Pilau rice is a tasty savoury rice dish cooked with spices, onions and vegetable stock, resulting in perfectly cooked rice every single time. The secret is to bring the rice to a boil then turn off the heat and leave the rice to steam in the residual heat until beautifully soft and fluffy! Read on to find out how to make pilau rice yourself.
How many of you have been to an Indian restaurant and ordered pilau rice from the menu? I'm guessing lots of you. It's definitely my go-to rice whenever I go out for an Indian, or even when I'm ordering takeaways - but it's so easy to make pilau rice at home.
Pilau rice is delicious. It's packed with warming spices like cinnamon, cardamon and cloves, with tender onion pieces mixed through it. And for extra flavour it's cooked in vegetable stock rather than water.
There are 2 secrets to making perfect pilau rice.
- The first is to use ghee to fry the spices and onions. Ghee adds a delicious nutty, buttery flavour to your dish. Here's how to make ghee at home - it only takes 20 minutes.
- And the second secret is to bring the rice to a boil in vegetable stock then turn off the heat and let the rice cook in the residual heat until all the stock has been absorbed and the rice is soft and fluffy.
This pilau rice is definitely a dish that you'll want to make and serve with all your curries. It has so much more depth of flavour than plain white rice. I'm loving it!
Let me show you how easy it is to make at home.
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What you will need
Equipment
I like to use a large saute pan for this recipe, but a saucepan will do the job just as well.
A sharp knife and a chopping board will also be useful for cutting up the onion.
Ingredients
This recipe will yield 5 to 6 cups of pilau rice. Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or frozen for 3 months.
**See the printable recipe card at the end of this post for full quantities**
- Basmati rice - pilau rice is traditionally made with basmati, but you could use any long-grained white rice for this recipe.
- Onions - white, yellow or brown onions will be fine. I wouldn't use red onions though - the taste will be fine, but the colour would be wrong.
- Stock - whenever I make this recipe I like to use vegetable stock rather than water to cook the rice as I think it gives extra flavour. If you are making this rice to accompany a chicken or beef-based curry you could use chicken or beef stock instead.
- Salt - for flavouring the rice. This is optional as always.
- Ghee - this is used for softening the onions and frying the spices. If you can get ghee I would thoroughly recommend it as it adds a delicious flavour. You could substitute this with butter, or failing that you could just use a vegetable oil. Ghee is really easy to make at home and you can see how to make ghee here.
- Cardamom pods - split these to get to the little cardamom seeds inside. Discard the pods. You can replace these with half a teaspoon of ground cardamom.
- Ground cloves - add a warming note.
- Turmeric - provides the distinctive yellow colour, but also adds a slightly earthy flavour to the rice
- Cinnamon - adds a touch of sweetness.
- Cumin seeds - cumin adds warmth and a distinctive 'curry' flavour. You can substitute these with the same amount of dried ground cumin.
- Black pepper - for a touch of heat.
What to do
Rinse the rice in cold water to remove any excess starch. Drain the rice through a sieve and set aside.
Melt the ghee in a frying pan over moderate heat and stir-fry the onions until they turn translucent. This should take 6 to 7 minutes.
Add the spices and the bay leaves.
Continue to fry for another 2 - 3 minutes until the onions are well coated with the spices.
Add the drained rice.
Pour in the stock and increase the heat to bring the stock to a boil. As soon as it starts boiling, turn the heat to low and cover the pan with a lid. Leave to simmer for 2 minutes then turn off the heat completely and leave the rice (still covered) to stand for 20 minutes.
Do not remove the lid from the pan while it is standing. The residual heat will finish off the cooking process.
Once the rice is cooked, remove the lid and stir through the chopped coriander. Optionally garnish with additional chopped coriander. Don't forget to remove the bay leaves before serving.
Tips for perfect pilau rice
- Use good quality basmati or other long-grain white rice for this dish. I haven't tried making pilau rice using this method, but as brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice I don't think brown rice would be suitable.
- In the UK the supermarkets normally sell two different 'own brand' products. There is the really cheap one and a more expensive but better quality one. If you do use a supermarket brand of rice I would advise you to go for the more expensive one.
- Measure all your spices out before you start cooking so that you can tip them all in at once.
- Do rinse your rice before using it. Rinsing gets rid of excess starch and helps ensure your grains of rice stay separate and do not clump together.
- Stick to the rice-to-liquid ratio in the recipe, which is 1 part rice to 1.75 parts liquid. The normal ratio when cooking basmati rice is 1 part rice to 2 parts water. However, the rice is not boiled for the entire cooking time so less liquid will be lost to evaporation meaning we need less liquid for making this dish.
- Do not be tempted to remove the lid to peek at the rice while it is standing. Doing so will let some of the heat escape from the pan. Be patient ... the rice will cook without you looking at it!
Variations
To add additional heat to the rice, you could chop up a small chilli and brown it with the onions.
Add a cup of chopped mushrooms and turn this into mushroom pilau rice. Once the onions have turned translucent, add the mushrooms to the pan and stir-fry on moderate heat before adding the spices.
This rice would taste great served with a sprinkling of crispy fried onions on top.
Storage
To freeze pilau rice - allow the rice to cool and then transfer it in meal-sized portions to a suitable freezer container. You can freeze this rice for up to 3 months.
To use, allow it to defrost in the refrigerator and then reheat either in a saucepan on the hob or in the microwave.
Leftover rice can also be stored in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat as above.
FAQ
There can be a few reasons for this:
- you didn't rinse the starch from the rice before adding it to the pan.
- the rice was left to stand for too long in the pan.
- you used a poor quality rice.
There are a number of factors that could come into play here:
- the temperature at which the rice was cooked. Make sure the rice comes to a complete boil before reducing the heat.
- there was insufficient water in the pan to start off with. Make sure you have the correct ratio of rice to liquid specified in the recipe.
- it could even be due to the type of rice that was used.
In any event, if your rice is undercooked after it has been standing for 20 minutes, simply stir in a quarter of a cup of extra stock (or water), cover the pan with a lid and let it sit on a very gentle heat for 5 minutes longer.
Save for later
If you would like to make this pilau rice yourself, why not save the recipe to one of your Pinterest boards so you can find it easily? 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
Looking for other rice recipes? Try these:
Pairing
Pilau rice is also perfect for serving with these dishes:
📋The recipe
How to make pilau rice
(Click the stars to rate this recipe)
Equipment
- Saute pan OR
- Saucepan
- Sharp Knife
- Chopping Board
Ingredients
- 1½ cups / 300 grams white basmati rice
- 2¼ cups / 540 ml vegetable stock use a stock cube to make it
- 2 tablespoons / 30 grams ghee substitute with butter or sunflower oil
- 2 medium onions cut into ½-inch dice
- 2 bay leaves
- 5 cardamom pods (seeds only)
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds or use ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt or to your own taste
- 2 tablespoons fresh coriander chopped
Instructions
- Rinse the rice in cold water to remove any excess starch. Drain the rice through a sieve and set aside.1½ cups / 300 grams white basmati rice
- Melt the ghee in a frying pan over moderate heat and stir-fry the diced onions until they turn translucent. This should take 6 to 7 minutes.2 tablespoons / 30 grams ghee, 2 medium onions
- Add the spices and the bay leaves.2 bay leaves, 5 cardamom pods (seeds only), 1 teaspoon ground turmeric, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon ground cloves, ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon salt
- Continue to fry for another 2 - 3 minutes until the onions are well coated with the spices.
- Add the drained rice.
- Stir in the stock and increase the heat to bring the stock to a boil. As soon as it starts boiling, turn the heat to low and cover the pan with a lid. Leave to simmer for 2 minutes then turn off the heat completely and leave the rice (still covered) to stand for 20 minutes.2¼ cups / 540 ml vegetable stock
- Do not remove the lid from the pan while it is standing. The residual heat will finish off the cooking process.
- Once the rice is cooked, remove the lid and stir through most of the chopped coriander. Garnish with additional chopped coriander. Don't forget to remove the bay leaves before serving.2 tablespoons fresh coriander
- Serve hot with your favourite curry.
Notes
- Use good quality basmati or other long-grain white rice for this dish. I haven't tried making pilau rice using this method, but as brown rice takes longer to cook than white rice I don't think brown rice would be suitable.
- In the UK supermarkets normally sell two different 'own brand' products. There is a really cheap one and a more expensive but better quality one. If you do use a supermarket brand of rice I would advise you to go for the more expensive one.
- Measure all your spices out before you start cooking so that you can tip them all in at once.
- Do rinse your rice before using it. Rinsing gets rid of excess starch and helps ensure your grains of rice stay separate and do not clump together.
- Stick to the rice-to-liquid ratio in the recipe, which is 1 part rice to 1.75 parts liquid. The normal ratio when cooking basmati rice is 1 part rice to 2 parts water. However, the rice is not boiled for the entire cooking time so less liquid will be lost to evaporation meaning we need less liquid for making this dish.
- Do not be tempted to remove the lid to peek at the rice while it is standing. Doing so will let some of the heat escape from the pan. Be patient ... the rice will cook without you looking at it!
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutrition information has been calculated using an on-line calculator, and is intended for information and guidance purposes only. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should consider calculating it yourself, using your preferred tool.
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