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Don’t sleep on your rice cooker: It just might be the most underrated tool in your kitchen. The countertop appliance is a foolproof way to make, well, rice, but it’s capable of so much more — from porridge to pancakes.

“In a rice cooker, you just set it and know it’s going to hold the right temperature the whole time,” says Joe Nierstedt, chef-owner of Katsubō in Charleston, South Carolina. “It keeps a steady heat, traps all the aroma, and makes even a small kitchen feel capable of big, slow-cooked flavor.” 

Though rice cookers run the gamut in terms of their built-in functions — our top pick comes with presets for “quick,” “porridge,” “sweet,” and more — you don’t need a premium, high-tech machine to reap the benefits of this versatility.

“I’ve been using an off-brand rice cooker with a simple steel base, and honestly, it cooks just as well as any of the fancy models I’ve tried,” says John Ho, chef and manager at FLIK Hospitality Group and chef with Resident, who calls rice cookers “an incredibly budget-friendly alternative to pressure cookers or slow cookers.”

If you’ve only cooked white rice in your appliance, these chef-approved hacks are a great way to branch out — and start giving your rice cooker the love (and counter space) it deserves.

Congee 

“Most people think rice cookers are just for rice, but that steady, gentle heat is perfect for congee,” says Nierstedt. “It holds the temperature perfectly, so you get that silky, spoon-coating texture without stirring for hours.”

To make chicken congee, Nierstedt adds jasmine rice, smashed ginger, scallions, broth or water, and a splash of soy sauce to a rice cooker and cooks the mixture on the porridge setting. 

No specialized porridge function? No problem. For his shrimp and lemongrass congee, Kevin Tien, chef-owner of Moon Rabbit in Washington, D.C., toasts aromatics in oil on the cook function, adds stock and rice, then simmers on warm for 45 minutes to one hour, stirring occasionally and tossing in the shrimp near the end of cooking.

Broth and soups 

“At Katsubō, we simmer broth all day, but at home I take a shortcut,” says Nierstedt. For his streamlined ramen broth, he combines chicken wings, kombu, onions, and water in the rice cooker and sets the mixture on slow cook for a few hours, which “quietly extracts all the gelatin and flavor without boiling the broth to death.” (No slow cook preset? You can also “cook” through two cycles, then keep on warm to mimic the function, Nierstedt says.) As he explains, “The sealed pot keeps moisture and aroma locked in, so the result tastes clean and rich — no cloudy stock, no babysitting the stove.” 

Ho is also an advocate of using the rice cooker for broth — and even soup. “The rice cooker is ideal for low-and-slow cooking, allowing the meat to become tender and infuse the broth with deep flavor,” he says.

For his one-pot pork and daikon udon soup, Ho cooks blanched pork spare ribs, chicken stock, daikon, and aromatics on the brown rice setting in 20-minute intervals until the meat is tender, then finishes with udon noodles on the white rice setting. “I’ve tested this recipe both in a rice cooker and on the stove and found no noticeable difference in texture or flavor.” 

Braised meats 

Anywhere you’re slow-cooking meat until fall-off-the-bone tender — from short ribs to chicken thighs — the steady, controlled heat of a rice cooker makes it a smart, handy alternative to traditional methods.

“For adobo, it keeps everything juicy without boiling it too hard,” says Cédric Vongerichten, executive chef-owner of Wayan and Ma•dé in New York City, who recalls making the classic Filipino dish with his college roommate in a kitchen-less dorm. 

“We would add the chicken or pork straight in the rice cooker with soy sauce, vinegar, bay leaves, garlic, and black peppercorns, press cook, [and] let it simmer. When it switched to warm, we would leave it for another 30 to 40 minutes to finish,” says Vongerichten. The space-saving machine turned out a flawless, hassle-free meal. “The meat came out super-tender, and the sauce got rich from cooking down slowly — the trick was not opening the lid too much and letting the steam do the work.” 

Fried rice 

Don’t limit your rice cooker to freshly steamed rice: It also excels at transforming leftover grains into a delicious day-after meal. “I use the rice cooker almost like a small wok,” Vongerichten says.

After toasting oil, garlic, and sambal on the “cook” function, he adds rice and kecap manis (an Indonesian sweet soy sauce) and cooks the mixture for about 10 minutes. “I half close the lid so it steams and fries at the same time,” he says. The result? “You get that little crispy layer at the bottom — [a rice cooker] gives just enough heat to toast it without burning.”   

Cheesecake 

“My favorite alternative uses for a rice cooker always tend to be desserts or sweet applications because there’s a bit of a ‘surprise’ factor there,” says Paul San Luis, chef de cuisine at Wild Common in Charleston, South Carolina. He particularly enjoys making cheesecake.

“I prepare the filling [like] any ordinary cheesecake and use the rice cooker in lieu of a water bath,” says San Luis, who notes that “the gentle, even heat of a rice cooker completely replaces the need for water.” Cook the cheesecake on the white rice setting for two cycles, then add a third cycle if necessary for about 70 to 80 minutes of total cook time, he instructs. “Checking it periodically will tell you when it’s done.”  

Puddings 

Because a “rice cooker doubles as a gentle steamer,” it also turns out beautifully set puddings, says Nierstedt.

Plus, “most rice cookers are non-stick, so you can easily pour [in] a batter and hit the on button until the pudding gets cooked the way you like it,” notes Sophina Uong, executive chef-owner of Mister Mao in New Orleans, who has utilized her no-frills rice cooker for corn pudding spoon bread.  

For his Thai-style pumpkin pudding, Saran “Peter” Kannasute, chef and cofounder of YUME Hospitality Group, which includes YUME Sushi in Arlington, Virginia, and KYOJIN Sushi in Washington, D.C., enhances the steam effect by adding an inch or two of water to the inner pot before setting a heat-safe bowl with his pudding mixture inside. He then cooks the pudding for half an hour on steam or cook mode. “It’s very convenient, less [messy], and [provides] steady control over heat,” says Kannasute.

Pancakes 

Skip the griddle and take advantage of a rice cooker’s “even, gentle heat distribution” to make “ultra-thick, eye-popping pancakes,” suggests San Luis. “You get this picture-perfect golden browning on the ‘show side’ of the pancake that’s hard to achieve with other cooking mediums,” he says. It’s as easy as pouring standard pancake batter right into the rice cooker, setting it to the white rice function, and checking intermittently to gauge doneness.

One downside of this method is the time it takes to cook the flapjacks — upwards of 50 minutes depending on the thickness. For both pancakes and cheesecake, San Luis advises using a rice cooker with at least a 5.5-cup capacity, as “the smaller, personal sized rice cookers don’t have enough bottom surface area for the amount of browning you want, let alone volume for the prepared batter.”

However, apart from the size, any rice cooker with cook and warm settings is fair game. 

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Credit: Getty Images

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