Preparing rice with a perfectly fluffy, light texture and delicious flavor can prove to be a challenge, even for the most experienced home cooks. Stove top rice, heated from the bottom, can cook unevenly, and microwave versions aren't always the most predictable. Fortunately, chef, television host, and author Katie Lee Biegel has a solution: baked rice.
Biegel's method isn't new, but her Instagram video demonstrating her baked rice process received over 57,000 likes, indicating many were intrigued by it. Here's how she does it.
First, prep by preheating your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and rinsing 1 1/2 cups of jasmine rice. Transfer your rice to an 8x8 baking dish placed on top of a baking sheet, and pour in 3 cups of boiling water. Next, add 2 teaspoons of unsalted butter or olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Cover the dish tightly with foil and bake for 25 minutes. After removing it from the oven, let your rice stand for five minutes, fluff it with a fork, and serve.
There may be no more widely-used food staple than rice. Worldwide, 520 million metric tons of rice were consumed in the 2021-2022 crop year. A majority of cuisines have their own signature rice dish (or dishes)—Spanish paella, Chinese shrimp fried rice, Italian risotto, Cuban red beans and rice, French rice pilaf, the American classic of chicken and rice. Learning how to make it perfectly on a consistent basis is a tool nearly every home cook can use. Plus, baking rice eliminates one stove top dish, making meal prep easier and less cluttered.
A quick Google search turns up other recipes for baked rice that use other kinds of rice, other ingredients, and different cooking times. TikTok (of course) features plenty of videos showing how to make baked rice with different combinations. You can even discover quick recipes for entire baked rice meals, like this viral cheesy garlic butter rice.
If you're not a fan of jasmine rice, try basmati, brown, or long-grain rice. Substitute chicken or beef broth for water if you want a more flavorful rice. Include herbs and spices before baking, or add them post oven.