How to cook rice in the oven

The end of stodgy, stuck-together clumps of rice. No more burned pans to soak and wash. Read on and find out how to get perfectly cooked rice every time with all the grains separate and fluffy. Cooked in the oven in under 30 minutes with minimum preparation.

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How to cook rice in the oven

Have you ever put a pot of rice on the stove to boil, only to forget about it and come back to find it has boiled dry and burned onto the bottom of the pan? Me too! And have you ever tried to get the burned-on rice OFF the pan, even after soaking the pan for hours? Not an easy task!

I stopped cooking rice on the stove years ago, when I discovered how to cook rice in the microwave. Today however, I’m going to show you an alternative way of cooking rice in the oven, which I think is even easier. It is how to cook rice in the oven.

Secrets to cooking rice in the oven

I’ve discovered 3 secrets to cooking the perfect rice in the oven, and I’m going to share them with you here.

• The first secret to perfectly cooked rice in the oven is to use boiling water to cover the rice. This gives the rice a head start and cuts down on the cooking time by at least half.
• And the second secret is to get the ratio of rice and water correct. You need to use just enough water to make sure that it is all absorbed into the rice. Too little water and your rice will be undercooked; too much water and you will end up with soggy rice. The perfect ratio is 2 cups of water for every cup of white rice.
• Note – If you are using brown rice you should increase the ratio of rice to water, and use 2.5 cups of water for every cup of brown rice. You should also increase the cooking time by 10 minutes.
• The final secret is to cover the baking dish with a tight-fitting lid or a layer of tin-foil. This prevents the water from evapourating, and helps keep the ratio of rice and water correct.

A note on the cup size

When I talk about cup sizes I don’t mean just any old cup that happens to be hanging around in your cupboard. I’m talking about a measuring cup. If you need to buy one I’ve added a link under the equipment section below to measuring cups you can purchase on Amazon.

Different countries also measure cups in different ways. In the US a cup is 240ml (or 8.45 fluid ounces). In the UK and the rest of the world, a cup is slightly bigger, at 250 ml (or 8.5 fluid ounces).

However, for this recipe it doesn’t matter what size cup you use as long as you use the same cup-size to measure both the rice and the water.

One cup of uncooked white rice will yield about 3 cups of cooked rice.

What you will need

You can get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions on how to make this recipe on the printable recipe card at the end of this post.

For this recipe you will need only three ingredients.

• Rice – I have used basmati long grain white rice for this recipe, but you could use any long grain white rice of your choice.
• Boiling water – don’t forget the ratio – 2 measures of water for each measure of rice.
• Salt – this is to your own personal taste. For the quantities of rice and water in this recipe I would use 1 teaspoon (6g).

What you have to do

• Fill the kettle with water and put on to boil.
• Measure 1 cup of long grain white rice into a baking dish. The size of the baking dish is important because the rice swells on cooking so you will need a large enough size to hold the cooked rice.
• The water and uncooked rice should only fill your baking dish half-way. This way there will be sufficient room for the rice to swell up as it cooks.
• Add the salt to the rice, then pour over the boiling water.

• Cover the baking dish with a tight-fittig lid or a layer of tin-foil.
• Place in a preheated oven (220C/425F) for 25 minutes.
• Remove from the oven, fluff with a fork and serve.

Can I freeze this rice?

Cooked rice freezes very well. Just allow to cool and then spoon into plastic containers and place in the freezer for up to six months.

To use, allow to defrost in the fridge and then reheat in the microwave.

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Additional resources

Don’t forget to check out my handy Cookery Conversion Calculator if you want to convert any of your recipe measurements from grams to cups, ounces, tablespoons or millilitres and vice versa. You can also use the calculator for converting oven temperatures between Fahrenheit, Celsius and Gas marks.

If you live at a high altitude you may find you need to adjust your baking recipes to compensate for this. You can read all about it in this post on baking at high altitudes.

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Recipe – how to cook rice in the oven

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