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The secret to fluffy rice

I finally concluded my quest for reliably fluffy stovetop rice with no starchiness or broken grains. This has been a tiring endeavour with a lot of missteps, but I want to write my recipe down as evidence, for the next time somebody tells me to wash my rice. I will not!

(I also will not use a rice cooker. It’s absolutely overkill.)

With a little bit of patience and planning ahead of time, you can make perfect rice of any sorts. For the next time you want to get a beautiful plate of basmati next to your curry, a bowl of stew laid on top of a bed of jasmine, or picture-perfect maki rolls, this is it.

It’s very simple, and it’s the way my mom has been making it since I was a kid, but a method I ignored while I was squeezing handfuls of rice trying to get the water to run clear.¹

The trick is to let the grains sit in very hot water. That’s it.

If you knew about the trick before, that’s grand, but I still see people on YouTube telling you to wash your rice, drain it through a colander, use a rice or pressure cooker, etc. None of these methods work as well as soaking your grains.

Step 1: Soak in hot water for several hours

Heat up some water to around 80-90 ℃C (175-196 ℃F) and gently pour it over your dry and unrinsed rice, fully covering it and a bit more. The rice will soak a little bit of the water and some will evaporate. Covering it and topping up extra will ensure all the grains will evenly soak the water.

I recommend adding a pinch of salt as well and stirring it all together. The salt is not quite to flavour the rice, but to avoid the metallic taste you might get from the water you’re using (especially if you’re using tap water like me).

Stir up the rice to break up any clumps and let rest for at least an hour, preferably two. Any longer makes little impact on the end result.

At this point, your translucent grains of rice should be an opaque white. The starches and proteins in the grains have now bound together.

Step 2: Cook on stovetop

Stir the water, which should now be very cloudy, and drain as much as you can. The rice will be moist, but shouldn’t be wet.

Add your rice and equal parts in volume of water (basically covering all the rice in water, but no more), set on the stove (on a small burner turned down as far as possible, or the lowest setting on induction), and wait until the water has evaporated.

The exact timing will depend on the volume of rice you’re cooking and the heating method. On my stovetop, that’s about 10 minutes.

Turn off the heat, put the pot down elsewhere to prevent it from continuing cooking (your stove retains heat). Let rest for at least 15 minutes to finish steaming.

Step 3: Enjoy!

Your grains should look like the following:

Absolutely perfect. No mush, just individual grains with glossy surfaces. Enjoy!

Here’s some sushi rice made with this technique:

Bonus: Brown rice

The same method works for brown rice too, but I like to put them through a step 0, where I toast the grains over a low fire. Toss the grains in a large pan, frequently stirring until you hear the grains cracking. You’re not making popcorn, but trying to crack the bran (the outer layer of the brown rice that is removed while processing it to become white rice). Cracking the bran will let it soak water better and steam more evenly.