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    🏠Home » Recipes » Side Dish Recipes

    How to Cook Rice in the Oven

    Dec 6, 2021 · Modified: Oct 26, 2022 by Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan · 30 Comments

    Recipe Table of Contents    
    4.44 from 131 votes

    Oven baked rice is the easy, foolproof way to cook perfect fluffy rice every time. Only 30 minutes and no sticky rice stuck in the bottom of your pan.

    Rice on a fork over a bowl.

    Jump To:
    • 👨‍🍳How to make this recipe
    • 🍚What rice to use?
    • ❓FAQs
    • ❄️Storage
    • 📖Rice Recipes
    • 🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
    • Recipe

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    Introduction

    Are you rice impaired? Do you look at the fancy rice cooker and think you should just give up and buy one? Put that thought on hold. All you need is a baking dish and your oven.

    The method is very simple. Just combine rice with boiling water, some butter, and salt. Seal tightly and let the rice steam cook in the oven. Great rice that is perfect every time in your home oven.

    We have a local cooking school, Artisan, that we enjoy. We learn new things, what we are doing wrong, and new tricks. Well, this one goes under new tricks from a stir-fry chef. Even the head chef had not heard of this one. You can bake your rice, and it is almost foolproof.

    This recipe is easy to combine with other baked recipes. The baking time matches How to Bake Chicken Breasts in a Convection Oven, Pan Seared Oven Roasted Pork Tenderloin, and many others.

    👨‍🍳How to make this recipe

    1. Preheat the oven.
    2. Add rice, butter, salt, and boiling water to a baking dish—2 quart is good but if it fits, it will work.
    3. Seal tight with foil. Bake until rice is tender and fluid absorbed—25 to 30 minutes.
    4. Uncover to vent steam, then fluff the rice to release trapped steam and stop further cooking.

    🍚What rice to use?

    Long grain white rice is best for this recipe. It is the most commonly available type of rice and is cheap. Other varieties like basmati rice or jasmine rice will cook about the same. Do not use short gain, converted, or minute rice.

    Brown Rice

    Brown rice will need more water and time. One cup of brown rice will need two cups of water and identical amounts of salt and butter. The cooking time will be 1 hour.

    ❓FAQs

    Do I need to rinse the rice before cooking?

    No. Some of the online directions suggest rinsing the rice until clear. They usually admit it is unnecessary but may make the rice less sticky.

    Some rice seems to have some powder on it. It is never a problem if you rinse the rice under running water. Put it in a large strainer and rinse for a minute or two until the water is clear. But mostly not needed.

    The instructions on the rice use a different amount of water. Which is right?

    Follow the recipe. The package instructions on the rice will say 1 cup rice to 2 cups of water. Here we cut back the water to 1 ¾ cup to ensure the fluid is absorbed.

    Adding the "suggested" 2 cups will probably get you too mushy and sticky.

    How to seal the pan?

    Just tight foil will do. Some people will add a layer of plastic wrap under the aluminum foil, but it is unnecessary.

    If the baking dish has a glass lid, it will not fit tight enough to contain the steam, so the foil is still needed.

    Can I skip the butter?

    No. It will add some flavor and help prevent the sticking of rice grains.

    Can I use broth to replace the water?

    Absolutely—it will add some flavor; both beef and chicken broth work well. You can add other herbs and spices if you wish.

    ❄️Storage

    In the refrigerator, if sealed airtight, you can store cooked rice for 3-4 days.

    You can freeze rice, but I'm not a fan of the change in texture that can happen. If you do this, freeze in small amounts in an airtight container for up to 2 months—thaw in the refrigerator before reheating.

    Reheat in the oven or microwave.

    📖Rice Recipes

    Easy Fried Rice in 10 Minute

    Easy Stovetop Mexican Rice

    Cheesy Chicken, Broccoli and Rice Casserole

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    This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.

    Cooking Techniques, Side Dish Recipes
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    🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions

    Rice, salt and butter

    Preheat oven to 375°F conventional or 350°F convection.

    adding rice to bowl with water

    Add butter and Kosher salt to boiling in an oven-safe pan—mix well. Add white long grain rice.

    baking dish covered tightly with foil

    Tightly cover with a piece of aluminum foil. Bake 25 minutes until the rice is tender but not mushy, and all the liquid should be absorbed. If it's not done, bake for another 2 to 4 minutes.

    fluffing rice in the bowl

    Fluff it with a fork to let the steam out, and serve. If you don't fluff, the rice may continue to cook and become mushy.

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    Recipe

    Rice on a fork over a bowl.

    How to Cook Rice in the Oven

    From Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
    Oven baked rice is the easy foolproof way to cook perfect fluffy rice every time. Only 30 minutes and no sticky rice stuck in the bottom of your pan. I just works every time.
    Tap to leave a Rating
    4.44 from 131 votes
    Print Email CollectionCollected
    Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes
    Cook Time: 25 minutes minutes
    Total Time: 30 minutes minutes
    Servings #/Adjust if desired 6

    Ingredients

    US Customary - Convert to Metric
    • 1 cup long grain rice
    • 1 ¾ cup water - Boiling
    • 1 tablespoon butter
    • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
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    Instructions

    • Preheat oven to 375°F conventional or 350°F convection.
      Rice, salt and butter
    • Add butter and Kosher salt to boiling in an oven-safe pan—mix well. Add white long grain rice.
      adding rice to bowl with water
    • Tightly cover with a piece of aluminum foil. Bake 25 minutes until the rice is tender but not mushy, and all the liquid should be absorbed. If it's not done, bake for another 2 to 4 minutes.
      baking dish covered tightly with foil
    • Fluff it with a fork to let the steam out and serve. If you don't fluff, the rice may continue to cook and become mushy.
      fluffing rice in the bowl
    See the step-by-step photos in the post. Some recipes have an option to display the photos here with a switch above these instructions but the photos DO NOT print.

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    Recipe Notes

    Pro Tips:

    1. Use boiling water.
    2. Some rice seems to have some powder on it. It is never a problem if you rinse the rice under running water. Just put it in a large strainer and rinse for a minute or two until water is clear. But mostly not needed.
    3. Seal with foil tightly.
    4. Use the amount of water stated in the recipe. Not the amount stated on the bag.
    5. Check if the rice is done at the end of the recommended cooking time. Add a few more minutes if needed.
    6. Fluff at the end of cooking, or it will continue to cook.
    7. Brown rice takes longer—about 1 hour and 2 cups of water.
    8. Don't skip the butter, it helps stop the sticking. Also, don't skip the salt. Rice without any salt is not good.
    9. Leftover rice can be refrigerated for 3-4 days. I'm not a fan of freezing cooked rice; you can if you want but I think it destroys the texture.

    To adjust the recipe size:

    You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.

    Nutrition Estimate

    Nutrition Facts
    How to Cook Rice in the Oven
    Amount Per Serving
    Calories 129 Calories from Fat 18
    % Daily Value*
    Fat 2g3%
    Saturated Fat 1g5%
    Cholesterol 5mg2%
    Sodium 409mg17%
    Potassium 35mg1%
    Carbohydrates 25g8%
    Fiber 1g4%
    Sugar 1g1%
    Protein 2g4%
    Vitamin A 58IU1%
    Calcium 11mg1%
    Iron 1mg6%
    * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
    Serving size is my estimate of a normal size unless stated otherwise. The number of servings per recipe is stated above. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.
    Course : Side Dish
    Cuisine : Chinese

    © 101 Cooking for Two, LLC. All content and photographs are copyright protected by us or our vendors. While we appreciate your sharing our recipes, please realize copying, pasting, or duplicating full recipes to any social media, website, or electronic/printed media is strictly prohibited and a violation of our copyrights.

    Originally Published February 23, 2014. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.

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    1. Danielle

      October 07, 2022 at 4:56 am

      5 stars
      This is a great recipe that always works! I put olive oil in place of the butter so that it won't be dairy and it comes out awesome. Thanks guys posting!

      Reply
    2. Sam

      September 12, 2022 at 12:49 am

      I tried this recipe tonight. I doubled it & followed the directions the same just doubling the amounts used the same cook time. My kids really liked it said if we added cilantro it tastes just like chipotles. Very easy recipe went well with tacos. Thanks for sharing.

      Reply
    3. Stephanie

      September 05, 2022 at 12:01 pm

      2 stars
      DO NOT use this recipe if you are trying to make plain sticky rice for fried rice! I followed it to a T and even removed slightly more water I used 5 cups water and 3 cups of rice.

      The rice was very broken down and wet not suitable for frying later. As a side dish for rice it would have probably been fine to eat, but definitely not fry-able!! Also for my family’s taste would have been too mushy even as a side dish. Therefore I gave it a 2 star - edible but definitely not ideal

      Reply
      • Kelly

        February 12, 2023 at 11:26 am

        I use this recipe for fried rice - BUT- I refrigerate my rice after cooking - and then use the COLD rice in my recipe - delicious 😋

    4. Peter

      March 21, 2021 at 10:19 am

      5 stars
      I like your attention to cooks. In particular, I like your "cook mode". My cellphone screen blanks after a minute or two and resetting means another reset after cooking.
      The "mode" does it all.
      Thanks.

      Reply
      • Tina

        October 02, 2021 at 9:27 pm

        Baked rice just never works for me. Tight seal with foil, temp is right, but it always takes WAY more than 30 minutes. :(

      • Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

        October 02, 2021 at 9:34 pm

        Hi Tina,

        Welcome to the blog.

        A couple of comments, be sure to use white long grain rice and preheat. See the discussion about other types. Brown rice is covered in the discussion. It requires an hour and more water.

        Also, you might want to check the oven temperature with an oven thermometer, especially if you have some baking/roasting issues.

        Hope that helps.

        Dan

      • Pamela Bartlett

        December 07, 2021 at 9:23 am

        Your recipes are almost always right on. Here, though, I'm making the argument for rice prepared in the microwave. Fool proof! No butter required, and the rice comes out perfect every time, fluffy and delicious.

    5. Lauren

      September 29, 2020 at 8:45 am

      5 stars
      Thank you SO MUCH for this recipe, I have never ever been able to make rice that wasn't burnt, crunchy and/or stuck to the pan. This was easy, fluffy and absolutely delicious.

      Reply
    6. gigi

      February 19, 2020 at 10:37 am

      I only use brown rice. If you are cooking it longer, would you add more water?

      Reply
      • Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

        February 19, 2020 at 12:03 pm

        Hi Gigi,
        Decrease the recommended water on the package by about 20%. That should be good for most versions of brown rice.
        Dan

    7. Jo

      July 02, 2019 at 12:42 pm

      5 stars
      I am thrilled that this recipe works so well. The moistness and fluffiness of the rice was perfect after 25 minutes. I don't believe I've ever made perfect rice before. I always have my electric kettle filled, so it couldn't have been easier to make this rice.

      Reply
    8. Hannah

      May 20, 2019 at 4:17 pm

      Uh...rinsing the rice makes it *more* sticky. It's the classic first step to making sticky rice for asian cuisine like riceballs. Not sure who mixed that up lol. Thanks for the recipe! Gonna be trying it in a toaster oven since our normal oven is out of commission during kitchen renovation.

      Reply
    9. Nancy

      February 25, 2019 at 5:48 pm

      There's a very tasty baked chicken and rice casserole recipe on the Campbell's (Soup) site. No precooking and prep time is about 5 minutes with 1 your cook time. My family has been enjoying it for years.

      Reply
    10. Kate

      January 03, 2019 at 1:34 pm

      Hi! I would like to bake a quantity to freeze in servings for two. If I use a 13x9 glass pan, how many cups of uncooked rice can it accommodate? Thank you!!

      Reply
      • DrDan

        January 03, 2019 at 2:08 pm

        Hi Kate,
        Welcome to the blog.
        The cooking dish here is 9 inch diameter. It could have been bigger or smaller and still worked fine. That is why I didn't specify size. But since you are cooking for freezing, you want a larger amount. Your 13X9 pan has about twice as much surface area, so depending on the depth of the pan, you should be good increasing by 50-100%. You can use the serving adjustment in the recipe card are to get the exact measurements for the rice etc.
        Dan

    11. Lynn Harris

      October 29, 2018 at 2:37 pm

      I had this at a neighbor's house years ago, and I couldn't believe it when she took this PERFECT rice out of the oven in a 13 x 9 glass pan. It was meant to feed a crowd, and I think she made it with chicken stock ( probably Swanson's canned broth). It was delicious ! Has anyone tried to make it with converted rice ( like Uncle Ben's or similar product ) ? I am hopeless with rice. Thanks to all for the help ! : )

      Reply
      • DrDan

        October 29, 2018 at 7:14 pm

        Hi Lynn,

        Welcome to the blog.

        I'm rice and pancake impaired, so this is my rice solution.

        First, the chicken broth. Yep, I do chicken broth may be a bit more than I do water. It adds some nice taste.

        The converted rice is another question. Converted rice is somewhat between white rice (this recipe) and brown rice. My friends at cooking school say that brown rice takes about 1 hour here instead of 25 minutes.

        Converted rice is brown rice that was soaked and parboiled before husking. It takes longer to cook and more liquid than white rice. So you can experiment with it but not an exact answer. It will take longer and more fluid.

        Dan

      • Nancy Pacheco

        November 03, 2018 at 8:27 pm

        I cook rice in the oven with canned beef broth. Delicious with any beef entree!

    12. Reanne

      August 21, 2018 at 9:29 pm

      Tried this with Saffron rice that is seasoned in the pack already, so I skipped the salt. It was VERY good...turned out so nice. Sure will use this method again.

      Reply
    13. Linda Schacht

      April 13, 2018 at 11:59 am

      I melted the butter in the pan in the microwave, then stirred in the rice to coat it well, then added the water and salt. I read somewhere that made it better. I have to admit it was delicious with all the rice nicely separated and tender. I also used long grain basmati brown rice and it did require an hour to cook. I also use a clear pan so I can see when the water is absorbed without pulling off the foil to check. When I looked into the oven during the cooking process, I could see the water racing up the sides of the pan. (Ok, I'll admit it, I'm easily amused. It was kinda fun to watch.) When I couldn't see that action anymore, the water was absorbed and the rice was done.

      Reply
    14. Connollygreen

      October 09, 2017 at 11:16 pm

      What I like to do is a substitute water for chicken noodle soup. No need to songs no need to butter and it is basically the same. I heat up the soup and add an extra little dash of water. It is fabulous and easy. You can Partially brown chicken and put it in with the rice if you wish but I prefer to have it separate. Enjoy

      Reply
    15. Valerie

      September 30, 2017 at 5:01 am

      Thank YOU! Easy simple. I couldn't remember if I ever baked it before but l though I did, thank you for reminding me 🍁

      Reply
    16. Teresa

      August 21, 2017 at 4:28 pm

      Making it now. Used 1/2 butter, 1 cup rice, 2 cup boiling water, salt . in 350 degree oven for 33 min

      Reply
    17. Iain Bailey

      August 09, 2017 at 12:58 am

      Throw in a couple of cardamon pods and a couple of dashes of Turmeric to jazz the rice up. Just remember to pick out the pods when you take off the foil.

      Reply
      • DrDan

        August 10, 2017 at 10:58 pm

        Hi Iain,
        Sounds like a great idea. I will give it a try.
        Thanks of the note.
        Dan

    18. Pam

      February 25, 2014 at 4:22 pm

      I know what you mean, I didn't grow up eating rice either, but love it now. I will be trying this soon, thanks!

      Reply
      • DrDan

        February 25, 2014 at 10:56 pm

        Thanks for the note. If I could convince myself it was healthier then I would eat more but I'm not convinced yet.
        DrDan
        For the readers, check out Pam at Pam’s Midwest Kitchen Korner

      • Julie kemp

        August 27, 2018 at 12:22 pm

        Can anyone please tell me how to cook chicken and rice in the oven in a one dish meal. Chicken takes longer than rice, and higher heat. How do you make it work out? Jkemp at rccassociates dot com

      • DrDan

        August 27, 2018 at 1:02 pm

        Hi Julie,

        First you may notice I modified your email so scrapers don't get it. Your spam would go way up.

        You are right to notice that the chicken and rice cooking times are too much of a mis-match to cheat your way out if it.

        I have a casserole with chicken and rice. I cook some chicken for about 5 minutes with onion on a stove top then add liquid and rice. Cover and into the oven. It also has broccoli, some cheese and topping but it would be easily modified to make it what you want. It took a lot of trial and error to get it right.

        https://www.101cookingfortwo.com/cheese-chicken-broccoli-and-rice-casserole/

        Dan

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