I saw a video about putting a tomato in your rice to make it taste better. I haven’t tried it but I may.
So other than adding oil, can anything be done to make rice cooker rice taste better? Any recipe hacks others like to use?
Ive heard adding chicken broth is good too. Supposedly coconut milk added to the rice cooker also works well.
Forgot to add. Another thing that works is cooking a jar of Tikka masala sauce, then mixing that in with the rice after cooking.
Leftover raman seasoning packets are good if you dont have broth.
If there something wrong with rice made in a rice cooker, that you should want to “hack” it? Why does it need to taste better? Honestly, I can’t tell the difference from rice made in a regular pot.
I steam Chinese sausages with my rice. I cook the rice fully first, then once the cooker turns off and goes on warm mode I drop in the sliced sausages and a few sprinkles of soy sauce and water. Close it up and leave it on warm for 20 minutes to cook the sausage and melt the fat into the rice. Open it up and add some sesame oil and chili oil and green onions. That’s not just rice, now that’s a dish.
Rice is really good at absorbing flavors from things that it’s cooked with. If you want to make it taste good, you cook it with things that taste good. Almost anything will work.
In other words, what do you consider to taste good? That’s really all there is to it.
If you don’t like the taste of regular plain unseasoned rice, I have to wonder why you’re cooking it in the first place. I don’t find plain rice to be tasteless, the mild flavor works well with more highly seasoned foods.
On the other hand, if you are putting rice on a plate and putting something like curry or mapo tofu on top, I can’t see that the taste of the rice matters much.
Maybe you need to buy a better quality of rice – I’m serious, good rice makes a big difference. Unfortunately, I don’t buy the rice in our house so I can’t tell you what brand(s) taste better, but I can find out if you are interested.
Salt? Broth? Bouillon powder? Goya Sazon. Any and all of those will work. Doesn’t matter if it’s rice cooker or stovetop rice. Depends on what you’re going for. 80% of the time I just cook plain rice, with a bit of salt in the water. The rest of the time, I do one of the above, or add turmeric, cumin and some other stuff if I want a more yellow-type Middle Eastern flavored rice.
Try some basmati or jasmine rice. Don’t use too much water, I use about a 1:1.25 rice/water ratio, and once it’s done cooking, leave it to rest undisturbed for about 10-20 minutes.
As noted, the plain rice should already taste good; note there are many varieties, colors, stickiness, etc.
Try eg a simple sushi sauce (rice vinegar, sugar, salt, …).
Another idea: go nuts and combine the rice with beans or lentils.
Instead of merely a plain tomato, you could try a super hot chili sauce and a dash of garum.
Buy better quality rice. Also, look at what you are eating the rice with and make that taste better.
I like rice in my bowl of soup. Typically Campbell’s Chunky vegetable.
A basic meat sauce is also very good over rice. Mine is similar to this one. I make a big batch and freeze in several containers. Then I can defrost one and heat to eat with my rice.
Best Basic Meat Sauce Recipe - Simply Scratch
Cooked rice absorbs the juices and flavor of whatever you put on it.
I was just dropping by to say this. An Indian shopkeeper turned me on to basmati rice many years ago, told me once I’d tried it I would never go back to easy cook or anything like that. He was 100% right - basmati has a lovely flavour and texture.
I actually think rice cookers have a bit of jeopardy in getting the right cooking time. I was taught a while ago how to do it perfectly in a pan.
Yeah yeah, my wife has a similar Singapore chicken dish.
And Zojirushi are the best rice cookers, in case anyone was wondering.
We bought one moderately-priced Zojirushi in 1999. Still going strong, used 2-3 times a week.
Stir fry works great over rice. We buy the kit from Walmart and a package of cut up chicken pieces.
Make the rice and serve.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Pinnacle-Foods-Birds-Eye-Vegetables-52-2-oz/47333598
Been making rice for over 30 years in a rice cooker with nothing more than some salt. I don’t recall ever wanting or eating just a bowl of plain rice, much less wondering how to make it taste better. It’s never been anything other than a flavorful main dish’s gravy/sauce/dripping delivery system. That’s where the enhanced flavor comes from.
Definitely do try the different rices. My regular go-to-rice, though, is just a simple Goya or Riceland extra-long-grain rice. My second favorite is any type of Jasmine rice. Basmati is excellent if you want easily separated grains. I tend to like my rice a little wetter, fatter, and slightly sticky, so basmati is not my usual choice, but it’s the favorite for very many people. (Then, of course, you have your medium and short grains for making stuff like risotto and sushi. They’re all good.)
But there’s nothing wrong with trying to jazz up your rice. After all, very many cultures do have spiced-up rice. See Mexican rice (arroz rojo), or jeera rice (rice with cumin), or various styles of Middle Eastern rice that are spiced or colored with turmeric or saffron.
The easiest thing to do is just cook it in broth, as mentioned in the OP. That adds a lot of flavor to it without overpowering the basic “rice” nature of it.
Chicken broth is great when I don’t have gravy or meat drippings to yummify it.
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I don’t use a rice cooker, just a pot. But rice always tastes better made with broth, chopped onion, salt and pepper. Of course, then you’ve made a pilaf.
I thought the point of a rice cooker was that you eat so much damn rice that you’re practically living on Far Eastern cookery, in which case you would want plain ol’ bland rice as a base for whatever else you’re cooking that night.