3 Ways to Cook Brown Rice

So rice…you are still using Uncle Bens Instant rice because…..you haven’t had a positive experience cooking the good stuff? And by good stuff I mean regular white rice or BROWN RICE. You know what I’m talking about, the water won’t evaporate or it scorches on the bottom, sometimes the rice transforms to a gooey, mushy mess. Well, lets put those bad experiences behind us and start fresh. In this post you’ll find three different methods for cooking BROWN RICE. Why brown rice? Because it’s WAY better for you and it actually has a taste whereas white rice has no other redeeming value except that it looks good with Chinese food. But before we focus on the cooking methods I have some tips I’d like to share.

Tip 1             

Don’t rinse your white rice…any enrichment added to healthy it up would be washed away. 

White rice is ready to cook so just leave it as is.

Tip 2            

Don’t rinse your brown rice either. 
(unless it's grown and/or packaged OUTSIDE the US - See Sierra's notes in the comments-very helpful)

It doesn’t affect the end product enough to matter; it wastes time and water 

AND may dirty a dish that doesn’t need to be dirtied. Who needs more dishes – not me.

Tip 3             

The cooking methods I’m including can be used with short, medium, or long grain brown rice. 

They can also be used with white rice however cooking times and water ratios may need to be adjusted. 

(For the record I prefer method 3 for white rice.)

Tip 4           

There is a difference between short, medium and long grain rice in both flavor and texture however to cook them, you can still use any of the three methods included below WITHOUT having to adjust water or cook times. Alton Brown offers one difference between the lengths of the grain in his Good Eats episode, “Do The Rice Thing”. He explains that short or medium grain rice are better to use if you are planning on storing the cooked rice in the fridge and then eating later cold. The molecular structure of LONG grain rice turns hard when the rice is cooled and the short or medium grain stay soft. Never fear the hardness of the long grain, once heat is applied, softens it right back up again. If you are going to stir fry your rice, day old, refrigerated long grain is ideal. If you are going to eat your rice leftover in a cold salad, short and medium grain rice will work splendidly.

Now…to the cooking methods!

Method 1

I like method 1 because it’s consistent and IT’S THE QUICKEST WAY TO COOK BROWN RICE THAT I KNOW OF. I don’t like method 1 because it dirties 2 dishes and it makes the inside of my house really humid - not so bad in the winter, but horrible in the summer.

Boiled Brown Rice

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Ingredients:

2 ½ cups brown rice

water

Directions:

1. Fill an 8 qt stockpot with water until waterline is 2 inches below the top rim of the pot.
2. Bring water to a rolling boil, stir in rice and continue to boil, UNCOVERED, for 30 minutes. If water boils over, turn the heat down a tad.
3. Pour the rice into a strainer over the sink and let it drain for 10 seconds.
4. Return the rice to the pot, off the heat. Cover the pot with a lid and set it aside to allow the rice to steam for 10 minutes.
5. Uncover the rice, fluff with a fork, and season with salt if desired.

Source: adapted from Saveur.com 

Method 2

I like method 2 because it’s also consistent and it only dirties one dish. Also, if I needed to do a large batch I could double the amounts and put it in a 9x13 pan and really I could stuff my oven full of 9x13 pans if I needed that amount of rice. I don’t like method 2 because it takes a full hour before it’s ready and it makes me use a sheet of aluminum foil. I’m trying to cut back on my use of one-time-use items like aluminum foil and parchment paper. As much as I cook rice though, I could probably just save the aluminum and use it again each time I bake rice.

Baked Brown Rice

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Ingredients:

1 ½ cups brown rice

2 ½ cups water

1 tbsp unsalted butter (optional)

1 tsp salt (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Place the rice into an 8-inch square glass baking dish
3. Bring the water, butter, and salt (if using) to a boil. 
4. Once boiling, pour water over the rice, stir to combine, and cover the dish tightly with a heavy-duty aluminum foil.
5. Bake of the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour
6. After 1 hour, remove cover and fluff rice with a fork.

Notes: Alton adds 1 tablespoon unsalted butter and 1 teaspoon salt to the rice. I left it out because I like my rice plain, however the rice did stick a little to the glass dish. I pretty sure the addition of butter would prevent it from sticking.

Source: adapted from Alton Brown on the food network 

Method 3

I like method 3 for white rice and that’s about it. I have had anything but consistent results when it comes to steaming brown rice so I’m including this method just in case you want to try it. If you think you are better than me…I’m totally ok with that. Let me know your secrets.

Steamed Brown Rice

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Ingredients:

1 cup brown rice

2 ½ cups water

Directions:

1. Bring water to a boil.
2. Stir in rice, turn heat down to low (or off completely) and cover pot with lid. Allow rice to steep for 35-50 minutes until rice is tender, water has evaporated/absorbed and steam holes can be seen on the surface of the rice.

Source: adapted from Clean Program.com 

Gwenevere