When you eat a lot of rice with your meals, and you find it hard to make a perfect bowl of rice, a rice cooker is a must-have appliance in your kitchen.
Unlike traditional pots which involve a lot of guess-work and babysitting it turns out perfectly cooked rice, day after day, meal after meal better than any other kitchen appliance. It eliminates the problem of overcooked and undercooked rice with its precise temperature, pressure, smart cooking algorithm, and MICOM / Fuzzy Logic technology that monitors the cooking process from A to Z.
Here the question arises, how long does it take to cook rice in a rice cooker? Pretty Fast!
Does a rice cooker cook faster than a traditional method? Yes!
Without making a mountain out of a molehill, let’s get to the point.
Here is the quick answer: The time varies depending on the type of rice you’re cooking. Both the quantity and type of grains you’re cooking will determine how long it takes to cook rice in a rice cooker. The average time it takes for one cup of rice is 13 minute for short-grain, 25 min for parboiled rice, 40 minutes for whole grain rice, and approximately 50 minutes for brown rice.
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Rice Cooker Time Table
The selection of rice cooker type also influences greatly on how long does it take to cook rice. Usually, we go with two type of rice cooker i.e. Pot Style Rice Cookers and Cool-Touch Rice Cookers.
Time Table for Cool Touch Rice Cookers
| Rice Quantity | Cooking Time (White Rice) | Cooking Time (Brown Rice) |
| 1 Cup | 10-15 Minutes | 45-50 minutes |
| 2 Cups | 20-25 Minutes | 45-50 minutes |
| 3 Cups | 30-35 Minutes | 45-50 minutes |
| 4 Cups | 40-45 Minutes | 45-50 minutes |
| 5 Cups | 50-55 Minutes | 45-50 minutes |
| 6 Cups | 60-65 Minutes | 45-50 minutes |
| 7 Cups | 70-75 Minutes | 45-50 minutes |
| 8 Cups | 80-85 Minutes | 45-50 minutes |
| 9 Cups | 90-95 Minutes | 45-50 minutes |
| 10 Cups | 100-105 Minutes | 45-50 minutes |
Time Table for Pot Style Rice Cookers
| Rice Quantity | Cooking Time (White Rice) | Cooking Time (Brown Rice) |
| 1 Cup | 10-15 Minutes | 25 Minutes |
| 2 Cups | 20-25 Minutes | 35 Minutes |
| 3 Cups | 30-35 Minutes | 50 Minutes |
| 4 Cups | 40-45 Minutes | 60-70 Minutes |
| 5 Cups | 50-55 Minutes | 70-75 Minutes |
| 6 Cups | 60-65 Minutes | 75-80 Minutes |
| 7 Cups | 70-75 Minutes | 80-90 Minutes |
| 8 Cups | 80-85 Minutes | 100-110 Minutes |
| 9 Cups | 90-95 Minutes | 120-125 Minutes |
| 10 Cups | 100-105 Minutes | 130-135 Minutes |
How to Cook rice in a rice cooker?
If you have recently purchased a rice cooker and you are still figuring out how to use one to cook perfect rice using a rice cooker, the next segment will surely help you out. Whether you cook rice in a traditional pot or a rice cooker, you’d require few essentials throughout the cooking process. Since we are talking about using a rice cooker, here is what you will be required to have at your disposal for a comfortable and pleasant cooking experience.
- Rice cooker (Of course)
- Rice paddle
- Measuring cup
Please note, by measuring cup we mean the one you get with the rice cooker package upon purchasing. It is certainly not our regular tea/coffee cup/mug.
Cooking rice in a rice cooker is a simple process of measuring, rinsing and cooking. That’s not very complicated right? Let’s follow these simple steps and see what happens.
Step One – Measuring the rice
First of all, measure the amount of rice with the help of included measuring cup. Measuring rice is important because otherwise you wouldn’t know how much water is required in the cooking process.
Step Two – Rinsing
Most people like to rinse their rice before they put it in the rice cooker. But why they do that and should you rinse your rice? The sole purpose of rinsing rice is to get rid of any pesticides or chemicals that may have left on the grains. Secondly, rinsing rice before cooking removes excess starch which not only gives the rice a consistent texture but prevents the rice from boiling over and creating a mess all over.
Rinsing rice is a useful practice but if you use packed rice, do check the package if it is required to rinse or not. Some rice is enriched with minerals and nutrients which will be lost if washed and rinsed.
Step 3 – Add Rice and Water
Once you rinse your rice, add it into the cooking pot. Most rice cookers have rice to water ratio mentioned in the inner pot that makes adding water convenient.
Step 4 – Plug and play
Once everything is in place, plug your rice cooker, push the button to initiate the cooking process and wait for the cycle to end. Once the rice is cooked, the device will automatically switch to keep warm mode to keep the rice warm and fresh for few hours. Once the rice cooking process completes, the rice cooker will notify you by turning on the light, flipping the switch up or by raising a sound alarm. Some of the advanced rice cookers let you customize these alarms as well. You can set any kind of sound as alarm to know RICE IS READY! So where were we? Alright! Once the rice cooker is done cooking, let the rice rest at least 15 minutes in keep warm mode before you serve. This is to get rid of any extra moisture so that rice will not stick together.
Using a rice cooker is absolutely convenient and quicker than the traditional way especially when you make large quantities of rice. You wouldn’t like to mess up especially when you have guests on the table and an advanced gadget like Cuckoo and Zojirushi rice cooker will make sure you don’t.
FAQs
How much water is required in a rice cooker?
The amount is water required is determined by the type and quantity of rice. Further, the water requirement shall be different in case you have rinsed your rice before cooking or not. Usually the inner pot have diagram sort of thingy to explain how much water you should add for any type of rice. The rice cooker use manuals too have this information to help out the new consumers.
How long does it take to cook 3 cups of rice in a rice cooker?
To cook 3 cups of rice, it will take approximately 30-35 minutes for white and 45-50 minutes for brown rice. There are some really advanced rice cookers with quick-cook functionality that allow you to cook rice even quicker than the time stated above.
How to speed up rice cooking process?
Rice cooker is going to take its time to complete the process of rice cooking. However, if you are in a rush, you can cook rice faster by using the quick cook method which is often found on some highly advanced cuckoo rice cookers. Check out our guide to the Best Cuckoo rice cookers here.
How do you know when the cooking cycle is complete?
Once the rice cooking cycle is complete, a rice cooker automatically switches to keep warm mode. Some of the modern rice cookers like Japanese and Korean rice cookers sound an alarm once the rice is ready. You may check our guide to the best Korean rice cookers and Best Japanese Rice Cookers to learn more about some of the most advanced and sophisticated cooking machines in the world.
What are some of the best rice cookers in the market?
There are tons of them! The market is full of brands and options when it comes to choosing a rice cooker. We suggest you to check our buying guide to the best rice cookers in the market. Further, if you are health conscious and don’t want to go with the regular cooking devices, check out our guide to the best ceramic rice cooker. Also, we have included a guide to the best small rice cookers for folks who live alone or they just don’t cook a lot of rice.
Conclusion
Thank you for making this far! We have few buying guides to help you out in finding out some of the best rice cookers according to your required capacity, size and budget preferences. Apart from rice cookers, we have here the amazing and magical appliance that is called air fryer. Do check and you may want to have one for your kitchen counter. Who knows!
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