How to Cook Perfect Rice

Rice is a nutritious, affordable, and easy-to-cook product that can be turned into a base for almost any dish. But you need to know the right cooking technique to make your rice fluffy and tender, and we at 5-Minute Crafts are ready to share it with you.

What you’ll need

To make the perfect fluffy rice, you’ll need:

1 cup of long-grain white rice. You can soak the rice on cold water for 30 minutes to help it cook more evenly. Also, you can use any type of rice you want — the basic cooking principle remains the same.
2 cups of water for long-grain rice. For brown rice, you’ll need 6 cups of water per 1 cup of rice.
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of butter or oil (optional)
A saucepan with a lid
A mesh strainer
A fork

Step 1. Thoroughly wash the rice in cold water.

Put your rice in a mesh strainer and rinse it under cool running water until the water becomes clear. You need to rinse the rice to get rid of any dusty starch that may make your rice sticky and gummy.

Note: You don’t need to rinse short-grain rice if you’re going to use it to make risotto, rice pudding, or any other dish where rice is supposed to be creamy.

Step 2. Pour water into a saucepan and bring it to a boil.

Step 3. Add rice.

Add rice, salt, and butter or oil (optional), and thoroughly stir in the rice to make sure all the ingredients have distributed evenly.

Note: Don’t add salt and butter just yet if you’re cooking brown rice.

Make sure you don’t stir the rice more than once, so you don’t ruin the texture of your future dish.

Step 4. Cover the saucepan with a lid and let the ingredients simmer.

Bring the heat down to low and keep the lid on the saucepan. It’s better to open the lid only at the end of the cooking time.

Note: Don’t cover the saucepan with the lid if you’re cooking brown rice.

When you’re done cooking, the water should be fully absorbed (except for brown rice).

The cooking time depends on the type of rice you choose. For long-grain rice, you should keep the saucepan on low heat for about 18 minutes, for short-grain rice —15 minutes, for brown rice — 30-35 minutes.