Never Screw Up White Rice Again With This Simple Trick My Grandma Taught Me

I’ve learned the majority of my cooking skills by observing my grandma in the kitchen as diligently as humanly possible. She’s taught me how to make curry pastes, properly chop onions, and even debone entire chickens. But the most valuable tip that she’s taught me, by far, is how to cook perfect white rice each and every time. 

If you’ve ever struggled making white rice, you’re not alone. It can be a fickle process, and nothing, I mean nothing, is worse than spending all of that time and energy in the kitchen to just end up with a mushy or overly-dry mess. But that’s a problem of the past with my grandma’s easy, seamless trick.

Her trick is straightforward, and even better requires zero measuring cups but instead uses just the tip of your index finger. The technique itself is simple, so simple that once you try it out for yourself you’ll wonder why you spent so many years wasting your time with measuring cups and eating lackluster rice. 

How to Make Perfectly Fluffy White Rice Every Time 

To make perfectly cooked rice, all you have to do is add pre-rinsed rice into a rice cooker or pot, then place your index finger in the middle of your pot. From there, measure water until the tip of your first knuckle and then cover and cook as usual. This foolproof method takes the measuring work out of cooking rice and guarantees fluffy, fluffy-cooked rice each and every time—all at the touch of your fingertips (pun intended). 

Additional White Rice Cooking Tips

Beyond using this tip to have enough water for your rice to cook thoroughly, one of the most important things you can do to cook perfect white rice is by washing it thoroughly. Beyond rinsing your rice to remove unwanted debris and dirt, it also washes away excess starch that'll give it a fluffier texture when cooking.

And for rice with some extra flavor, feel free to use the same technique of measuring water to your knuckle, but swapping in some other flavorful liquids like coconut milk or chicken broth.