Easy Boiled Rice

If all you need is a plain bowl of rice to serve with dinner, this is the easiest, most foolproof method that I know.

You don’t need measuring cups, a recipe, or even a specific water-to-rice ratio — fill a pot with water, add the rice, bring it to a boil, then simmer until the rice is tender. Drain the rice, return it to the pot, and let it steam in its own residual heat until you’re ready to serve.

Super easy, right? It’s nothing fancy, but I promise that it gets the job done.

I first learned this rice-cooking method in culinary school. As someone who always seems to burn the rice at the bottom of the pot no matter what recipe I follow, learning this way of cooking rice was a life-saver. I’ve used it ever since whenever I want a simple, un-fussy bowl of rice.

The Best Rice for This Method

This technique works best with long-grain white rice, like basmati, Texmati, or jasmine, or long-grain brown rice. You can also use it to cook short-grain rice (or barley, farro, or any other grain, for that matter), but you’ll lose some of the unique textures and sticky properties that come from properly cooking those grains.

How Much Rice To Cook

You can cook any amount of rice you like, one serving or ten servings, as long as you use a big enough pot. One cup of dry rice will make about four cups of cooked rice, so just scale up or down depending on how much you need to make.

How Much Water to Use

You also don’t need to measure out an exact amount of water or remember any water-to-rice ratios. Just fill a pot with water and add the rice — the rice should be covered by several inches of water and have enough room to bob up and down. It’s like cooking pasta!

If the lack of precision makes you nervous, use roughly three or four cups of water for each cup of rice.

Ways to Use this Rice

Think of this as your “everyday rice.” It’s great for things like weeknight stir-fries, freezer burritos, and easy rice bowls. If you’re in the market for something a little fancier — like what you might serve at a nice dinner or when trying to impress a date — go for a rice pilaf or something like this Cilantro Lime Rice.

A few tips to follow

• It’s best to undercook your rice ever so slightly at the boiling stage. You want it to be tender, but still a touch more firm that you usually like it. It will continue to cook as it steams. (If you wait until it’s perfectly cooked before draining, then it might become mushy or overcooked as it steams.)
• If you loathe gummy rice and strive for individual, distinct grains, try rinsing the uncooked rice a few times with water before cooking. This rinses the excess starch from the grains. You can also toast the rinsed grains in a little butter or olive oil before adding the water, or toss the cooked rice with a little butter or olive oil when you transfer it back to the pan for steaming.
• You can save the liquid from cooking the rice and use it to thicken soups, use in baking, or even drink on its own. Just remember that it’s been salted so you’ll need to like want to adjust the salt in the recipe where it’s used.
• Scrub and clean your strainer right away after using so that the starch from the rice doesn’t have time to dry on the strainer. Trust me, dried rice starch is very annoying to clean.