How to Cook Brown Rice Perfectly Every Time

How to Cook Brown Rice Perfectly Every Time

Cooking rice might seem as easy as throwing it into boiling water and walking away, but if you’ve ever had a rice mishap, you know that’s far from the truth. You do one thing wrong and you end up with a pile of mush. You do another thing wrong and you’ve got burnt rice stuck to the bottom of the pot for all eternity (although trying to scrub it off does it does make for a great arm workout).

Brown rice is even trickier to cook than white rice, but the added nutrients and nutty flavor make it well worth the extra effort. Part of the difficulty is that unlike white rice, you have to soften the hard, outer bran layer of brown rice (the part with the extra good stuff) without making it gummy and gross.

Despite being such a high-maintenance food, there is a pretty foolproof way to make perfect brown rice every time. Just use a rice cooker! Kidding. (Although rice cookers do make cooking brown rice pretty much foolproof.)

Just think of brown rice like pasta: use a ton of water, boil it the whole time, and drain the liquid. Then, to get that fluffy texture, put the rice back into the pot and let it sit and steam. Since the rice is boiling in the water, this method only takes 30 minutes, as compared to the usual 45 minutes (or more), and you don’t have to worry about burning the rice because too little water is in the pot.

Follow these instructions to cook perfect, fluffy brown rice.


How to Cook Brown Rice

Total Time: 45 minutes
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

12 cups hot water
1 cup dry brown rice
2 tsp. sea salt (or Himalayan salt)

1. Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.
2. Rinse rice in a strainer under cold water until the water runs clear.
3. Add rice and salt to the boiling water. Mix well; cook for 30 minutes.
4. Pour rice into a strainer to drain the water.
5. Put rice back in the saucepan, cover with a tight lid, and let it sit for 10 minutes with the heat off.
5. Uncover the pot and fluff rice with a fork.