Reviews of the best Rice Cookers, perfect for those who want to save time and want to eat something healthy & tasty.
Rice cookers help you make a variety of tasty dishes and are a great addition to your kitchen. But when you have so many brands and models, how do you choose the best out of the lot? This review of the best rice cookers will help you make a choice.
Rice cooker vs Pressure Cooker
While a pressure cooker can also be used to cook rice, a rice cooker is best for cooking different types of rice perfectly in terms of texture, flavor and aroma. It also takes longer to cook rice in a rice cooker, compared to a pressure cooker.
Types of Rice Cookers
There are the more popular types of rice cookers:
- On/Off rice cooker : These are the most basic form of rice cookers.
- Fuzzy Logic rice cooker: These have computer chips in the rice cooker that allows it to make some judgement calls
- Induction Heating rice cooker: A high end rice cooker that spreads heat evenly for cooking.
Evaluating a Rice Cooker
- The first thing to check in a rice cooker is its capacity. If you have a huge family, you may want a cooker with bigger capacity and a are medium sized rice cooker is ideal for a small family and for singles, there is always an option of compact rice cookers.
- Rice cookers have various modes of cooking, fast, slow or some even have multiple cooking modes. You can choose the rice cooker that suits your needs in terms of the modes or alternatively you can choose the multiple mode option for more choices.
- If you are looking for more features in a rice cooker, there are some that offer food warming, auto shut down, timers etc
There are several popular brand’s of electric rice cooker available in India – Panasonic, prestige, Bajaj, Pigeon and more that manufacture high quality rice cookers in India.
Top Electric Rice Cookers in India
You can use these rice cookers to steam, cook and keep warm a variety of rice dishes, stews and more. Its perfect for everyday use. You can use it to cook any type of rice – brown, white or anything in between. Some of these come with smart programmable mode that keeps your food warm for hours.
Here are the recommended Rice Cookers:
- Bajaj RCX 5 1.8-Litre Rice Cooker: 1.8 liter capacity, at one time you can prepare 1 KG of raw rice which is sufficient to prepare food for your family. Has power and warm indicators, 7000 watts of power. User friendly and smart cooking device. Aluminum bowl inside cooker, stainless steel vents and nice exterior handles on the cooker.
Buy on Amazon | Buy on Flipkart - Panasonic SR-WA10 450-Watt Electric Rice Cooker: Has 1 liter capacity, which is good for a small family. Has advances features like auto cooking, auto cut-off, scoop holder, 450 watts of power.
Buy on Amazon | Buy on Flipkart - Prestige PRWO 1.8-2 Electric Rice Cooker: Cool design and women love this brand. 1.8 liter capacity, can cook 1 KG raw rice at one go, 700 watts of power. The under bowl is made of aluminum. Just turn on, fill it with rice and water, and its good to go. You can cook rice, soup, pulao, idlis, stew and much more with this rice cooker. No automatic features though.
Buy on Amazon | Buy on Flipkart - Panasonic SR-Y22FHS Electric Rice Cooker: 5.4 liter of capacity (for very big family), 750 watts of power. Special feature keeps your cooker warm (after cooking) for upto 4 hours. Handles are convenient to grip. Has auto cooking options.
Buy on Amazon | Buy on Flipkart - Pigeon Joy 1.8 L Double Pots Unlimited SDX: Basic, inexpensive, good performance. 1.8 liter of capacity, 700 watts of power. Its a double pot cooker, has aluminum container, spatula. Comes with removable pot (for better cleaning) and warm/cook indicator.
Buy on Amazon | Buy on Flipkart
Watch: How to Use a Rice Cooker
How to Use a Rice Cooker
Here’s how to use the rice cooker to cook your favorite rice dish in minutes.
- Add rice and water in the rice cooker
- Rice cooks and boils at the set amount of time
- Once water evaporates, rice still cooks due to the heat inside created by the steam
- Rice cookers have thermocouple which will switch of the heating and prevent rice from getting burnt
- You will know the rice is cooked when temperature goes above the boiling point.
- Some rice cookers will keep rice warm till you are ready to eat.
How Long Does it Take to Cook Rice?
The approximate cooking time of rice in a rice cooker are as follows:
- 18-25mins for white rice
- 30-40mins for brown rice
- 45-60mins for wild rice
- 15-20mins for basmati rice with 5 mins left for steam
You can alternatively set the time in the rice cooker to cook.
How Much Water is Required to Cook Rice in Rice Cooker?
The amount of water you put in the rice cooker to cook is an important factor. It basically determines if the rice will be cooked well or not. Following are the approximate quantity of water required for cooking rice:
- 1 cup rice and 1 cup water for white rice
- 1 cup rice and 1 cup water for basmati rice
- 1 cup rice and 1 cup water for jasmine rice
- 1 cup rice and 2 cup water for brown rice
How to Cook Basmati Rice in Rice Cooker
- Rinse rice with water and repeat the rinsing till water is clear
- Use 1.5 cup water for 1 cup rice
- Add ½ tsp salt for every 1 cup rice
- You can also add a bit of olive oil or butter
- Cook and after cooking leave it untouched for 20-30 minutes
How to Make Yellow Rice in Rice Cooker
- Rinse rice with water and repeat the rinsing till water is clear
- Measure rice and water for cooking
- Add a pinch of salt and 1 tsp turmeric powder to the rice
- Cook rice
The key ingredient here is the turmeric powder.
How to Season Rice in a Rice Cooker
You can add any type of seasoning while cooking rice in a rice cooker. For e.g. Adding turmeric powder will give you yellow rice. Adding butter to rice will give you Persian rice. Cooking brown rice with beer or chicken stock instead of water will give you a good flavor too. You can even add some veggies or spices in your rice for seasoning.
How to Make Fluffy Rice in a Rice Cooker
The key to making fluffy rice is in choosing the right type of rice such as the Japanese rice. If you want to cook with local rice, you can polish the rice and cook however, it may not turn out as good as the Japanese rice grains.
For making fluffy rice with local rice, you need to do the following:
- Add cold water to the rice
- Sift the rice with your fingers
- Do this for 30-40 secs and throw out the water
- Repeat the process for 4-5 times till water is clear
- Add the right measurement of water to the rice and leave it for 30-60 mins
- Cook rice
How Big is the Rice Cooker Cup?
Rice cooker cup in most Asian countries is around 180 ml. 1 cup can ideally feed 2 people who have normal portion of rice. Standard cup size in America is 240ml.
How Hot Does the Rice Cooker Get?
The insides of the rice cooker gets pretty hot. Water in the rice cooker boils at 212 degrees F and will never rise above it unless all the water is used up. The temperature starts to go up at that time and you will know that the rice is cooked.
However, the rice cooker shuts automatically once the rice is cooked, keeping the rice warm inside. The outside of the rice cooker is insulated, so it should not be hot but if you have a glass lid, use gloves to touch it.
Final Words
There are some users who have said that once you cook rice with a rice cooker you will never go back to cooking rice in a pot again. And w agree with that. Rice is still the most popular food source in the world. There are rice cookers available for every price point and every capacity.
So invest in a nice rice cooker or pressure cooker that will easily and quickly cook rice as well as other foods in a flash. You can even bake bread and cakes in most of these rice cookers.
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