You’ve been cooking Jasmine Rice wrong your whole life! Most recipes get it wrong because it’s not widely known that jasmine rice is softer than most, so you need LESS water than normal white rice so it’s fluffy rather than gummy. Use just 1 1/4 cups water for every 1 cup of jasmine rice (the standard for typical white rice is 1 1/2 cups water to 1 cup rice).
Use for all things Thai – and anything really. It’s just a really great rice!
Also see How to Cook: White rice | Basmati Rice | Brown Rice
How to cook Jasmine Rice
Jasmine rice is a lovely, subtly perfumed rice used across South East Asia. It’s strongly associated with Thai food, and used for serving with everything from Thai marinated chicken to Chilli Basil Stir Fry, Satay Skewers and the many Thai curries out there.
It’s also used to make Thai fried rice and Pineapple Fried Rice which is the other recipe I’m sharing today!
The secret for how to cook jasmine rice perfectly
What most people do not know is that jasmine rice is softer than most white rice, which means you need less water in order for the rice to cook so it’s soft and fluffy, rather than gummy on the outside.
So while most rice is cooked with 1.5 cups of water for each cup of rice, for jasmine rice, it’s reduced to 1 1/4 cups of water.
Yes, 1/4 cup really makes a difference! I made a lot of overly soft jasmine rice in my life that I was never really happy with until I finally figured this out.
There is NO NEED to rinse rice!!
Busting an age old myth here – that rinsing the rice is mandatory for fluffy rice. NO it is not! I have made so much rice in my time verifying this exact fact.
Here’s what I know:
No rinsing – if you use 1 1/4 cups of water for every 1 cup of jasmine rice, your rice will be fluffy even without rinsing
If you rinse, you must reduce the water by 2 tablespoons to factor in the extra water than remains in the rice (ie 1 1/4 cups water minus 2 tablespoons)
If you rinse AND soak for 1 hour, you must reduce the water by 3 tablespoons (ie 1 1/4 cups minus 3 tablespoons)
Rinsing vs no rinsing – rinsing yields a barely noticeable marginal improvement in fluffiness. It would not be noticeable to most people;
Only rinse IF you buy your rice direct from a rice farm, or similar, to remove debris and anything that night remain from the processing; and
No need to clean if you buy retail – If you buy rice at the store in shiny plastic packets, your rice should already be clean – and that includes less starch too.
Let’s face it. Rinsing rice is a pain. For an extra 2% fluffiness, it’s just not worth it (in my humble opinion).
If you need to rinse the rice to clean it, if you just can’t break the habit, or if your Asian mother would have your head if you didn’t, here’s how:
Place rice in bowl, fill with water. Swish with hand then drain. Repeat 3 to 4 times – water will never be completely clear. Drain in colander, cook per recipe.
How to cook Jasmine Rice
Once you get the rice and water ratio right, then the steps are exactly the same as cooking normal white rice and basmati rice:
RAPID SIMMER – Put water and rice in saucepan, bring to simmer on high heat as fast as you can. You want the whole surface to be rippling, the edges bubbling and white foam;
COVER and turn to LOW – Turn heat down and cover, cook 12 minutes. Do not lift lid!
Stand 10 minutes to let the rice finish cooking. If you skip this, the grains are wet and slightly hard in the middle;
Fluff! Use a rubber spatula or rice paddle – this stops the grains breaking (Jasmine rice is softer than most white rices).
And voila! Fluffy Jasmine rice. 🙂
Use for all things Thai, Vietnamese dishes, stir fries, and use for fried rice like Nasi Goreng. Though traditionally associated with South East Asian foods, it will goes perfectly with any Asian foods, and even Indian food if you don’t have basmati rice.
And just generally for anything you want to serve with rice, whether Asian or not! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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How to cook Jasmine Rice (stove)
Ingredients
No rinsing method:
- 1 cup jasmine rice
- 1 1/4 cups water (cold tap water)
Rinsed rice:
- 1 cup jasmine rice
- 1 1/4 cups MINUS 2 tbsp water
Instructions
No rinsing (my everyday method):
- Place rice and water in a medium saucepan (one with a tight fitting lid). Bring to rapid simmer with NO LID on medium high.
- Turn down to low or medium low so it's simmering gently, then place lid on. Do not lift lid during cook.
- Cook 12 minutes or until water is absorbed by rice – tilt pot to check (if lid not glass, then QUICKLY lift lid to check).
- Keep the lid on then remove from heat. Stand 10 minutes, fluff with rubber spatula or rice paddle, then serve.
RINSED RICE (Note 3):
- Place rice in a bowl, fill with water and swish. Once cloudy, drain. Repeat 2 – 3 more times until water is pretty clear – it will never be completely clear.
- Drain rice in a colander, transfer to saucepan.
- Add water – 1 1/4 cups of water MINUS 2 tablespoons per 1 cup of rice. Follow cook steps above in No Rinsing.
Recipe Notes:
- Use a medium to large saucepan for up to 2 cups. For 3 cups rice+, use a pot.
- If lid is not tight fitting or heavy, then you may get bubble overflow – reduce heat if this happens, it will subside as water gets absorbed by rice.
- Glass lid is easiest – you can see what’s going on inside without lifting the lid, especially useful at end to check if all water is absorbed.
- Reason we bring to simmer without lid is to reduce risk of overflow once lid goes on. If you bring to simmer with lid on, you need to be more careful about exactly when you turn the heat down so it doesn’t get foamy overflow. Much easier to to lid off first, then lid on when you turn it down.
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
A common sighting – Dozer trotting off ahead of me to join his friends on the beach. I get there eventually!!
I almost never comment on recipes but after literal years of trying to properly cook rice (including in a rice cooker) I have FINALLY successfully made fluffy, perfect jasmine rice. Thank you SO much, Nagi!
Wahoo, that’s great to hear Rachel!! N x
I am throwing out my rice cooker! This is my best success yet at cooking Jasmine rice. Thankyou.
This is the best jasmine rice method I’ve used to date. I did experiment a little and added diced pumpkin, salt, olive oil, black pepper, mc cormick grillmates roasted garlic & herb seasoning, badia complete seasoning, dried mince onion and parsley flakes and it still turned out perfect. This will now be my go to jasmine rice method.
Absolutely perfect method! It is so nice to be able to see the individual grains instead of a gummy lump of starch. Thank you!
Perfect recipe as usual! Thanks Nagi!
Can’t believe!
Just took your advice and cooked my jasmine rice your way. It was tough to do because in the middle of cooking it looked like there was no water left in the pot and I was sure I was going to burn it, but, no. Must confess that I opened my pot very slightly to put just a few drops of water in there in the last 3 minutes, but I have one of those lids with a little hole in it for the steam and worried that it may have let out too much water.
Just opened the pot after the 10 minute rest and the rice was absolutely perfect and fluffy!
Thanks!!! I can finally put years of failed gummy rice behind me!
Wahoo!!! You’ve nailed it Deb!! N x
This is the first time I’ve ever been able to make rice successfully. Thank you so so much! I thought it was just me haha!
I’ve now made this 5x and it’s perfect everytime. Go ton rice recipe. Thank you so much.
The rice came out perfectly – thank you! I added lime and fresh coriander and served it with black bean chilli – yum.
I have been following your blog for a few months and needed a new method for cooking jasmine rice after my last four times failed on my new stove. I searched on google and saw your recipe at the top of the list and decided to try it out since I love your other recipes. This worked PERFECTLY! I doubled the recipe, set timers, and the rice turned out fantastic. I am so glad I discovered this blog. (I’m also going to use one of your turkey breast recipes on Thanksgiving and am excited to try it).
Thank you for such clean, clear notes with a lot of information for us (me) novices! I was curious if you had any direction on how to store cooked rice/reheat (aside from making delicious fried rice)? Not even sure if that’s a thing-again, novice. Thanks so much for a great recipe!!
Best rice recipe ever! 1st time my Jasmine rice came out great. I made 1 1/2 cups rice to 1 7/8 cups water – followed your instructions and voila! My “Queen of Rice” neighbor will be so proud – she never measures, her mom taught her !
Sooooo I usually use my instant pot to make my rice and today I was at my Mother in Law’s house. I was terrified to make rice on the stove and then I came upon this site. My rice was cooked perfectly and I haven’t been kicked out of the family yet. Thanks!
PERFECT. Nagi, your recipes are the best, both for the flavours and directions. OMG this turned out perfectly. I served it with turkey fricassee and the rice was soft but still had some ‘chew’, not mushy. Thank you!
Wow the best rice I have made so simple just that little bit less water, makes such a difference thanks
You’re so welcome Karen!! N x
I’m in the UK and the packaging says to rinse before AND after cooking, which has always seemed like far too much effort to me, plus the rice comes out mushy. Your method gave PERFECT rice without the drama! Thank you so much for sharing, I’m going to do this every time ☺️
Thank you so much Nagi!! I’ve been struggling to make good Jasmine rice on the stove top for ages and your recipe finally provided the reason – I was always washing my rice beforehand, which threw off the rice/water ratio and made it too sticky. I tried your recipe last night without washing the rice and it came out absolutely perfect! Thank you thank you thank you!!!
Perfect every time for the first time in my life. And tonight I have thrown a piece of chicken on top and Hainese sauce ( Ayam) and it is so yummy
Hey Nagi, I recently just discovered your website and absolutely love it! I was browsing thru rhe recipes and found this and was curious so I read thru it. Im filipino, as you know we eat rice 24/7, from breakfast to our desserts, even our in-betweens. Lol. Rice is life as we may say. But in regards to this way of rice cooking, Its great that you experimented on it. I grew up cooking it from a rice cooker, so its nice to know a different technique on preparing it. Thank you for sharing!
You’d be surprised that this tastes just as good as rice that you rinse except you actually get to keep the starch goodness