Rice is a household staple known for its versatility, pairing perfectly with everything from chicken, beef and fish to curries and stir-fries. But despite its versatile nature, it can be quite the challenge to cook rice perfectly.
Many home cooks stumble when it comes to rice preparation, often neglecting to rinse the grains or miscalculating the water-to-rice ratio, resulting in undercooked, soggy, or overly dry rice. Even if you avoid these common errors, you might still find yourself with a rather uninspiring side dish. But fear not, as a simple switch while cooking will make your rice taste much more flavourful.
On the culinary blog The Kitchn, food guru Emma Christensen shared her insider tips for making “a boring pot of rice taste amazing”.
Her initial tip to ensure “keep rice flavourful” is a simple yet effective technique: toast the grains.
“Toasting the dry rice grains in a little butter or olive oil before adding the water brings out their flavour and adds a fantastic nutty note in the finished dish,” she said.
She recommended giving this method a go with brown rice or other whole grains like barley.
Emma’s second tip is to add chicken or vegetable stock to the pan you’re cooking your rice in. This could be either a surplus of homemade stock or simply a stock cube.
She said: “I sometimes find that using 100 percent chicken broth can make the rice feel gummy or overly-starchy,” explaining: “I usually go for a 50/50 mix of broth and water. This adds a layer of flavour and richness without going overboard.”
The expert explained that you should flavour the rice using ingredients from your main course, incorporating identical seasonings throughout the meal.
She urged home cooks to utilise whole spices for subtle notes and ground varieties for bolder tastes. She also revealed that she “almost always” adds a bay leaf to her dishes, regardless of what she’s preparing.