Thursday, April 12, 2007

How to Make Perfect White Rice

Well, since you are going to be making that Caramel Chicken I recently posted, I thought I better post this rice clip also. Truly, one of life’s simple pleasures, it’s amazing how many requests I’ve received for a rice lesson. People are terrified of cooking rice for some reason, and claim that it never comes out right. They say it’s either a big gluey mess, or crunchy and under-cooked! Well, this method should fix all those problems.

Please try and find “Basmati” rice, which shouldn’t be too hard. Most large chain grocery stores do carry it now, and it’s a really flavorful product. By the way, this method should work with any long grain white rice. And save your, “you should buy a rice cooker” emails! Most people aren’t going to buy one, and it’s really not hard to make great rice using this method.


Ingredients:
2 cups basmati rice (or any long grain white rice)
3 cups cold water
1 tsp butter
1/2 tsp salt

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Finally. This a thing I never knew how to do right, and it seems so simple. And I couldn't ask my family because they overcook everything.

Anonymous said...

Hi guys :) This site is a treasure. When I first clicked over here I watched like… 100 minutes of video !! It was that good. The thing that you (the cheffy chef) did differently was you have patience. When I followed the instructions to dim the heat and put the cover on and let it cook for a while to absorb all the whatever flavours in the steam.
It worked, simple rice now tastes so much better AND they don’t stick. Just like in the video. I am going to download all the videos and save them on my computer. You can have whatever you want from my site >

Anonymous said...

If people cook Thai Jasmine rice or Kao Hom Mali (Mali = Jasmine)...add just half a teaspoon of rice vinegar to the water and rice and see what happens (^_^)

It's a real secret that brings out more flavor and fragrance of the grain.

reog said...

For tiffany, there is not only vinegar you could add. Santan (coconut milk), or bay leaves, or others spices. Rice+santan, in Indonesia called nasi uduk, in Malaysia called nasi lemak.

For Chef John, when you'll cook Indonesia cuisine?

Isra said...

Hi there, I first cook the rice with butter 3-4 min, until the rice gets transparent, then add chicken stock into it/or/chicken stock powder + water. (1,7 for 1) Rice (pilav) is very popular here in Turkey, and thats our method to cook it. Give it a chance. Love your site!

Anonymous said...

FOODWISHES BLOG ALERT!!!!!
"THIS IS A KEEPER"
I cooked this the other night and had it with Sweet and Sour chicken from a recipe from another food blog, I used to use UB(Uncle Ben's)NEVER AGAIN!!!. This rice was so good. Used the leftover for Chicken Fried Rice 3 or 4 days later. Chef, thanks ..I cooked it to your directions exactly and it came out beautiful.
Think about more ways for us to use this rice, I'll keep a watch.

Yubi Shines said...

:B I've never needed to know this because my family is Chinese and I have eaten rice every single day of my life, so a cooker is just as much a part of my kitchen as a knife or a sink. Still, this is good to know just in case it breaks. Thanks!

eXtreme said...

I wonder whether the 20m remains the same If I double the ingredients?

Chef John said...

will be about the same as long as the pan is big enough.

Anonymous said...

I have heard a lot that you are supposed to soak rice in water for 30 min before cooking or even just rinse and drain it a couple of times. Did you do this before you started cooking? What do you recommend and why?

Chef John said...

Nope, I just did exactly as shown. It works for me. Not sure about other methods. There are sooooo many ways.

Unknown said...

Chef John I love you. And I love your recipes and videos.
And the rice did come out perfect as you said it would.
Growing up with a Filipino step family- I do love sticky rice too, but this is a very nice alternative.
I ran out of white rice the other day and wanted to do brown rice~ perfectly- but it wasn't so nice. Can you please offer a recipe for that too?
Thanks in advance-- and will donate when I'm employed again :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi Chef,
How much water would I add for 1 cup of rice....also I'll be using jasmine rice since I just bought a 12lb bag of it.

Chef John said...

just cut recipe in half
:-) 1 1/2 cups

Lewis said...

Tried this and worked great first time, no giant rice patty. There was a thin layer of rice stuck on the pan bottom, but I am thinking this had to do with the pans thinner bottom? Rest turned out fine.

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

janbrasil
1.A bit of oil in a pan
2.A bit of chopped garlic or onions to taste.Fry it a bit
3.Ad whatever amount of rice you want to prepare.Fry until it is white.Don't forget to sti it!!or it will burn
4.Ad boiling water until it stands 1 to 1 1/2 finger above the rice.Cook at high temp.without the lit until the water is gone.
5.Ad salt to taste and ad cold water from the fridge,(same amount as the hot water) and put on the lit.When it starts to boil,turn down to low.When the water is gone,leave the pot covered with a cloth for 5 min. and you will have the best loose rice that you have ever made
Try it,and let me hear what you think!!

Anonymous said...

Great job, chef! I tried it and it came out as expected!

Pier

PS: you may want to know that the right pronounce is "bàsmati", whith the accent on the first "a"... :)

Katie Story said...

Does cook time remain the same for 1/2 or 1/3 of the amount of rice?

Karen Lee said...

I was extremely happy to find this because Chef John never steers me wrong! Unfortunately, I still had grains that were a bit crunchy at the end. I guess rice is just my enemy. It's so frustrating!

Benjy said...

Hi Chef John,

As an Indian, and as one who has been surviving on basmati rice, i think cooking the perfect rice is a simpler process.

My technique -

Take washed rice in a pot, add water till its an inch above the rice. More or less, it doesnt matter.

Put on high heat WITHOUT a lid until water dries. So tilting the pot has no running liquid, but its still moist.

At this point, put the flame as low as it goes, COVER and cook until rice starts to stick.

Switch off stove and let it sit for 10 mins.

Stir with a large spoon or a saucer(so not to break the grains) and serve.

Perfect rice done

PS: Big fan!

Redcaddy said...

This is my rice recipe. Ever since seeing it a couple of years ago,I've never done rice differently. I buy HUGE bags of basmati and generally use it. But every now and then, I have a reason to use another type of rice. No matter this type, this WORKS! Amazing. Will never, ever, follow any other recipe to make perfect rice. Thanks CJ!

Redcaddy said...

This IS my rice recipe. Ever since seeing it a couple of years ago, I've never strayed. I buy basmati in the HUGE bags, but have on occasion, used other types of rice. With the exception of wild rice, this comes out perfectly EVERY time. Don't be mislead by the folks that feel they need to give you their spin on it. Follow (closely) as is and will have perfect rice every time