Name: How to Cook Perfect Rice Every Time
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 1 cup Long grain rice (Like basmati); 1 1/2 cups water; 1 tbsp butter; 1 tsp kosher salt (if using regular table salt, reduce amount by half)

If you are looking to cook the perfect rice, this recipe will show you everything you need to know about how to cook rice on the stove top perfectly every time. You do not need rice cookers to make a delicious pot of rice and cooking rice on the stovetop is so much tastier. This recipe will walk you through all the steps to make rice and show you the perfect rice to water ratio to use.

how to cook perfect rice — Delicious fluffy rice cooked perfectly on the stovetop.

About this recipe:

Cooking a really good pot of rice does not need to be complicated and it is actually quite easy when you follow the basic concept of using the right ratio of water to rice. Many people begin following the instructions on rice that they purchase when they make it at home and those ratios are all wrong.

I will show you how to make the perfect pot of rice and the correct ratio of water to rice to use so you ned up with fluffy and delicious rice every time.

Ingredients Needed:

Long grain rice. I almost always use basmati because it will produce delicious fluffy rice. If the recipe you are using calls for short grain rice you can still follow these steps to make rice.
Water
Butter
Kosher salt

Notes about the ingredients

I do always use basmati rice because long grain rice tends to be les starchy which in turn produces a fluffier rice. Sometimes short grain rice is called for in recipes because it requires that extra starch.

For most recipes, long grain basmati works the best. It should definitely be your go to rice over all others.

This recipe also calls for butter and not oil. You can use oil but it will stick more to the rice affecting how it cooks and in turn producing a less fluffy final product.

closeup of fluffed rice — Closeup of the fully cooked rice. When yo fluff it with a fork at the end, they grains should not stick together.

How to make:

Step 1: The first thing you want to do is melt your butter int he sauce pan.
Step 2: Next, measure out a full cup of rice.
Step 3: Add the rice to the butter and stir it around to coat all the rice.
Step 4: Now measure the correct ration of water. For one cup of rice the amount of water you would add is 1 ½ cups. I will explain the ratio in more detail below.
Step 6: Add the water to the rice and stir. Then measure out your salt and add that to the rice then bring to a boil. Once the rice is boiling, reduce heat to low and place a lid on top until cooked through.

Tips for cooking the perfect rice:

As I mentioned earlier, cooking the perfect rice is all about the perfect ratio of water to rice. This recipe is for 1 cup of rice but you may need to increase or decrease that at some point for a recipe so let me explain the ratio in more detail.

The perfect ratio of rice to water when making rice-

All rice cooks at an almost double the amount of water to rice ratio. Almost is the keyword!

To make a half cup of rice: When cooking half a cup of rice you would double the water except not fully. To make fluffy rice you would add ¾ cups of water, not one cup.

This is where many people go wrong, by adding the fully doubled amount of water and the rice does not turn out well.

To make one cup of rice: You would double this ratio, ¾ cup of water plus ¾ cup of water which equals 1 ½ cups of water to one cup of rice.

If you remember the ratio for ½ cup of rice needs ¾ cups of water then you can always add upwards. I do not think that anyone needs to make less than ½ a cup of rice so these two examples should answer most questions. 🙂

If this is confusing you can always bookmark this page and come back to it when you need to!

Making the rice extra fluffy!

While it is not necessary, if you want extra fluffy rice, you can rinse the uncooked rice in a colander until the water runs clear. Once it is rinsed, give the colander a little shake and let it sit for about 5 minutes to fully drain and dry out.

Proceed with the recipe after this step.

My Favorite Recipes to make with this rice:

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