I Found the BEST Way to Cook Sticky Rice

So at Nika , welcome to Hot Thai kitchen .

So if you've ever tried to cook sticky rice , you know that it's not quite as straightforward as regular rice , there are many different ways to do it .

I've shared a video previously with seven different ways to cook sticky rice .

Now , I thought I had exhausted all of my options , but no , I came across yet another way to cook sticky rice .

And after some experimentation , I now believe that this is the best way to do it .

It's definitely how I'm going to do it from now on a bit of context , the seven different ways to cook sticky rice .

I shared previously all fell into two major categories .

First is the soak and steam method where you soak the sticky rice and room tap water for at least three hours and up to overnight and then you drain it and you steam it .

This is the traditional way Thai people cook sticky rice .

It is absolutely foolproof .

No precision is needed , but it requires a lot of advanced planning and it's not ideal .

The second category are the no soak methods where you cook the rice directly in water without soaking , which solves the advanced planning issue .

But the results are generally not ideal .

The new method that I'm going to share with you today has the best of both worlds .

It doesn't require advanced planning and it yields a result that I think is even better than the traditional method .

It's what I call the hot soak .

Let's get started .

OK .

Let me show you the method and then I'll explain how it works first , bring plenty of water to a full boil .

And while that's happening , you can be washing your sticky rice .

Now , washing sticky rice is something you want to do for all methods .

We're washing the loose excess starch that would otherwise make our rice gummy .

Make sure you switch the rice aggressively with your hands to dislodge the starch .

And then I repeat the washing about 3 to 4 times until the water runs mostly clear , then drain it well and put it in a heatproof bowl .

Once your water boils , pour it over the rice .

So it comes up around half an inch to an inch above the rice .

It doesn't need to be precise , but you also don't want to add an excessive amount of water for reasons that I will discuss later .

Give it a stir to break up any lumps .

And then , hey , Siri set a timer for 20 minutes , 20 minutes counting down and that's it no more overnight .

Soak not even three hours for someone who has been soaking sticky rice for hours on and throughout my life , this is life changing .

So while the rice is soaking , you can be setting up your steamer .

Now , any kind of steaming implements will work for this .

A basic steaming rack like this is fine , doesn't need to be bamboo .

You will then line it with a thin cloth but make sure this cloth is wet .

Otherwise the rice will stick to the cloth .

OK ?

So that's the basic setup .

But I am going to use of course my handy dandy bamboo , sticky rice steamer .

This is the traditional implement for cooking sticky rice , but same thing , this basket needs to be wet .

Otherwise the rice will stick to the basket .

So while the rice is soaking , I'm also gonna be soaking my basket and that's it .

We can go relax or cook the rest of your meal until it's ready .

Once the 20 minutes is up , I'm gonna rinse the rice with cold water to remove any starch that has come out during the soaking and then drain .

And at this point , the rice is ready for the steamer when you are .

So if you're not quite ready for it yet , you're still cooking the rest of the meal .

You can just leave it there about half an hour away from serving time , you can put your rice in your steaming vessel like you normally would .

But here's a trick if you make a hole in the middle of the rice .

You eliminate that thick middle bit and the rice will cook faster .

If you're using a steamer rack , you can do the same thing but also make sure to leave some space around the rice so that steam can come up and that's it .

You just need to steam the rice over boiling water for 20 to 30 minutes , depending on the amount .

Bye bye .

If you are using the bamboo cone steamer at about 15 minutes , you want to come and give it a flip just to help it cook a little more evenly , which I am terrible at .

But we'll see how I go .

My goodness .

I did it in one go .

That never , never happens anyway .

And then , and then I'm going to just break it up a little bit to expose the middle , which was previously covered and keep it going for another 10 minutes .

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The reveal just perfect .

And what I'm looking for is , are there any sort of rice with opaque center ?

Which means it's undercooked there isn't , is the rice mushy around the edges ?

It's not , let's go in for the taste .

It's perfect .

It is not at all a compromise .

It's even a little bit better because it is a little bit softer , which brings me to why this method works .

In the traditional method , the rice soaks up water slowly at room temperature .

But by using hot water , not only are we speeding up the soaking time , we're also forcing the rice to absorb a little more water than it can at room temp .

So the result is not only a faster silk but also a slightly softer rice .

And this is exactly why I actually prefer this method because this rice will stay soft .

Even after it has cooled down in the cold soaked rice , the rice hardens and dries out quite quickly at the dinner table .

If you've done it , you know what I'm talking about .

And yes , I have shared a hack to prevent that in my seven ways to cook sticky rice video .

But just overall , this is simpler and in just about every way , this is my preferred method .

There is a caveat .

I have tried this method for as much as three cups of uncooked rice .

Most of you are probably not going to need any more than that .

But if you are , you might want to cut down the soaking time by a little bit because the larger the amount of rice and water , the hotter it will stay for a longer time and the full 20 minute soak might just make the rice a little bit too soft .

This also means however , that if you're in a real rush and you want to shave every minute that you can , you can put more water and soak it for less time .

As an experiment .

I've done as little as a 10 minute soak in a large amount of water .

It was OK .

But the texture was a little bit too soft for my liking .

And personally , I feel like it's just not worth the 10 minutes that I saved in the end .

But point is there are some dials you can turn to make it suit your situation .

So here's a quick recap of the pros and cons of the three types of methods that I've shared so far on this channel .

The traditional method requires no precision and it is absolutely foolproof .

However , a lot of advanced planning is required and the rice dries out quite quickly .

The no soak method gets rice on the table the fastest .

However , the results are not ideal and you do need to be quite precise with it .

It's not foolproof at all .

Finally , the hot soak method that I shared with you today , it requires no advanced planning and the results are the best in my opinion .

However , some precision is required with regards to the soaking time and the amount of water .

A quick final note , it's worth mentioning that some rice cookers can actually cook sticky rice quite well , especially if it has a sweet rice function .

And sweet rice is the other name for sticky rice for example , the Zoi Rushi Neuro fuzzy does a great job .

They are quite expensive and this is why I didn't want to include it in our main discussion because this is not an option for everyone .

But if you want to make sticky rice a regular thing , this is probably the most convenient .

Um And it takes about as long as the hot soak method .

And if you're wondering why you should bother cooking sticky rice at all .

It's because there's nothing that goes better with grilled and barbecued meats and sticky rice .

Trust me , once you try this , you will never turn back .

I have some Thai barbecue chicken here .

I have a recipe I will link to below and yes , you eat sticky rice with your hand .

No more potato salad .

If you've been pairing your barbecued meats with potato salad , just stop it , stop .

This will change your life and that is it .

I hope you found that useful .

And hey , if you know of yet another way to cook sticky rice that you don't think I know about do share with us in the comments below .

A special thanks to all of our Patreon supporters who help support the show .

If you want to know what that's all about , how you can watch videos at free and get bonus content .

I'll put the link in the description below .

Thank you as always for watching and I will see you next time