. (Short-grain rice versions these as sushi rice aren’t suited for the oven.) Then, add the rice to the pot along with water: The ratio is the same as if you ended up cooking on the stovetop—for every cup of rice, I use 1 ¼ cups of h2o. Other types of rice, this sort of as brown rice, might will need a little a lot more drinking water, but for most types of white rice, this is my surefire ratio.

As you turn into a lot more common with the perfect rice-to-drinking water ratio, it is not generally important to evaluate the water volume specifically. As a substitute, I use a traditional finger method. I add sufficient drinking water to just deal with the rice, and then evenly shake the pot to degree the grains. Then here’s the magic section: I dip my fingers straight down into the pot until finally they just touch the best of rice. You know you have the ideal volume of water when the water reaches the initially joint of your middle finger, right above your fingernail. This trick will work whether I’m cooking ample rice for myself or my total spouse and children.

© Christopher Testani
Ottolenghi’s baked minty rice is built solely in the oven, no stovetop needed.

On the stovetop, bring the h2o to a boil around medium warmth. Once it is boiling, put the lid on and allow the rice complete cooking in the oven for 17–20 minutes based on the rice assortment. Allow the rice rest for 5–10 minutes, elevate the lid, fluff, and serve. As opposed to with rice cooked on the stovetop, there’s in no way a pesky layer of rice stuck on the base or sides of the pot.

Of training course, generating rice in the oven will come with a similar established of troubles as rice built on the stovetop: To hold the heat reliable and entice as significantly steam as attainable, you will want to steer clear of frequently examining how much h2o has been absorbed. I endorse using a glass casserole dish to get rid of uncertainty—you can very easily see how substantially water remains without having getting rid of the foil and releasing steam.

Whilst I favor starting off on the stovetop to be certain that the h2o reaches the right temperature (and to velocity up the system!), you can prepare dinner rice completely in the oven, like in Yotam Ottolenghi’s Baked Minty Rice with Feta and Pomegranate Relish. If you are not starting up the rice on the stovetop, you will want to enhance the oven temperature to 450° and allow it prepare dinner for 30–35 minutes. Once you have mastered the essential oven rice recipe, department out into other dishes like pilafs and layered casseroles.

Ideal rice needs considerably less do the job than it seems—actually, the less you trouble the rice during the cooking course of action, the much better it turns out. And with this technique, there is no excuse for earning undercooked (or overcooked) rice all over again.

And now that you have rice…