Home >> cooking | By: Phillip Rekhotho | 2023-02-06

How to cook rice without it sticking together(5 tips)

Today I will be taking you through 5 tips to cook rice without it sticking together.

While cooking rice is simple, it is also easy to make mistakes that will make it soggy. The key to cooking rice is to add the right amount of water and we will get into more detail in this article. Apart from the amount of water, certain factors can make your rice soggy and some of these include:

Adding cooking oil to rice
Frying rice before boiling
How long do you cook rice
Reducing starch by rinsing

All these tips are important to ensure that you achieve the best results. Also, these tips can help you stop your rice from sticking to a pressure cooker or pot.

Sometimes rice may stick together when it gets cold or when it's stored; however, although sticking does not occur during the cooking process, these tips will definitely help you prevent this issue from happening. But one thing to do to further prevent your rice from sticking together after cooking is to let it cool before storing it in a sealed container of any sort. This is because the water that evaporates during the cooling process will stay in your rice and make it mushy.

5 Tips for cooking rice without it sticking together

#1 – Add cooking oil

Although rice can be cooked without oil, adding a little oil won't hurt but instead will improve the flavor and texture.

Rice is typically cooked using the boiling cooking method, which involves boiling food until it is tender, And this cooking method is also used for almost all other grains. However, boiling causes the rice grains to stick together when not done right. One thing you can do to prevent this from happening is to add a little bit of cooking oil. (any vegetable oil will work). Moreover, cooking oil improves the flavor and makes the rice look shiny.

Oil can be added before, during, or after cooking and it can work in all cases. However, this will have an impact on how the rice taste. For example, adding oil before or during the cooking process will allow the oil to be absorbed into rice grains and that can significantly improve the taste of rice, whereas adding oil after cooking have a slightly different impact, as the oil will not be absorbed into rice grains. One thing about adding oil after cooking is that too much oil will ruin your rice, you want excess oil as it won't be absorbed into grains.

#2 – Rinse your rice before cooking

In most cases the main cause of stickiness in rice is starch. Rice is a staple food and has an excessive amount of starch, a type of sugar found in rice, potatoes, etc, there's about 80% to 90% starch in milled rice. Starch is super sticky and it makes the rice soggy.

To prevent your rice from sticking together, rinse it before cooking, as this will help reduce the starch content. Apart from preventing stickiness, rinsing rice will significantly improve the taste, as the starch in rice tastes weird.

Here are different ways to rinse or reduce starch in rice

cold water: Most people use this method and it works. However, it does not remove as much starch when compared to rinsing with hot water. That being said, this method is the easiest since you don't have to boil water before rinsing your rice.
hot water Before cooking: Rinse your rice with hot water before cooking, this allows you to remove more starch as compared to rinsing with cold water.
boil before rinse: When using this technique, you start by boiling rice first. You boil rice for about 5 to 10 minutes. After that drain the water and rinse your rice with cold water, continue to rinse and replace water until the water appears clean. When using this method, be sure to not add too much water after rinsing, the rice will be half-cooked by then. The great thing about this method is that it removes as much starch as possible, and your rice tastes much better, that's what I like about this method.

#3 – Avoid overcooking your rice

Of all the tips in this list, this is the most important. Overcooking the rice makes it soggy or mushy, that is rice grains stick together, and this issue ruins the taste and texture of rice. Most people don't like mushy rice and this rice tends to spoil pretty easily.

How long you cook your rice will depend on several factors: the type of heat(fire, microwave, or stove), the type of pot(rice cooker, pressure cooker, or traditional pot) the type of rice(white rice, brown rice, or wild rice) and the amount of rice you are cooking. If rice is a lot, it takes longer to cook, just like with any other food.

When it comes to how long to cook rice, you should also remember that under-cooking your rice also has its downsides, although it can easily be fixed, unlike overcooking. If the rice is crunchy, it is undercooked and you should return it to a pot and add just a little bit of water.

Here is how long to cook rice:

White rice: Takes about 20 to 30 minutes to cook completely. White rice takes a short time to cook, compared to brown rice or wild rice. This is because white rice does not have bran and germ, unlike brown rice, and white rice is considered a refined grain.
Brown rice: Brown rice has bran and germ and is considered a whole grain. This makes it cook relatively slower, it takes about 40 to 50 minutes to cook, depending on several factors like the amount of rice and heat.
Wild rice: Just like brown rice, wild rice takes about 40 to 50 minutes to cook. And wild rice is also a whole grain. This rice tastes much better, compared to white rice and it does not need a lot of seasoning and sauces to improve flavor.

#4 – Fry your rice before boiling

Frying your rice can help percent sticking, especially for white rice. Moreover, frying helps caramelize the starch in rice(as rice typically has more starch), and the caramel that is formed helps improve the flavor and texture of rice. The reason starch is turned into caramel when frying and not when boiling is that frying temperature is much higher than boiling temperature which is at a maximum of 100°C. Subjecting starch to a higher temperature quickly turns it into caramel.

Here are some benefits of frying or toasting rice before boiling:

Improve the taste
Allow seasonings to be absorbed deeply
Caramelize the starch

Additionally, frying white rice also improves the taste, this allows the cooking oil to be absorbed into the grains, and in case seasonings are used, they will be absorbed deeply into the grains.

That being said, frying should not be overdone at all, as that will burn it. Fry your rice for about 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the amount of rice.

#5 – Do not add too much water

The amount of water you add to rice is much critical, too much water makes the rice soggy. This is because rice is typically boiled until all the water has evaporated and too much water leads to overcooking. We talked about overcooking previously, and we've explained how it can lead to soggy rice.

Here is how much water to add, depending on the rice type:

White rice - 2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice
Brown rice - 5 to 6 cups of water for 1 cup of rice
Wild rice - 4 to 5 cups of water to 1 cup of rice

Of course, the amount of water will also depend on other factors like the tools you use(e.g: rice cooker vs pressure cooker vs traditional pot)

Summary

Rice is a major source of carbohydrates and staple food in several countries, such as India and China. In other countries like South Africa, it is not necessarily eaten on regular basis, it's typically eaten on special occasions like parties, weddings, etc.

Rice is one of the easiest foods to cook if you don't want to spend an entire day in your kitchen. However, one mistake will ruin everything, the rice may end up being mushy.

To prevent your rice from being mushy, you can add cooking oil to your rice, fry it before boiling, reduce starch by rinsing, and avoid overcooking and adding too much water.