How To Use Fat To Pack Uncooked Rice Full Of Extra Flavor

Rice is a pantry staple for many of us and is a solid solution to a meal that's inexpensive, nutritious, and easy to make. White rice is a classic side dish, Spanish rice elevates taco night every time, and we've all heard about the health benefits of eating wild rice, brown rice, and jasmine rice. It's so economical, that even the best fried rice you've ever eaten uses leftovers as ingredients. It's such a common part of household meals that almost everyone has an Aroma rice cooker or its equivalent permanently living on their kitchen countertop. However, no matter how you cook it, you should add some fat to your rice for extra flavor and a fluffy texture.

There are a few different ways to blend fat into the rice you're cooking for dinner tonight. Toast your rice in some olive oil before boiling it to add a nutty flavor and to help improve the texture, reduce starch, and prevent it from sticking together. Add some fat (any kind will do!) to your uncooked rice before cooking to make your rice even more flavorful. Use 1-2 tablespoons of fat for each cup of uncooked rice, enough to give the rice a nice, light coating. You can use any kind of fat source, including butter and oils like avocado, coconut, and olive. Bacon fat could also be a flavorful source of fat, especially considering the popularity of dishes like bacon fried rice and bacon-infused Rice Krispie treats.

Fat itself will infuse uncooked rice with its own slightly noticeable flavor, especially if you use a high-flavor fat like coconut oil. Yet, the best part about adding fat to uncooked rice is its potential to draw other flavors into the rice while it's cooking. Whether you're just salting some jasmine rice for a refreshing and gentle flavor profile or whipping up a batch of aromatic rice pilaf, fat will make it better.

Fat and seasonings should be added to your rice just before cooking so it can do its job. Picture fat molecules like air traffic control, directing all the other flavor molecules zooming around in the boiling water straight to the center of each piece of rice. As the rice softens, the fat will pull the flavors of the seasonings deep into the grain, infusing your rice with flavor and the kitchen with incredible smells. Combine a little fat with other tricks and tips for cooking rice to further refine all of your rice dishes, such as swapping your water for chicken or beef broth, adding caramelized onions for umami flavor, or adding fresh herbs and spices for a deeper flavor profile in general. You'll be thanking yourself for it at dinnertime!