Cooking Rice In A Pan

Yes, I’m no longer in a dorm and yes, my apartment’s kitchen probably has more appliances and cookware than the kitchens of most actual adults. But I don’t have a good pot for cooking rice in. All of mine are too large.

I discovered this problem halfway through my cooking of Thai Green Chicken Curry (see below). You can’t have Thai Green Curry without rice. Luckily, Google answers all. A quick search found this article: How to Cook Perfect Rice In A Frying Pan, and, since I had no other option, I took the plunge despite being extremely skeptical.

I’ve never cooked better rice. Seriously. I’ve never cooked rice without burning the bottom of the pot and I often end up with undercooked grains. The pan rice was fluffy, moist, and fully cooked. Best of all, I didn’t have to scrub any burnt pots. Granted, there is a large chance I’m just the worst rice cooker in the world but that shouldn’t devalue this new method. Try it even if you’re internationally certified in making rice in a pot.

Here are the steps:

1. Put the rice and the water in a frying pan over high heat (use however much water and rice it says to use on your package).
2. As soon as the water starts boiling aggressively, give the rice a good stir, put the lid on the pan (or some aluminum foil if you’re forced to be even more ratchet), and then turn the heat down to low (as the author of the page kindly points out, an electric stove takes a bit to cool down so move the rice off of the burner for a minute; if you have a gas stove, good job).
3. Cook the rice on low for five minutes. Do not lift up the lid. At the end of five minutes, you should see a bunch of little holes in the surface of the rice. Good job.
4. Turn up the heat to high for 1 minute.
5. Turn off the heat. If you have an electric stove, remove the pan from the burner.
6. Leave the lid on for 15 minutes (DON’T PEEK).
7. Enjoy!