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Cooking rice is messy. No matter how large of a pot I use, it boils over and leaves a starchy, sticky mess on my stovetop. I even tried a rice cooker. It sputtered the same sticky splatters and had parts that got coated in the muck that I had to wash each time. Gah!
Then I started reading about baked rice. Baking rice in the oven eliminates all the mess. It sounds too good to be true, I know.
But it’s not!
Baked Rice
I’m surprised that this idea didn’t occur to me sooner. After all, I’ve been baking my jambalaya in the oven for years. What got me thinking about making plain rice this way was seeing recipes for baked, seasoned rice. I wondered, if you can bake fluffy, tender seasoned rice for a side dish…why not plain rice?!
Why not plain rice indeed! I started playing with the recipes for seasoned baked rice until I found what works best for me.
This rice is baked with just butter and salt. It comes out just as fluffy as I’ve ever had rice.
And with no mess! Can I say that about 10 more times? Seriously.
Making rice without the mess is revolutionary for me.
(If you are an expert rice maker and have never suffered from rice-water overflow, count your blessings!)
No tending. No babysitting. Just pop it in the oven and you’re done! When it comes out, you fluff it with a fork and serve.
I like to serve this rice with my garlic herb skillet chicken, chicken teriyaki, or even as a simple side dish on its own (frequently, with my picky eaters). My mom used to put butter and cinnamon sugar on our white rice as a side dish, so that’s how I always served it to my kids (and eat it myself). My husband thinks that’s weird.
How do you like to eat your rice?
I do love simple recipes, and any trick that makes dinnertime easier…I’m in.
And here’s another tip: You can easily increase the amount of rice you bake with this recipe. I often increase the rice to 3 cups (just increase the boiling water to 5 1/4 and throw in a pinch more butter and salt). Voila!
Have you struggled with rice the way I have? You’re gonna LOVE this!
Ingredients
- 2 cups long or extra long grain white rice
- 3 1/2 cups boiling water
- 1/4 cup butter, cut into pats
- 1 tsp. salt
Instructions
- Spray 9 x 13 baking dish with cooking spray
- Add rice
- Sprinkle on the salt and lay pats of butter on top of rice
- Pour boiling water over the rice and stir gently.
- Cover tightly with foil
- Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes
- Remove from oven and fluff with fork before serving
Shirlene Weber says
June 4, 2017 at 12:36 pmI am making this today and a pc batch as well. I will let you know how they turn out. My 9yr old is happy happy with all the rice he will have.
Susan says
June 4, 2017 at 10:26 pmYay — Yes, let me know what you think!
Sam says
June 5, 2017 at 7:38 amI use rice in chicken & beef casseroles, so broth (instead of water) should work for this!
Susan says
June 5, 2017 at 10:24 amIt definitely does! I had a friend try this recipe last week, and she used broth and added some spices to complement her meal. Worked great!
WENDY says
June 5, 2017 at 9:20 amThis is revolutionary! I too struggle with cooking rice on stove. Will definitely make this week.
Susan says
June 5, 2017 at 10:15 amIt has saved me so much stress in babysitting stove top rice pots! I hope you like it as much as we do.
Sue Moore Donaldson says
June 5, 2017 at 11:07 amyes have done this for years – works a treat especially if i’m doing a meat entree in the oven at the same time. I like your amount of butter, however – ! (:
Sue Moore Donaldson recently posted…Every Table Tells a Story: Tables and Knees and Folks Down the Road
Susan says
June 5, 2017 at 12:07 pmButter is pretty wonderful, isn’t it? 🙂
Tab says
June 16, 2017 at 8:02 amYou do rinse the rice first, don’t you?
Susan says
June 16, 2017 at 11:31 amYou know, I don’t. But I don’t rinse rice when I cooked it on the stovetop either. Wild rice I always rinse, but I’ve never thought to rinse white. Have to do some checking on that. Is the idea to remove some of the starch? I would imagine if you usually rinse your white rice, you could rinse this before completing the rest of the steps and it would work just fine.
Tab says
June 16, 2017 at 12:41 pmYes, it’s great to remove the starch. I usually soak it for a few minutes then rinse it until the water runs clear.
Susan says
June 17, 2017 at 10:57 amThanks for the suggestion! I’ll give it a try and see if I notice a difference. 🙂
Marquita B says
October 9, 2017 at 12:31 pmPer my Home Ec Professors in college… Washing removes Vit B( B1) (water soluble) which was how they developed BeriBeri in soldiers in history. Exception being wild rices.. Don’t know if Food Scientist recommend washing for white rise. Thought I’d share…
Susan says
October 9, 2017 at 5:04 pmHow interesting– Thank you!