What Is Instant Rice?

When it comes time to get a meal on the table, convenience and speed can be very important to home cooks. That’s why options like instant rice and boxed macaroni and cheese are staples in most kitchens.

While many boxed products like pasta and mac and cheese come from dozens of different brands, all have the same cooking method. But have you ever noticed just how many different types of “instant” rice you see in the packaged foods aisle? And even though they all claim to be “instant” and ready in a matter of minutes, they’re actually more different than you’d think.

So, what, exactly, is instant rice, and how does it cook that quickly?

All About Instant, or Parboiled, Rice

Instant rice is technically a subset of parboiled rice—and while all instant rice is parboiled rice, not all parboiled rice is instant rice, according to Janet Armstrong, the Culinary Insights Senior Manager at Mars Food and Nutrition (parent company of Ben’s Original). So, the bigger question here is: What is parboiled rice?

In short, parboiled rice is “regular” rice that has been “PARtially BOILed in water” to shorten the cooking time, according to Armstrong.

When harvested, all rice starts the same as "rough rice," but it’s either hulled to create whole-grain brown rice or hulled and milled to create milled white rice. You could just buy those two types of rice at the grocery store, but they take much longer to cook than parboiled/instant rice.

To make rice more convenient and nutritious, Erich Huzenlaub developed a patented process to steam seal rice in the 1940s, which is now called parboiling, according to Armstrong. Today, there are a few methods that can shorten rice’s cooking time and give you parboiled, instant, and ready-to-heat rice.

Parboiled rice, which you can buy as simply “parboiled” or as “boil-in-the-bag” rice, will take about 10 to 12 minutes to cook. Instant rice will take about 5 minutes, and ready-to-heat rice will take about 2 minutes.

How Does Instant Rice Cook So Fast?

We know that parboiled rice cooks quickly because it partially cooks the starches before it is packaged, so you only have to boil it the rest of the way at home—but what about those quick times for instant and ready-to-heat rice?

To make instant rice—like Minute Rice—manufacturers take parboiled rice and “puff” it, which creates pockets in the rice that allow “water to easily soak in without additional boiling,” according to Armstrong. That’s why you only need to boil your water and wait for the rice to soak it up when using instant rice.

With ready-to-heat rice—like microwaveable Ben’s Original Ready Rice—the rice is fully cooked before you even buy it.

“Ready-to-heat rice is made by filling dry rice and water, or flavored sauce, into either a flexible, BPA-free pouch, or cup which is sealed and cooked inside a large-scale pressure cooker called a retort oven,” says Armstrong. “Ready-to-heat rice is steam-cooked inside the sealed pouch or cup so when it comes out of the retort oven, the rice is fully cooked and commercially sterile until the pouch is opened.”

Essentially, ready-to-heat rice just requires a few minutes in the microwave or on the stovetop to be reheated.

What’s the Best Way to Cook Instant Rice?

The most common way to prepare instant rice—and the one you’re likely familiar with—is on the stovetop. But because not all parboiled rice is the same, there isn’t one “correct” way to prepare it.

“Even your regular oven, microwave oven, pressure cooker/Instant Pot, steamer, and yes, the rice cooker, can be used to prepare parboiled rice,” says Armstrong.

However, Armstrong recommends that you read the package instructions to determine the preferred method for the type of parboiled rice you’re making.

The Bottom Line

Despite the fact that all of these kinds of rice are sold as “quick cooking” options, not all “instant” rice is the same. In fact, you can’t even really call it all instant rice, but rather parboiled rice since instant rice is only the rice that’s been “puffed.”

But no matter if you’re partial to parboiled rice, instant rice, or ready-to-heat rice, there’s no denying that quick-cooking grains can be a lifesaver for making easy recipes that everyone loves.