Easy Boiled Long-Grain Rice

When all you need is a simple bowl of fluffy rice for dinner, this is the easiest, most foolproof method I know of.

You don’t need measuring cups, a recipe, or even a specific ratio of water to rice — fill a saucepan with water, add the rice, bring to a boil, then simmer until rice is tender. Drain the rice, return to the pot and steam in its own residual heat until ready to serve.

What kind of rice does this make?

This method yields rice with distinct, individual grains and a fluffy texture that is best eaten with a spoon or fork.

I first learned this rice cooking method in cooking school. As someone who always seems to burn the rice at the bottom of the pot no matter what recipe I follow, learning this way of cooking rice has been a lifesaver. I’ve been using it ever since whenever I want a simple, no-frills bowl of rice.

The best rice for this method

This technique works best with long-grain white rice, such as basmati, texmati, jasmine, or long-grain brown rice. You can also use it to cook short grain rice (or barley, farro, or other grains), but you lose the unique textures and sticky, starchy properties that come from cooking those grains using other methods.

Does this recipe work for multiple servings? Yes. You can cook any amount of rice you like, one serving or ten servings, as long as you use a large enough pot. One cup of dry rice makes about four cups of cooked rice, so just scale up or down depending on how much you need to make.

What is the serving size for one person?

A serving is about one cup of cooked rice. A cup of dry rice makes about 4 servings.

How much water to use

You also don’t have to measure out an exact amount of water or remember water-to-rice ratios. Just fill a saucepan with water and add the rice – the rice should be covered by several inches of water and have enough room to bob up and down. It’s like cooking pasta!

If the lack of precision makes you nervous, use about three or four cups of water for every cup of rice.

Ways to use this rice

Consider this your “daily rice.” It’s great as an accompaniment to chicken or seafood, dinners on the tray, or any weekday meal. If you’re looking for something a little fancier — like what to serve at a nice dinner or when trying to impress a date — opt for a rice pilaf or something like this cilantro lime rice.

Tips for the best fluffy rice

• It’s best to undercook your rice still so slightly in the boiling phase. You want it to be tender but still a touch firmer than you normally like. It continues to cook while it steams. (If you wait until it’s perfectly cooked before draining, it may become mushy or overcooked when steaming.)
• Are you striving for individual, distinctive grains, Try rinsing the uncooked rice a few times before cooking. This flushes the excess starch out of the kernels. You can also toast the rinsed grains in a little butter or olive oil before adding the water, or toss the cooked rice with a little butter or olive oil when you return it to the pot to steam.

A few more tips

• You can save the liquid from cooking the rice and use it to thicken soups, bake, or even drink neat. Just remember when it was salted, so be sure to adjust the salt in the recipe where it’s used.
• Scrub and clean your screen right away after use, so that the starch from the rice does not have time to dry on the sieve. Trust me, dried rice starch is very troublesome to clean up.