7 Ways to Cook Thai Sticky Rice (with Bonus Hack!) หุงข้าวเหนียว 7 วิธี

So welcome to Hot Thai Kitchen .

So today , I am so excited to be sharing with you all the ways that I know to make Thai sticky rice .

Now , I've made sticky rice a few different ways over the past several years on the show .

But today I want to do a complete round up a complete guide of seven different ways that you can do it .

Yes , seven .

So it doesn't matter if you don't have this tool or that gadget you don't have time or you have time .

One of these ways is going to work for you before I start .

If you've never experienced the joy of Thai sticky rice or what we call , you have got to try it .

It is so good .

And so Thai sticky rice comes in a bag like this and it's usually labeled glutenous rice or Thai sweet rice , even though it's not sweet .

You wanna make sure that it is from Thailand and the grains are gonna be sort of medium length and opaque .

Let's get started .

So regardless of which method you choose , the first step is exactly the same for all of them and is absolutely necessary .

And that is washing the rice , you wanna wash out the excess starch that's left there by the milling process and then switch it around pretty vigorously .

So see how cloudy that water is .

If you don't wash it , it would be like cooking rice with a pinch of flour in it .

So you can imagine how that might gum up your rice , right ?

So you wanna rinse that off and do it a few times until the water runs relatively clear .

So now that our rice is washed , let's move on to the cooking methods .

Now , the seven different methods can be divided into two categories , the soak and steam methods and the no soak method .

So let's start with the soak and steam methods because that's the more traditional way .

Mm I just love the smell of rice even when it's not cooking , it smells so good to me .

All right .

So soaking the rice , you just wanna take room temp or cold water .

You wanna do this for a minimum , absolute minimum of three hours .

I like to do four because if your rice is old , for example , it might be a little drier , might need a little extra time .

You can do it overnight up to 12 hours .

However , if you go long when you're done , the , the soaked rice will be quite brittle .

So you have to kind of handle it gently when you're going to cook it afterwards .

All right .

Now , if you can leave it out at room temperature , it'll be totally fine .

But if you're nervous and you're gonna go like eight hours , 12 hours , you can stick it in the fridge , not a problem at all .

So the first one is to use a traditional bamboo cone steamer or we call .

So this is made specifically for making sticky rice even though you could steam whatever you want inside of this .

You wanna add just a little bit of , of water in here .

You don't want to add too much because this cone goes in pretty deep and you wanna leave a good amount of space between the water and the cone .

So that when it's boiling vigorously , it doesn't touch the bottom of the rice .

So I would say like 1.5 inch of water is plenty .

And with the bamboo cone , you wanna soak this in water first for like 10 minutes or so just to get it wet so that it will not stick to the rice when it's done .

And the great thing about this method is it doesn't matter how much rice you use .

So you'd have to measure any water .

You don't have to use cups , use finger method nothing .

You just put an amount of rice in there and that's it .

I'm gonna be making a lot of rice today .

So I'm only gonna do a little bit per method .

Otherwise , to have rice out the wazoo by the end of this , if you have a bamboo type lid .

It will be better because this will not condensation will not drip back onto the rice .

But like pot lids are totally fine .

So once the water is vigorously boiling , this goes on top and you put your lid on and it could be this lid and then we're gonna steam this for about 25 minutes , but we're gonna flip it halfway through and I'll show you how that's done when the time comes .

So the rice is kind of partially done .

Now , there we go .

Try to like OK , there we go .

Hey , and then we put it back on for another 10 minutes .

And then that is beautifully cooked sticky rice .

You just loosen it up and then roll it onto a plate which is a cute little lump of rice .

Oh my God .

Look how beautifully perfect that is .

Oh , it's perfect .

Look at that .

The grains beautifully intact .

There's no soggy grains anywhere nice and dry .

This is why the bamboo cone steamer is the traditional method .

It really makes perfect rice .

One power tip .

Once you're done with this , you want to get it soaking in water immediately .

There's a little bit of gooeyness from the rice left on there .

If you leave it to dry , it will be impossible to clean off .

So this do not delay the cleaning .

If you don't have a fancy bamboo steamer , any steaming rack will do .

It can be one of these , it could be one of these .

This is a rice cooker insert , actually any steaming rack .

So you're also gonna need some sort of a cloth .

So I use Muslin .

Uh you wanna use natural fiber because it's food , it's gonna be steamed .

You're probably gonna eat some lin .

So you know , you don't wanna use synthetic materials .

You wanna soak this first , which I almost forgot to do .

You wanna get this wet .

Otherwise it will stick to the rice when it's done , which I learned the hard way .

I actually like to do a doughnut trick which means I put a little shot glass or something in the middle and then I put the rice on and then you take the cup out .

Yes , that says Adam's bar .

Adam doesn't actually have a bar .

It doesn't have to be perfect .

Is it makes the rice cook more evenly because I find if you make a big pile , sometimes the middle will be a little bit undercooked .

And this way it'll cook faster too .

And then you wanna make sure you leave space around the edges .

So don't block the entire rack so that you have plenty of room for steam to come up and then you just steam this for again , about 25 minutes , 30 minutes if you're doing a lot .

And with this method , especially with the doughnut trick , you don't have to flip it like we do with the cone steamer .

Careful .

It's hot and the good thing about the S and steam method is you can't really overcook it in a bad way .

Like if you let it go a little too long or whatever , like nothing bad is going to happen .

So it's a really great foolproof method .

Look at a sticky rice doutt , the bottom of the rice where it's touching the cloth can get a little bit gummy .

But I don't find , like , once you fluff it up and mix it in , I don't find that's a big deal at all .

Ha ha ha .

Perfect .

And if you really don't have any steaming implements , you surely have some sort of a sieve .

Ok .

Well , a metal sieve anyway , don't do this with plastic sief .

And again , you put a little bit of water at the bottom , make a little divot on the , on in the bottom .

So that , you know , the rice is more evenly distributed .

Close that up and off , you go to the stove , same deal , plop that a little bit less graceful .

A little bit stuck here on the , just look at the bottom .

Oh , that's not too bad .

It turned out really well .

Sometimes I find this method has a bit of a soy bottom as well , but this one worked out really well .

So there you go three different methods for any kind of equipment .

So there is 1/4 soak and steam method that produces extra soft sticky rice .

And this involves just one little extra step of steeping your soaked rice .

So this is soaked , washed and drained and you just pour off the boil water over it and then you let it steam for about 10 minutes before draining .

And then just steaming as usual .

And you can steam this any way that we discuss .

And this is a really useful method if you know that you're gonna serve this rice at room temp .

So maybe it's like a pot lock where food's gonna kind of be sitting out or a picnic or something sticky rice when you just steam it dries out really quickly .

So this is a really handy method for this .

The rice will stay soft even if it's not warm anymore .

And this works because you're basically forcing the rice to absorb just a little bit more water .

So when it cooks up , it's more tender .

Let's take a look if we can see any difference between the one that's been steeped .

So I don't know if you can see this on camera , but you can , to me it's very obvious that the rice grains are a little bit bigger and it's softer .

I prefer it to be a little bit on the chewier side .

But again , if you're not gonna eat that hot , this is the way you wanna do it because this will not go hard or dry if it cools down .

So at this point , I just wanna touch on why we like to soak and steam sticky rice and not just stick it in a pot with water , like you do any kind of rice .

So the reason is sticky rice can only absorb a small amount of water .

That's why it's so dense when it's cooked , right ?

And so if there's any extra water that it can't absorb , sitting there , it'll turn the rice mushy really quickly .

It's also really sensitive to boiling water .

So if you boil a pot of water , put the rice in the outside will mush before the inside cooks the root .

So by soaking the sticky rice , you allow the rice to absorb all the water that it possibly can .

You take it out of water and then steam it .

So this way , there's no chance you can overcook it because you can't add too much water to that , right ?

So to look at another way with regular say , jasmine rice , the rice absorbs water and cooks at the same time .

But with sticky rice , you let the rice absorb the water first and then you cook the water that's already in the rice .

Having said that it is possible to cook sticky rice in water .

It's just a little bit trickier .

But these are the methods we're gonna look at next before we move on .

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So the first No SOK method is what I call the steam , the bowl method .

And I got this idea actually from my mom who used to use it to cook her own personal bowl of brown rice when the rice cooker was busy with white rice .

So what you want is a steamer for this .

But instead of the rack steamer , I just wanna show you an alternative way .

If you have a big stock pot , you can get one of these steamer racks .

You can get at a grocery stores for like a couple of bucks .

Now you can use a regular pot lid , but I like the bamboo lit because then there's no risk of condensation falling into the rice .

Uh You can also just cover the rice bowl with foil or something .

The rice has already been washed again .

You wanna wash all the rice and drained .

Really , really , really , really well , not just like pour it off .

Yeah , that's good note , you wanna drain and shake and make sure there's no extra water .

And then you wanna add water at the ratio of one part rice to two thirds water .

So less water than rice .

So the water is boiling , I'm gonna um turn it off .

So I don't steam burn myself because I have to put this bowl and this will take a little bit longer .

Oh , so 25 to 30 minutes for this one .

OK ?

So the top of it you can see looks a little bit mushy and the no silk method is always gonna be less ideal than the silk method .

We look at the bottom .

Yeah , it's a little bit softer .

I could probably add a little bit less water to this one .

But that's the thing with cooking sticky rice in water is you have to be super precise and not a little bit more .

Or you make the rice a little bit too soft .

The next method is the rice cooker method .

What if you can do it in the rice cooker ?

Why do we bother with anything else at all ?

Well , that's because not all rice cookers can do a good job .

It will work if your rice cooker cooks at a slow and gentle pace .

So I had one years ago that did an OK job with a little bit of crispiness at the bottom .

And then the previous one that I had did not do a good job at all .

But then this one that I have the Zoi Rushi , which I've done a review for um I'll link to that below .

Does a perfect dog .

I was so surprised how well it does and it has a special function for that .

The sweet rice function and sweet is just another term for sticky rice .

You start with washed rice obviously , but you have to drain it really , really , really well , the ratio is the same two thirds part of water going in there .

One very important note , you do not use the sweet rice line in the pot because that is meant for Japanese short grain sticky rice .

If you've got a cooker that has a brown rice function , it might work better .

So try that we choose the sweet function .

And then so this you'll notice takes a quite a long time for that amount .

It takes 35 to 40 minutes .

But that's why it turns out so well .

Because it cooks at such a slow and gentle pace .

Let's take a look .

Oh , the grain looks perfect .

It's almost steamer good .

The bottom of the pot has a , the bottom of the pot has a little bit of like a little bit of like a whiteness , like parts .

That's a little less translucent .

Once you fluff it and mix it in , you can't really tell because it's so slight .

It's pretty amazing .

Like , if you didn't tell me , I thought you just cook this in a steamer .

This rice cooker does a really , really good job .

Mm .

It's a little bit , maybe a little bit softer than the sulk and steam method here .

Adam , what do you think is a tiny bit more moist than the traditional method .

The first method , it's a little bit more dry than the bowl method .

Got it .

Yes .

Yes .

Last and actually at least because this is the least ideal method and that's the microwave .

It works .

But I find it kind of fussy more so than all the other methods .

And also each microwave is a little different .

So this is something you're gonna have to play around with your machine a little bit .

So I've got my rice here , washed and drained and the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna do a quick soak in hot water .

So I'm just gonna cover it and let it sit at , let it sit for 15 minutes .

It has been 15 minutes .

I'm gonna drain this rice again .

Really ?

Really , really , really , really well .

And then I'm gonna add fresh water at the same ratio of one part rice to two thirds of water .

Now , could I have just measure the water and use that soaking water and just microwave it directly without draining and adding new water .

Yes , you could .

Um , you're probably gonna add , need to add a little bit more water than that .

which I haven't tried .

Exactly .

Here's the trick I have never used this microwave before at my place with a 900 watt microwave .

I do it for three minutes .

Stir .

Two minutes , stir and then one minute and then it's done .

So 321 .

This is an 1100 watts .

So , who knows ?

So I'm gonna do 221 and then see what happens .

You wanna cover it with something .

Some people use saran wrap , but I don't like the idea of microwaving saran wrap .

So a plate will work just fine .

So the rice is gonna be still raw , obviously .

But I'm gonna give it a stir just to redistribute .

Mm .

Looks like it .

This could have also done a three minute initially , but that's all right .

We'll do two more minutes .

Ok .

Oh , that's a lot of steam inside .

Oh , it's looking all right .

You can see that it's dried up a little bit , but you can see some whiteness on the inside of the grain .

So you wanna fold the bottom up to the top .

Ok .

I think one more minute and this should be good .

I think I could use another minute .

So maybe I should have done a 321 after all .

But I'm gonna do a stir .

Oh , but the bottom , the bottom looks good though .

So maybe all it really needs is to just like be stirred and just sit and you know , rest in its own heat .

So this is the microwave rice that's been sitting for a few minutes .

So , let's see .

Hm .

Some reason it's less flavorful than the other rice .

I don't know , the microwave zapped flavor out of it or something .

I don't know .

It just feels that way .

Yeah , I don't like it as much as the uh the one we just did .

I can't explain why .

Honestly , it feels like the outside is softer , like it's not overcooked , but the outside is a little bit gummier .

You're right .

And that goes to show you what I was talking about about the rice really needing gentle heat .

Otherwise the outside will be mushy before the inside cooks through .

But with the microwave it's pretty quick , right ?

It's like pretty high heat in there .

So that's why you get this like sort of gummy situation between the rice grains .

So it's , it's not ideal but it works .

And that is it .

I am now so hungry because I've been making sticky rice all morning and eat nothing of it .

So I'm gonna go and eat sticky rice with these chicken wings , which by the way , sticky rice goes great with wings , with fried meat , grilled meat , anything that you use your hands , skewers of stuff , even Thai salads and you just dip the rice in the salad .

I'll link to some recipes that go well with sticky rice below .

If you have other sticky rice making male that I don't know about .

Please share with us in the comments below and subscribe to the show if you like it and I will see you next time for your next delicious Thai meal with hopefully less sticky rice .

Mm .