I love to pair saucy entrées with rice or potatoes…to soak up the saucy goodness. Boiling rice seemed simple but somehow always left me frustrated. Then I stumbled on a rice recipe with a different method that always delivered. A simple, tasty rice method…what could be better?
Boiled rice kept me tied to the kitchen while it was cooking, trying to regulate the temperature so it would boil but not run over. I just couldn’t get it done without a burned-on, boiled-over mess on the stovetop. One time when I was editing a Jr. League cookbook (wish I remembered which chapter so I could give credit), I tried this baked rice with a little kick of cayenne. My family loved it, and we nicknamed it “Gotcha” Rice. (I’ll include the full recipe at the end)
Rice Experiments
Since I’ve been experimenting, I decided to try the method from this recipe for a plain but simple yummy version of brown rice…and with a little alteration, it worked just as well. Then I saw on my rice bag that you could cook rice in the Instant Pot! So, I tried that as well. It’s a little bit crunchy this way, but maybe that could be solved with just a minute or two of extra cook time.
Various rices are a little bit different. I’ve based my times here on basic brown rice…one of the cheapest (‘cause you know I like cheap!).
Simple, tasty rice – the baking method
- 6 Tbsp butter
- 1 c brown rice
- 2-1/2 c chicken or beef broth
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Add rice to melted butter and stir 3 minutes or until just lightly “toasted.”
Pour into a 2-quart round casserole, add the broth and stir. The rice will sink to the bottom as it’s heavy but that’s okay.
Cover and bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Since ovens vary, you might wanna check at 45 minutes just to make sure there’s still some liquid showing, but at the end, it will have little pockmarks on the surface. As you’ll see in the pic, it will have steamed a bunch of color onto the casserole and the lid, but with all the butter in there, it’s easy cleaning.
While cooking for an hour isn’t quick, it IS easy, leaving you free to prepare the rest of your meal. Or simply make rice ahead of time and freeze it for later (see instructions for that here).
Simple, tasty rice – the Instant Pot method
- 4 Tbsp butter
- 2 c brown rice
- 2 c chicken or beef broth
Turn 6-quart Instant Pot on to Sauté and melt the butter. Stir the rice for a few minutes to get it completed coated and lightly “toasted.” Turn off the pot, pour in the broth, then cover and lock lid closed, making sure steam valve is in seal position.
Reset to Manual pressure, High for 20 minutes. Once the rice is done cooking, allow pressure to slow release for 20 minutes, then carefully turn steam valve to vent position to finish releasing pressure. Remove lid and fluff rice.
Tips and Tricks
- Place a metal spoon in the bottom of your dish BEFORE pouring in really hot stuff…this helps dissipate the heat enough to not crack your dish!
- Any which way you cook rice, if it seems to be stuck on the bottom of your cooking pot, dish or whatever, remove it from the heat, cover and let stand and steam itself for about 5 minutes. You’ll find it comes off the bottom a lot easier after this!
- I struggled with my Instant Pot sealing when I first started using it. I could tell it was trying, but then metal stem that blocks that opening would jiggle and jiggle and never pop up. Then a friend told me to squeeze the handles of the top and the pot together on both sides when it got to that point. MAGIC! The stem popped right up there!
- Any time your recipe calls for broth and you don’t have any, simple substitute 1 bouillon cube and 1 cup water per cup of broth and heat them on high in the microwave one minute. You do want the cube to dissolve BEFORE you put it in your recipe, so you don’t end up with that cube still there in the finished product.
- Save any leftover broth you have from other recipes (if you don’t use it to make soup!). Zero waste isn’t a new idea…it’s frugality at its finest! I frequently have Mojo Pork broth, Mediterranean Chicken broth and Carnita broth in my freezer at the same time.
Wait until it cools completely, then measure and pour into quart freezer bags. Mark the quantity and lay the bag flat on its side until frozen. Then you can stack or stand the bags for easy storage. Easy to defrost, too, in smaller quantities!
“Gotcha” Rice
- 6 Tbsp butter
- 1 c brown rice
- 3 c chicken broth
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- 3 Tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Add rice to melted butter and stir 3 minutes or until lightly “toasted.”
Pour into a 2-quart round casserole and add remaining ingredients; stir to combine. The rice will sink to the bottom as it’s heavy but that’s okay.
Cover and bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Makes about 6 servings.
Which will be your “go to” rice method?
You may have conquered boiling rice, and if so, that’s definitely faster. But, if you wanna cook ahead or have the time to try something different while you work on other things, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by these options. I definitely wanna hear about it if you try “Gotcha” Rice! Drop me a line in the comments below and let me know what you think!
Looking for other ways to be frugal in the kitchen? Check out these articles!
