I haven’t cooked a pot of rice on top of the stove since I was a teenager. It either came out sticky, gummy, or burned. YUCK! Once I grew up, I discovered Uncle Ben’s Converted Rice and absolutely HATE all other rice now. Over the years, I’ve perfect the easiest way to cook rice. I’ve learned how to cut down my cooking time to less than half and I cook it in the microwave. It comes out absolutely perfect. You can see a couple of my recipes where I’ve used Uncle Ben’s and how great it comes out. I also really like the Dollar General generic brand, but have found that I don’t need to use quite as much water as I normally do.
The amount of water you use equals the amount of cooked rice you will end up with and you add half that amount of uncooked rice (1 c. water + 1/2 c. rice = 1 c. cooked rice). Add rice and water to a large microwave safe dish. Cook on high power 22 – 30 minutes until water is absorbed and the rice is fluffy.
To cut down on cooking time, I allow the rice to soak in the water all day or sometimes overnight, if I’m planning ahead, to reduce cooking time down to between five and ten minutes. This bowl of rice was set outside for about five hours. It needed to be cooked for only seven minutes. Setting it out in direct sun on a HOT day will further reduce the cooking time. I’ve never tried, but I’m sure that setting the pot on top of a reflective surface, like a foil tray, would further reduce the time as well. This method should still work if cooking on the stove top. The whole goal to my method of the easiest way to cook rice is to reduce the length of time it takes to cook it.
[…] How to Cook Rice in a Microwave […]