Who knew? Cook dinner in a rice cooker?
Fascinated, I delved into what people are doing....!
Almost every night as I grew up my father would make rice in a rice cooker he bought in Chinatown. And ever since then I have owned my own rice cooker and cook rice in it, because it does it so well and it takes no effort at all. However, I never ever thought to put more than rice in it. The craziest I have ever gotten with my rice cooker is to add a chicken boullion cube or some soy and sesame sauce to cook into the rice. Or some seasonings so that the rice could be used for a quick paella.
But the other day I was trolling through TikTok food videos and began to see whole dinners cooked in a rice cooker. The ones that drew me in the most were Asian, and they looked delicious. So I delved further into this way of preparing dinner and came to the conclusion that 1) it can be more economical than cooking other ways and 2) it takes little work or time, cooking and keeping the food warm till you are ready for it.
Now I was watching videos of people making oatmeal in them. Even a video where they made a cake in one. And a lot of them didn’t even use rice. I saw poached fruit, steamed veg with fish, oatmeal for breakfast, mac & cheese, chili, and rice pudding.
Here’s a recipe that I saw a Chinese chef preparing in his very basic, one button rice cooker like mine:
Rice Cooker Hainanese Chicken Rice
Rinse the rice. Put it in the rice cooker and add chicken stock.
Toss in 6-8 slices of garlic and some chopped fresh ginger, a sliced scallion, and a swirl of sesame oil.
Season 4 chicken legs or thighs with salt and pepper and lay them on top of the rice
Cook on the regular ricer setting, then let it sit for another 5 minutes. Serve with sliced cucumbers and sweet chili sauce.
or this one, which was made in the popular 5.5 cup Tiger Rice Cooker:
Honey Garlic Chicken and Rice Dinner
2 cups White rice (supplied measuring cup)
3 Garlic cloves, grated
1 tbsp Soy sauce
3 tbsp Honey
2 tsp Rice vinegar
Salt and pepper
5 oz Skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut bite size
Directions:
Whisk grated garlic, soy sauce, honey, and rice vinegar in a bowl and add chicken. Marinate for 15 minutes.
Place the chicken in the cooking plate along with the marinade and season with salt and pepper.
Put the washed rice and water in the inner pot and place it in the rice cooker.
Set the cooking plate in the inner pot. Select the [Synchro-Cooking] menu and press the [Start] key.
When cooking is complete, place the cooked rice with chicken in a serving bowl.
That’s an example of what you can make in them.
Then I followed Alice through the looking glass and got caught up at looking at all the different kinds of rice cookers. While mine has a simple on and off button, I saw multi-functional rice cookers online that are preprogrammed, some with steaming trays for fish, hard boiled eggs, vegetables and fruit.
So now, dear friends, I am spending some time looking through all the reviews of fancier rice cookers, like the Tiger one, with the intention of buying one and experimenting with all sorts of recipes! Maybe it will tempt me to do another cookbook, all about recipes you can make in your rice cooker!! They’re cheap, economical, fast, and seem to fit the times.
The Tiger one crops up the most in TikTok food videos and on Instagram, basically because it has a button for what they call “takook” or synchro-cooking, which means you can cook rice and the main dish at the same time in the cooker. Nice.
If you have one, or are cooking whole dinners in them, can you leave a comment here recommending the one you like?
I want one with a stainless steel inner cooking pot, not a non-stick one. So I found this one, which looks pretty awesome. It’s aYokekon 8 cup rice cooker.
Now I am in the process of wading through all the reviews and functions and apparent awesomeness of all the rice cookers on the market and will report back when I find my one and only. I adore my InstaPot, don’t get me wrong. But this is quick, uncomplicated, and it looks like a challenge as well as being fun. Will update you on my progress!!