Why Good Stovetop Rice Turns Gummy—and the Easy Repair That Prevents It

For one thing so seemingly easy, cooking actually good rice on the stovetop will be irritatingly arduous. It requires simply two components—rice and water—however making ready it completely will be awfully elusive, with many inquiries to reply and issues to unravel—whether or not or to not soak the grains or rinse them earlier than cooking, whether or not to softly steam the rice or vigorously boil it, and lots of rice to water ratios to contemplate.

I like sticky rice when it is meant to be sticky, however once I’m cooking long-grain rice I need it to be fluffy and completely tender, with every particular person cooked grain distinct, not clumped collectively. Whereas I like my rice cooker, my go-to weeknight rice routine is cooking rice on the stovetop, and I all the time use this one easy trick that I realized virtually 20 years in the past once I was working in restaurant kitchens. 

To make sure mild, separated grains of long-grain rice, I’m going by all the right steps: I all the time take away floor starch by soaking the uncooked grains in water after which rinsing and repeating the method till the water runs clear: I take advantage of the right ratio by quantity of water to rice, relying on the kind of rice (a one-to-one ratio by quantity of water to rice for white rice and two-to-one for brown rice); and I cook dinner the rice gently over low warmth to make sure evenly cooked grains and to forestall extreme water evaporation. However all of this effort to cook dinner rice completely is for naught if water pours from the lid onto the rice once I raise the lid off the pot after cooking—if that occurs all these grains that I labored so arduous to make fluffy at the moment are moist, clumped, and gummy.

However there’s a answer and it’s most likely hanging in your kitchen proper now: A clear kitchen towel. I first realized this kitchen towel trick for cooking rice once I was a line cook dinner in restaurant kitchens virtually 20 years in the past, and I’ve been utilizing this system at dwelling ever since at any time when I cook dinner rice on the stovetop. It ensures fluffy, completely cooked rice each time. 

The trick is to easily place a clear kitchen towel below the lid of a pot of cooked rice as quickly because it’s faraway from warmth. I then place the lid again on the pot proper over the towel and let the rice sit untouched for not less than 10 minutes earlier than fluffing it with a fork. Because the rice finishes absorbing moisture and cooking off the warmth, the kitchen towel traps condensation from the steam, as an alternative of letting it pool contained in the lid and drip again onto the rice, thus stopping the rice from changing into sticky.

I actually like the additional insurance coverage coverage this kitchen towel trick provides me when cooking stovetop rice. And the tactic works properly with extra than simply plain white rice. Use it with stovetop rice pilafs, arroz con pollo, brown rice, or every other rice dish during which you wish to get rid of extra moisture. It’s a small further step, however an vital one to make sure completely cooked, properly separated grains of rice which might be able to be fluffed and served.

February 2025