This handy steam oven rice cooking guide is the result of a multitude of questions around the topic. I have plenty of emails and social media questions come in about how to cook rice in a steam oven, and it’s actually super easy once you know how.
From rice to liquid ratios to oven settings, timing and temperature, I’ve got you covered for cooking different types of rice in a steam oven. And if you scroll down, you can enter your email address to get a printable steam oven rice guide sent straight to your inbox!
Rice is a great way to bulk out a meal and is more easily tolerated by (most) peoples’ stomachs than bread or pasta. There are countless varieties from nutty brown rice to fragrant jasmine and basmati, and dark, chewy wild and black rice. When you master cooking the main varieties of rice you’ll always have the base for a quick dinner or a simple but filling salad.
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Why would you cook rice in a steam oven?
Steam oven rice is no more difficult than cooking it in a rice cooker or by absorption in a pot. You put rice and liquid in a pan, pop it in the oven and come back to fluffy steamed rice. It’s hands down my favorite method to cook rice, though. I don’t need somewhere to store a rice cooker, I don’t need to adjust my stovetop heat to avoid burnt or overflowing pots, and it’s perfectly cooked every time.
Essentially, you can give away your rice cooker now that you have a steam oven, you won’t be needing it anymore!
Adjustment for steam oven rice
When you cook rice in a steam oven there are some variations for rice to liquid ratios and slight adjustment of cooking times but overall it’s pretty simple.
The guide below is not exhaustive but it covers all the major varieties of rice I ever cook in my steam oven. If there’s something not listed you’ll probably be able to figure it out based on one of the other types of rice.
I hope you find this steam oven rice guide useful and can return to it over and over until you’ve memorised your favourites.
Happy steam oven cooking, see you here again soon.
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A Steam Oven Guide to Cooking Rice
A note about rice: the cooking times (and sometimes the quantity of liquid needed) for rice can vary according to how old your rice is and how humid your climate. I tend to buy and use rice within about 6 months at most (very old rice can be quite ‘dry’, requiring a touch more liquid and often longer cooking times).
And a note about cooking vessels: the below measurements work for rice cooked in a thin, even layer in a stainless steel tray. Most people will be able to use the solid trays which come with the oven for this. I use the smaller (1/3 size) tray for 1 cup uncooked rice, and the larger (2/3 size) for 2-3 cups uncooked rice.
After some meals to show off your now-perfect rice? I’ll be posting a new rice salad recipe video on Facebook in a day or two, but in the meantime, try the Maple, Lime & Ginger Chicken or (one of my favourites) Asian Style Sticky Beef.
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What a wonderful site! Thank you for you hard work. I’m wondering about directions for sticky rice? It’s supposed to be more finicky?
I think it should work, although it might take longer to cook given the depth of the rice and water. I’d love to hear if you try it!
We are looking to cook our rice in deep 1/3rd pans 2quarts rice, 3 quarts Water. Do you think this would work? If not, what would you suggest?
Funny, this must be about the only thing on my site that’s not in both metric and imperial! I’ll see what I can do about adding the metric measures, but rice is more about a ratio so volume does make sense here.
Hi Emily,
First of all would like to say thanks for making so much steam oven resource available. We now have a steam oven and am keen to try it out on all your recipes. Would it be possible to have a rice cooking chart in metric? We are used to weighing out and measuring in grams and ml’s so it’s a bit confusing with the cup measurements.
Regards
Heather
I don’t have any experience cooking at high altitude, unfortunately, so I’m not sure! As best I’m aware, because boiling point is lower at high altitudes, you may need to increase the cooking time slightly. I’d love to hear if you have success!
Do the instructions change if I’m at a high altitude? I’m at 6000+ ft.
I keep the ratios the same when I scale up my quantities for rice. I think perhaps if you were making absolutely enormous batches this might change, but I frequently go up to 4 cups of rice and things stay the same. 🙂
What about cooking 2 cups of rice? Do you double the water or do you use less water per cup as you make bigger batches of rice?
You can! But it’s possible (and very easy) to do it in the steam oven, hence this post. As with most cooking, there are multiple ways to achieve similar results – knowing your options really helps, especially when you’re cooking for a crowd and trying to manage hob and oven space. Being able to use your induction hob and a pan for rice when your steam oven is full is still a great option.
What a great site!
I’ve been looking for advice and help with using my new combi-steam-sous vide oven and at last I’ve found it – Thanks!
Having also had an induction hob fitted and bought new stainless steel saucepans and frying pans, is there any reason why I can’t just use a stainless steel saucepan to stem rice?
Thanks
Yes, you can definitely sub other liquids for water. Seasonings I tend to add at the start of cooking, while vegetables I add according to how long they’ll take to cook. Carrots can tolerate a longer cooking so could go in at the start, however for something like peas I’d just throw them over the top of the rice a minute or two before the end of cooking.