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 cook rice in the oven and get perfectly cooked rice every time with all the grains separate and fluffy. There's minimum preparation and your rice will be perfectly cooked in 30 minutes.

Jump to:

• How to cook rice in the oven
• Secrets to cooking rice in the oven
• What you will need
• What you have to do
• Can I freeze this rice?
• Save for later
• Related recipes
• 📋The recipe

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 evaporating 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.

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 cook rice in the oven 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. I've made this successfully using Jasmine rice too.
• 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 it 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 halfway. 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 tightly fitting 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.

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Can I freeze this rice?

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

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

Save for later

Why not pin this recipe for cooking rice in the oven to one of your Pinterest boards so that you can find it easily if you decide to try it? Just click the image below.

Alternatively, you can save the recipe by clicking on the floating heart icon on the right-hand side of the screen.

Related recipes

You may like to serve your rice with one of these dishes:

• Crispy orange chicken
• Chicken a la king
• Vetkoek and curried mince - serve the mince over rice rather than in a vetkoek
• Easy lamb curry

... and you might also find this recipe useful - how to cook rice in the microwave

This recipe is also ideal for making Chinese Egg Fried Rice

📋The recipe

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