Don't Have A Rice Cooker On Hand? Your Microwave Is The Answer

Rice is the perfect addition to many dishes, but if you don't have a rice cooker, making it can take up valuable space on your stovetop and give you one more pot to clean. Fortunately, you don't need anything other than your trusty microwave to cook perfect rice, and we're not talking about instant rice. Now, it may sound like blasphemy, but it really is a great and easy method that will give you tender rice that is miraculously cooked evenly. 

When cooking rice in the microwave, you should start by rinsing it off, which will help it cook evenly by kickstarting hydration; then put it in a microwave-safe bowl. For 1 cup of rice, add 2 cups of water, or another liquid for flavor. Depending on your microwave, the rice can take between 15 and 25 minutes to fully cook. Watch it every couple of minutes because when the water is fully absorbed, it's ready to eat. Keep in mind that brown rice requires more liquid than white rice and more time to cook. 

Once all the water is absorbed, let it sit for about five minutes and taste it to ensure it's the texture you want. If not, and the water has been absorbed, add more and put it back in the microwave, rechecking the texture in one-minute increments. When your rice is done, you can spice it up a bit, serve it as it is, or use it in a recipe. Just make sure not to freeze it because frozen rice loses all its flavor and turns into a mushy mess. 

While steaming rice on the stovetop is the most common way to cook rice without a rice cooker — and the one most boxes and bags will recommend — aside from your microwave, there are a few other ways as well. If you have a lot of time, rice can be made in a slow cooker, which is great for when you need a lot of rice or want to have leftovers to make fried rice. For a cup of rice — which will make about 3 cups when cooked — it will take between 1 ½ and 2 ½ hours to cook thoroughly on high with occasional stirring. 

If you're after a quicker method, you can use a pressure cooker to cook white rice in 15 minutes and brown rice in 20, about the same time it would take with a proper rice cooker. That said, Instapot features a recipe that only takes nine minutes on their website using a cup of rice and a high-pressure level. However, some pressure cookers feature a rice option that allows you to quickly cook rice at a 1:1 ratio with water. 

Although using your microwave to cook rice can be a bit easier than using your slow cooker or pressure cooker, they are good backups to keep in mind, especially when you're cooking a lot of food and may need your microwave for something else, like steamed vegetables.